- Russian attacks have knocked out a major power plant near Kyiv.
- The Ukrainian capital was once shielded from Russian attacks.
Russia has taken out a major power plant near the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in a sign that even the country's best-protected cities are increasingly vulnerable to Russian attacks.
The Trypillya power plant, which is around 30 miles south of Kyiv and is the region's major power plant, was destroyed Thursday by Russian drone and missile attacks.
"The scale of destruction is terrifying," Centrenergo chairman Andriy Hota told the BBC. He said that the attacks destroyed "the transformer, the turbines, the generators. They destroyed 100%."
Ukraine's air force said it was part of a wave of 80 missile attacks on Thursday on Ukraine's cities and infrastructure — and it only managed to shoot down around 30% of them.
Notably, it said that all of Russia's Kinzhal missiles, which air defenses had previously managed to down, evaded interception in the attack.
It's a much lower success rate than Ukraine had in stopping Russian airborne attacks last May when it was shooting down around 90% of Russian missiles and drones.
The new wave of attacks comes as Ukrainian officials issue increasingly desperate appeals for more air defense weapons from their Western allies, which are running seriously low as Republicans in Congress continue to block a $60 billion aid bill.
The Ukrainian air defense is working "at the edge of its capacity," Oleksiy Melnyk, co-director of international security programs at the Kyiv-based Razumkov Center think tank, told CNN after the Kyiv attack.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on a tour of Baltic states Wednesday, said his country is "sorely lacking" modern air defense systems amid intensifying Russian attacks.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is also striking an increasingly exasperated tone. "Give us the damn Patriots," he told Politico in late March
Russia has long targeted Ukraine's civilian and energy infrastructure, stockpiling missiles and other long-range weapons in the summer to strike during winter.
The sophisticated air defense systems provided by Ukraine's Western allies, notably US Patriot air defense systems, were previously used to shield major cities like Kyiv from Russian attacks, meaning life could be lived relatively normally despite the war.
But more Russian missiles are now getting through, and Ukraine's second biggest city, Kharkiv, is facing increasingly intense Russian attacks, with its power supplies disabled for long stretches.
The attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure come as Ukrainian officials warn of a major Russian military drive in the summer to break through Ukraine's defensive lines in the east and south of the country.