Russian attacks affect 400,000 Ukrainians

More than 400,000 Ukrainian consumers remained without electricity as of midday on Thursday following a recent large-scale Russian attack on Ukraine's western regions, energy officials said.The attack led to a decrease in electricity production at Ukrainian nuclear power plants.Russia has sharply increased the intensity and number of its attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure in recent months, targeting gas, energy and distribution facilities and plunging entire cities into darkness.Ukraine generates more than half of its electricity at three nuclear power plants, but damage to power lines and transformers has forced the plants to reduce their output, a representative of the national nuclear energy company Energoatom told Reuters.The International Atomic Energy Agency also confirmed the reduc