Russia claims overnight strike hit a communications centre in Kyiv, energy facilities and the port of Izmail

Russia said on Wednesday that its forces carried out a massive overnight strike on Ukraine, hitting a communications centre in the capital, energy facilities in the Kyiv region that Moscow says support military production, and port infrastructure in Izmail, as Reuters reports.

According to Russia’s defence ministry, the De Novo data centre was hit in Kyiv, which Moscow describes as an important internet traffic exchange node supporting Ukraine’s armed forces. In the Kyiv region, Russian claims include the Kyivska electricity substation near Nalyvaikivka, the Kyiv hydroelectric plant in Vyshhorod, the Trypilska thermal power plant and an energy storage facility in Horenychi — facilities that, according to Moscow, supplied energy to Ukraine’s military-industrial sector and military bases in and around the capital.

In the Odesa region, Russia says it hit an industrial complex at the port of Izmail that it claims was used to receive, store and transport military cargo and fuel for the Ukrainian army. Moscow also claims it hit a cargo ship in the northwestern Black Sea allegedly carrying military equipment and dual-use goods toward the port of Odesa.

Reuters stresses that it could not independently verify the Russian claims. The overnight strike — during which fires broke out in Kyiv and homes and infrastructure were damaged, according to Ukrainian officials — forced Romania and Poland, NATO and EU members, to scramble fighter jets to protect their airspace, according to their defence ministries. The energy company DTEK announced that its workers had restored electricity to 8,000 families in Kyiv.

It was another night of intensive attacks on the Ukrainian capital, following a night in which, according to the Kyiv region governor, a child was killed in Vyshhorod by a Russian missile and drone strike.