Editor’s note: This is a developing story.
A drone attack overnight on Oct. 31 caused damage to a thermal power plant (TPP) in Russia’s Oryol Oblast, regional Governor Andrey Klychkov reported.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify the Russian official’s claims.
Residents of the city of Oryol reported explosions during the night, the Russian opposition news channel Astra reported. Surveillance footage captured the attack on the plant, showing a large blast.
Klychkov claimed that the Oryol TPP was struck by debris from intercepted drones, “causing damage to power supply equipment.” He also said that no fires or casualties were reported and that emergency services were at work at the scene.
Repairs are ongoing and power has been “almost completely restored,” Klychkov claimed.
The Oryol TPP has an electrical capacity of at least 330-megawatts (MW) and is owned by RIR Energo, one of Russia’s largest territorial generating companies and a division of the state energy company Rosatom.
The reported drone strike on the plant comes a day after Russian forces launched a mass missile and drone attack against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight on Oct. 30. According to DTEK, the largest private energy company in Ukraine, Russia struck multiple thermal power plants across the country.
Russia later on Oct. 30 attacked the Sloviansk Thermal Power Plant in Donetsk Oblast, killing two people and injuring others.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russia’s assault on Ukraine’s energy facilities “exclusively terror.”
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