Russia has launched large-scale air strikes and drone attacks on Ukrainian civilian and energy infrastructure in recent days, causing casualties and heavy losses.

The Ukrainian military and a regional official said that a new wave of attacks on April 12 targeted an energy facility in the southern region of Dnepropetrovsk that had been attacked by Russian drones earlier on April 12. The aircraft caught fire after the attack and suffered serious damage.

The military report made no mention of the energy facility, saying only that debris from four downed Russian drones landed on a “critical” infrastructure in the Krivorizka region, causing it to catch fire.

Ukrainian firefighters successfully extinguished the blaze but could not immediately assess the extent of the damage, regional chief Serhiy Lysak said.

Meanwhile, Kherson region chief Oleksandr Prokudin said on April 12 that a Russian nighttime attack in southern Ukraine had damaged a critical infrastructure, but did not disclose where it was. one.

Fifteen settlements in the area were shelled, Prokudin said, adding that residential areas were particularly targeted. He said there were no reports of casualties but several houses were destroyed.

The Ukrainian Air Force posted on social media that on April 12, Ukrainian air defense systems shot down 16 of 17 Russian drones launched in six regions.

The Facebook post said: “The Ukrainian Defense Forces shot down 16 Shahd attack drones in the Nikolaev, Odessa, Kherson, Dnepropetrovsk, Vinnitsa and Khmelnytsky regions. Man-machine.”

On April 11, the Trypilska power plant, located about 50 kilometers south of the Ukrainian capital, was destroyed by a Russian missile. The power plant is the main electricity supplier to the Kiev, Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions.

The attack, which knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people, appeared to highlight Ukraine’s waning ability to withstand Moscow’s massive airstrikes.

Ukraine has been imploring its allies in recent weeks to speed up efforts to make up for dire shortages of ammunition and weaponry as Republican lawmakers refused to approve a massive $60 billion aid package without agreeing on deep domestic policy reforms. The plan remains on hold in Washington.

During a visit to Lithuania on April 11, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy implored Ukraine’s allies to provide the troubled country with more air defense systems.

“The main task at the moment is to do everything possible to strengthen our air defense systems, meet the urgent needs of the Ukrainian Defense Forces and consolidate international support so that we can defeat Russian terror,” Zelensky wrote on “X” Twitter .