On 23rd November, Ukraine used drones to hit a heat and power station in Moscow, causing a large fire and severing heating for thousands of people in one of the largest attacks by Ukraine against a power station in the center of Russia.
Russia has been at war with Europe for the past four years of the lethal European war since World War II, bombing the electricity and heating system of Ukraine, even as Kyiv has until now dedicated most of its efforts to attempting to strike at Russian oil refineries, crude terminals, and oil pipelines.
However, on the first day of Sunday, Ukrainian drones hit the Shatura Power Station, some 120 km (75 miles) east of the Kremlin, the governor of Moscow region Andrei Vorobyov reported.
Telegram video footage depicted balls of flames and black smoke going up into the night sky out of the power station. Reuters was in a position to verify the location, but not the date of the video.
“Some of the drones have been shot down by the air-defense forces. Some of them landed on the station. There was a fire in the plant,” Vorobyov said.
Vorobyov reported that reserve power was on and mobile heating was being introduced to the location where the temperature was some 30 degrees below zero.
“Every attempt is made to resume the supply of heat as quickly as possible,” Vorobyov said. Shatura town has approximately 33,000 people.
According to one of the locals, there was no heating. The Emergencies ministry quoted that three transformers at the power station caught fire.
Ukraine made no immediate comment.
Russian attacks have, in recent weeks and months, resulted in recurrent power and heat outages in some parts of Ukraine. Ukraine has attempted to sabotage the war economy of Russia through its oil revenues.
Ukraine has likewise struck several power and heating facilities in Ukrainian territories held by Russian troops and in Russian ones close to Ukraine; nevertheless, it has not yet caused significant harm to electrical and heat plants serving Moscow and the adjacent target area, with a population of over 22 million.
On Sunday, the defense ministry of Russia reported intercepting 75 Ukrainian drones, 36 of which were over the Black Sea, as well as some of the drones being over the Moscow region. On Sunday, the Vnukovo airport in Russia suspended the flights for about an hour and then resumed them.
One of the oldest power plants in Russia, Shatura power station, was established under Vladimir Lenin following the Bolshevik revolution, and it used to operate on peat. It is currently powered by predominantly natural gas.
