Russia’s defence ministry yesterday said it was gearing up for large-scale attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in a tit-for-tat response to strikes by Kyiv.

“Russian forces have begun preparations for massive strikes against facilities in Ukraine’s energy sector in response to the ongoing attacks by the Kyiv regime on civilian infrastructure and on Russia’s oil and energy complex,” it said on Telegram.

Last winter, Moscow repeatedly hit Ukrainian power plants, devastating the country’s energy sector and plunging millions of people into cold and darkness in sub-zero temperatures, reports AFP.

Yesterday, the Russian army claimed to have struck a plant in Kyiv producing asbestos and cement whose warehouses, it said, were used to store explosives, as well as a manufacturer of drones and munitions.

Meanwhile, a fire that broke out in an industrial area of the town of Kirishi as result of a drone attack on Russia’s Leningrad region has been put out, governor Alexander Drozdenko said.

“The consequences of the fire are currently being assessed,” he said on Telegram. Drozdenko added that several residential buildings had been damaged as a result of the attack and that 62 drones had been downed, reports Reuters.

In the Russian-controlled part of Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, one person was killed in a separate Ukrainian attack on a mine, the region’s Russian-installed governor Leonid Pasechnik said.