Russia hits energy facilities in six Ukrainian regions, Kyiv says

KYIV (Reuters) - Russian airstrikes hit energy facilities and critical infrastructure in nine Ukrainian regions over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.

Energy facilities in the western region of Lviv, Sumy and Kharkiv in the northeast, Donetsk in the east, east-central Dnipropetrovsk, and Mykolaiv in the south were attacked, the energy ministry said on Telegram.

The ministry did not provide additional details on the scale of recent damage to the energy grid, which has been battered by Russian airstrikes during the war touched off by Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukraine's air force said it had shot down seven out of 13 missiles and 22 out of 29 drones across the country during Russia's aerial salvo.

The Ukrainian grid operator Ukrenergo said on Telegram it was increasing emergency cut-offs on Wednesday introduced after a major Russian air strike on the energy sector on Aug. 26. It cited decreased generating capacity.

The air force command added that critical infrastructure was also targeted by Russian missiles in the western regions of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil and Volyn, far from the main battlefronts in the east and south of Ukraine.

Overnight, Russian drones and missiles also killed seven people in Lviv, damaging historic buildings in the heart of the city, local officials said. Lviv is situated close to the border with NATO member Poland.

On Tuesday, Russia struck a military institute in Poltava, killing at least 50 people.

(Reporting by Anastasiia Malenko; editing by Alex Richardson and Mark Heinrich)