Ukraine's July 1 UAV attack cuts off power to Russia's Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant

Suspilne's sources reported this.

Sources in the special service noted that the plant stopped working as a result of drone strikes on two major power substations in the Belgorod region: Stary Oskol substation near the village of Neznamovo and Metallurgical substation near the village of Volokonovskoye.

The Metallurgicheskaya substation is one of the largest power substations in Europe, the statement said. As a result of the operation, the Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant (OEMK) was completely de-energized.

"All electric arc furnaces with frozen metal have stopped as a result of the power outage. To restart them, it is necessary to clean them completely and replace the arc elements, which may take several months. Some OEMK employees believe that the furnaces will have to be replaced. Given that OEMK was built by German specialists using German technology, it will probably be difficult to resume the plant's operation without their participation," the sources said.

The newspaper adds that the electrometallurgical plant is of exceptional importance for the Russian military-industrial complex. The facility produced high quality steel, including alloyed special bar quality steel (SBQ) for the automotive and mechanical engineering industries, using the blast furnace-free direct reduction technology MIDREX and electric arc melting.

• On the night of July 3, explosions were heard in Novorossiysk, and authorities reported an attack by unmanned boats on the city, which is home to the bulk of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.