ロシア、ウクライナのエネルギー施設に「大規模」攻撃

【スクヌィーリウ（ウクライナ）ＡＦＰ＝時事】ロシアは１５日、ウクライナのエネルギー施設にミサイルや無人機を使った大規模な攻撃を仕掛けた。ウクライナは前日、前線からロシア領内に数百キロ入った地点にある軍需工場やエネルギー施設を標的に過去最大規模の攻撃を実施したと発表していた。（写真は、ウクライナ西部リビウから約６０キロ離れたスクヌィーリウで、ミサイル攻撃で破壊された自宅付近で陥没した地面のそばに立つ女性）
　ウクライナのウォロディミル・ゼレンスキー大統領は「ロシアがまたも大規模攻撃を仕掛けてきた。この真冬に、ロシアの標的は相変わらずわれわれのエネルギー部門だ」とソーシャルメディアで非難。同盟諸国に安全保障支援の強化を求めた。
　一方、ロシア国防省は定例会見で、「ウクライナの軍産複合体を支援する」エネルギー施設に「高精度」の攻撃を行ったと認め、指定されたすべての標的が攻撃されたとの主張をいつも通り行った。
　ウクライナ空軍側は、ロシア軍は４３発の巡航ミサイルと弾道ミサイル、７４機の攻撃用無人機で、主にウクライナ西部の拠点を標的にしたと説明。その上で、ミサイル３０発と無人機４７機を撃墜したとし、デニス・シュミハリ首相は、ロシアの攻撃は「失敗した」と主張している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2025/01/16-17:00）

Russia launched a wave of missiles and drones at Ukrainian energy facilities on Wednesday, intensifying a months-long bombing campaign at a precarious moment of the war for Ukraine.
The barrage came a day after Kyiv said it had carried out its largest aerial attack of the war on Russian army factories and energy hubs hundreds of kilometres from the front line.
The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched 43 cruise and ballistic missiles as well as 74 attack drones in the barrage, which targeted sites mainly in western Ukraine.
Oleksandra Komuna, an elderly resident of the western Ukrainian village of Sknyliv, was at home during the attack when lamps and plaster began falling.
All the doors and windows were blown out, everything was blown out. The car was damaged, and the roof was damaged. There were cracks everywhere, she told AFP. It's such a disaster.
President Volodymyr Zelensky was quick to condemn the strikes and called for more robust security assistance from allies abroad.
Another massive Russian attack. It is the middle of winter, and the target for the Russians remains the same: our energy sector, he wrote on social media.
The Russian defence ministry confirmed in a daily briefing that its forces had carried out high precision strikes on energy facilities that support the Ukrainian military-industrial complex.
It also repeated the claim that all the designated targets had been struck.
The Ukrainian air force said, however, that it had shot down 30 of the missiles and 47 drones, while Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said the Russian attack had failed.
- Poland scrambles jets -
Hours after the barrage, Zelensky called on the West to use around $250 billion of unallocated frozen Russian assets to buy Kyiv weapons. He was speaking at a press conference in Warsaw with Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Ukraine will take this money, allocate a large amount for domestic production and for the import of exactly those types of weapons that Ukraine does not have, he said.
The EU last week paid out to Kyiv the first three billion euros ($3.1 billion) of a loan backed by the interest earned on frozen Russian assets.
The US State Department on Wednesday announced new sanctions on more than 150 individuals and entities involved in Russia's defence industry and supporting its military industrial base.
Meanwhile, US President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said that the new administration would seek bold diplomacy to end the war.
There will have to be concessions made by the Russian Federation, but also by the Ukrainians, he said.
Poland had earlier scrambled fighter jets to secure its airspace, it announced on social media, adding that there had been no violations during its three-hour mission.
The governor of Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk region said critical infrastructure facilities had been targeted in Russia's attack, without elaborating.
In the Lviv region, which borders EU and NATO member Poland, authorities said two such facilities had been hit in the Drogobych and Stryi districts.
There were no casualties, but there was damage, governor Maksym Kozytsky wrote on social media.
Russia's defence ministry later said one of the targets successfully hit was the ground infrastructure of the largest underground gas storage facility in Stryi.
National grid operator Ukrenergo urged Ukrainians to limit their electricity use throughout the day after lifting emergency blackouts in seven regions.
- Russia advances -
The mayor of the southern city of Kherson meanwhile said that part of our community is without electricity as a result of the overnight barrage, without giving figures of those without power.
Kyiv had earlier issued air raid alerts across Ukraine and AFP journalists heard sirens ringing out over the capital early Wednesday.
Moscow has pursued a months-long bombing campaign against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, claiming the attacks targeted facilities that aid Kyiv's military.
The Russian military had accused Kyiv of using US- and British-supplied missiles for one of the strikes the previous day and promised it would not go unanswered.
On Wednesday evening in Russia's Voronezh region bordering Ukraine several drones sparked a fire at an oil depot, governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram, as videos posted by witnesses showed a substantial blaze.
Kyiv and Moscow's escalating drone and missile attacks come at a difficult moment for Ukraine across the sprawling front line.
At several key points in the northern Kharkiv and eastern Donetsk regions, Russian forces have been able to steadily advance by exploiting their advantages in manpower and resources.
Building on those gains, the Russian defence ministry said Wednesday that its forces had captured the village of Ukrainka in the industrial Donetsk region that the Kremlin claims is part of Russia.
Despite the war having ground on for nearly three years, there are still some areas of cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv, which announced Wednesday that they had exchanged 25 prisoners of war each.
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