A nighttime strike by Ukrainian forces on Belgorod paralyzed operations at the local thermal power plant and left more than 160,000 residents in the region without electricity, according to Russian reports.
HIMARS rockets destroyed the foundation of the building housing gas-turbine units at the Belgorod thermal power plant, the Russian outlet ASTRA reported, citing informed sources.
The strike also sparked a fire in the plant’s main building, forcing an emergency shutdown of power generation; the facility switched to supplying hot water only.
Another missile hit a substation in the village of Blizhnyaya Igumenka in the Belgorod district, causing serious damage to transformers and power lines.
Sources said that more than 20,000 residents lost power immediately after the strike. To prevent overloading the grid, authorities additionally cut electricity to more than 400 communities.
The overall impact was severe: overnight, more than 160,000 people were left without electricity. The outage affected over 1,800 substations, and warning systems, traffic lights and gas stations stopped operating.
Four people were injured in the attack, according to the sources.
The governor of Belgorod region acknowledged that by morning, 77,000 residents still had no electricity, and disruptions in water supply and sewage services persisted across ten municipalities.
Ukrainian forces carried out the strike in response to a massive Russian rocket-and-drone barrage on Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said. Russia the previous day launched more than 600 attack drones and missiles that destroyed residential buildings and hit hospitals and energy facilities, they said. A 12-year-old girl was among the dead in Kyiv, according to those officials.
