Ukraine updates: Russia hits power plants 2nd time this week

Russian forces have used over 2,400 guided bombs on Ukraine so far in June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday, adding that some 700 of these were aimed at Kharkiv.

Speaking during his nightly address, Zelenskyy said that US military aid has allowed Ukraine to reduce the frequency of missile attacks.

He called for further support with fending off guided bombs.

"The significant reduction in Russian missile terror against Kharkiv and the region proves that it is entirely possible to protect our cities and communities from Russian bombs," Zelenskyy wrote in a statement earlier on the Telegram messaging app. 

He listed Patriots and F-16 training as examples for supporting Ukraine with "modern air defense systems."

"Russian terror must be defeated, and this is in the interest of everyone who wants to live in a world without war, which terrorists always spread whenever they are not defeated," he said.

Ukrainian prosecutors said the death toll from a Russian attack on Kharkiv earlier on Saturday rose to three, with 52 injured, including three children.

Russian forces struck Ukraine's northeastern city of Kharkiv on Saturday, killing two people and wounding at least 18 others, the city's regional governor said.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on the Telegram messaging app at least four explosions were heard in the afternoon. The shelling hit an area of "dense residential development," he added.

Rescue workers were working on the site of the strikes.

Located some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Russian border, Kharkiv has frequently come under Russian attacks during the war.

Ukraine's Energy Ministry said it plans to import a record high 33,559 megawatt hours (MWh) of power following the latest Russian strikes on energy stations.

National grid operator Ukrenergo also announced that it would expand scheduled electricity cut-offs across the country.

Repeated Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure have crippled the country's power generation capacity and forced Kyiv to impose rolling blackouts.

Ukrenergo said this month that Ukraine would import electricity from Romania, Poland, Hungary and Moldova.

The blackouts in Kyiv are reportedly worse than the early months of the war when Russia's strikes on the country's power grid led to major winter-time blackouts.

Russia launched a "massive" overnight attack targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure in the country's west and south, Kyiv said on Saturday.

"Equipment at [operator] Ukrenergo facilities in Zaporizhzhia and Lviv regions were damaged," Ukraine's Energy Ministry said, adding that two workers were also wounded and hospitalized in Zaporizhzhia.

This was "the eighth massive, combined attack on energy infrastructure facilities" in the past three months, the ministry said.

Ukraine's air force said it shot down 12 of 16 missiles and all 13 drones launched by Russia in the second large strike this week. The air alerts in Ukrainian regions lasted for several hours in the middle of the night.

"We can say for sure: the enemy will not stop. Ukraine needs air defense systems," Ivan Fedorov, Zaporizhzhia regional governor, said on Telegram, echoing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's calls for more air systems.

Zelenskyy has said half of his country's electricity-generating capacity has been destroyed by Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy sector that have intensified since March.

Some of the attacks on Ukraine's energy stations were in retaliation for Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory, Moscow said earlier this week.

mf/rm (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)