Russia says it hit Ukraine's electric power, gas producing facilities with high-precision weapons

NEW DELHI: Moscow on Sunday said that the Russian forces struck down Ukraine's electric power and gas producing facilities overnight with high-precision weapons.

Russia launched 57 missiles and drones in the attack which also targeted the Ukraine's capital. This is Russia's third strike on Ukraine in last four days, targeting Kyiv for the second time.

"There were two preliminary hits on the same critical infrastructure facility that the occupiers targeted at night," Lviv's regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine's energy ministry said equipment in the facilities caught fire when a critical energy facility in the Lviv region was attacked, causing it to lose power. It was unclear if they were talking about the same facility.

The energy ministry said Ukraine, which has been exporting power in recent weeks, had sharply increased imports of electricity and stopped exports on Sunday after attacks on the energy system.

Meanwhile, Poland also confirmed a breach of its airspace in early hours by Russian cruise missile targeting town in western Ukraine.

"On March 24 at 4:23 a.m. (0323 GMT), there was a violation of Polish airspace by one of the cruise missiles launched overnight by long-range aviation of the Russian Federation," the armed forces of Poland said in a post on X.

Poland's army spokesperson, Jacek Goryszewski, told that the missile travelled about 2 km (1.2 miles) into Polish airspace before returning to Ukraine.

Meanwhile Poland said that it would demand an explanation from Moscow. Foreign ministry spokesman Pawel Wronski said in a statement that, "Above all, we ask the Russian Federation to end its terrorist airstrikes against the population and territory of Ukraine, to end the war and to focus on the country's own internal problems."

Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said Warsaw would continue to support Ukraine both militarily and on the humanitarian side.

Moscow has been pounding Ukraine for days in attacks portrayed by Moscow as revenge for Ukrainian attacks that were conducted during Russia's presidential election.

Notably, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of attempting to deflect responsibility onto Kyiv for the tragic Moscow concert hall attack, which claimed the lives of 133 individuals.

"What happened yesterday in Moscow is obvious: Putin and the other scum are just trying to blame it on someone else," Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy's remarks came in response to Putin's assertion that the suspects in the attack were fleeing towards Ukraine.