The Ukrainian Air Force reported that on the night of March 22, the Russian army attacked Ukraine with kamikaze drones and various types of missiles, carrying out a large-scale aviation strike on critical infrastructure objects in cities across Ukraine. Ukrainian Air Force stated that 92 aerial targets were successfully destroyed. In total, Russians launched 151 types of drones and missiles, including 63 Shahed-136/131 strike UAVs, 12 Iskander-M ballistic missiles, 40 Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles, 5 Kh-22 cruise missiles, 7 aeroballistic “Kinzhal” Kh-47M2 missiles, 2 guided aviation bombs Kh-59, and 22 S-300/S-400 guided anti-aircraft missiles. Russia launched strikes from the Kursk, Rostov, and Belgorod regions in Russia, as well as from temporarily occupied Crimea and its bases in the Caspian Sea.
The Polish Armed Forces reported on X (formerly Twitter) that Poland has placed its Air Force on alert in response to a Russian attack on Ukraine. “We inform you that tonight there is intense activity of long-range aviation of the Russian Federation, involving missile strikes by Tu-95, Tu-22, and MIG-31 aircraft on objects located within the territory of Ukraine. All necessary procedures to ensure the safety of Polish airspace have been activated, and the Air Operations Center is monitoring the situation.”
During the Russian attack on Ukraine, explosions were heard in at least ten areas in Ukraine: in the Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kirovohrad, Sumy, and Vinnytsia regions. Kharkiv has been largely without electricity; the head of the Kharkiv military administration, Oleh Syniehubov, reported over 15 strikes carried out by Russian forces against Ukrainian energy facilities in the region. The operation of the city’s metro has been suspended and has been serving as a shelter. Emergency power outages also happened in the Sumy and Dnipro regions following the attack. Critical civilian infrastructure was damaged in Kryvyi Rih, in the Dnipro region.
Ukrhydroenergo, a Ukrainian state enterprise managing major hydropower plants along the Dnipro and Dnister rivers, has reported that Russian forces targeted the Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Station. The enterprise stated that there is currently a fire at the plant, with Ukraine’s emergency response services working on-site. Fortunately, there is no risk of breach, and the situation at the station remains under control. “The aggressors have not stopped, having destroyed the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station, and are now trying to create a new environmental catastrophe in Ukraine by cynically targeting the hydro facilities of the Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant and its dam,” added the plant’s press service.
A Russian drone struck an energy infrastructure object in the Stryi district, Lviv region, causing a fire while rescuers were on the scene. In Khmelnytskyi, civilians suffered casualties and injuries from Russian strikes, resulting in damage to residential buildings and infrastructure, while in the Poltava region, fragments from Russian shelling damaged private houses, leading to preemptive shutdowns of power stations in the region.
Additionally, the Zaporizhzhia region experienced eight Russian missile strikes, resulting in damage to infrastructure and civilian buildings and injuries. Further updates are awaited from Zaporizhzhia City Council Secretary Anatoliy Kurtev. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, currently under the control of Russian occupation forces, is once again in jeopardy. The press service of Energoatom, a state enterprise operating all four nuclear power plants in Ukraine, reported today that during the large-scale Russian attack, the Dniprovska external power line, which connects the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to Ukraine’s integrated power system, was disconnected. This has put the station on the brink of a blackout.
“The largest nuclear power plant in Europe is currently linked to the Ukrainian power grid solely through the 330 kV Zaporizka TES – Ferosplavna power transmission line,” stated Energoatom. This line underwent recent repairs by Ukrainian energy workers after being offline for an extended period due to previous Russian shelling. “This situation is highly perilous and carries the risk of an emergency. If the last connection to the domestic power grid is disrupted, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant will once again face a blackout, a serious violation of its safe operation conditions,” emphasized Energoatom’s chief, Petro Kotin.
