Russian strikes hit energy targets in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, US company in Dnipro

KYIV – Russia launched five missile strikes on Ukraine’s second-biggest city Kharkiv on Jan 5, damaging energy infrastructure, and attacked an enterprise owned by US agricultural producer Bunge in the south-eastern city of Dnipro, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the Dnipro attack, which caused a leak of sunflower oil, underscored the fact that Russian forces were targeting US businesses. Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said, had “complete disregard” for US-led efforts to resolve the nearly four-year-old war.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the strikes on his city were “not just an attack on facilities. It’s an attack on heating, on water, on people’s normal lives. They are trying to break us with fear and darkness”.

Mr Terekhov gave no details on which targets had been hit.

Kharkiv’s regional prosecutors’ office said in a statement that at least one civilian was injured in the attack.

In Dnipro, the attack on the Bunge enterprise triggered a leak of 300 tonnes of sunflower oil, said Mr Borys Filatov, the city’s mayor.

“Public utility workers are cleaning up, spreading sand and gravel,” Mr Filatov wrote on the Telegram messaging app, adding that the spill would close a major riverside road for two or three days.

A spokeswoman for Bunge, Ms Christi Dixon, said the company was assessing damage at the Dnipro plant and “working with local authorities to mitigate the impact”. There were no injuries in the facility, she said, adding that the company was focusing on the safety of its staff and restoring operations.

‘Targeting American businesses’

Mr Sybiha, writing on the X social media platform, said: “This attack was not a mistake – it was deliberate, as the Russians attempted to strike this facility multiple times. Russia has been targeting American businesses in Ukraine systemically.”

He said the attacks exposed Mr Putin’s “complete disregard for peace efforts led by President Donald Trump. This is why it is so urgent to advance the peace process”.

There was no immediate comment on the strikes from Moscow.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met US President Donald Trump in Florida in late December to discuss ending the war, and more than 30 leaders are set to attend a summit on Ukraine in Paris on Jan 6.

Energy attacks

Kharkiv, with more than a million inhabitants, is located close to the border with Russia.

The temperature was around minus 3 deg C during the day on Jan 5 and dropped at night. According to the local electricity supplier, prior to the latest attack, residents received power for an average of 14 to 16 hours a day.

Since November, Russia has sharply increased both the number and intensity of attacks on Ukraine’s energy system and logistics, plunging entire regions into darkness.

A third of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv was left without heating after a vast Russian attack in late December, while Ukraine’s largest seaport, Odesa, was virtually cut off from power for several days following a series of attacks.

Russia also attacked stations that produced heat for the Chernihiv region on the Russian border and Kherson in the south. REUTERS