Massive Russian strikes have left more than 1,100 towns and villages in Ukraine without power after targeting energy infrastructure across the country. Several parts of the capital Kyiv have no power and water after the new attacks on Tuesday, October 18.
Russia is targeting energy infrastructure across Ukraine with missile attacks
After suffering a series of painful defeats on the battlefield, Russia has stepped up attacks in the past few weeks on electricity infrastructure in cities that are away from the front lines, President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said that his country is “under fire” and that 30 percent of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed in the past eight days.
“Nearly a third of Ukraine’s power stations have been dismantled by Russian drone and missile attacks in last few days”, said President Zelensky, as his office warned him before of a “critical” power situation nationwide.
He blamed Russia for engaging in “terrorist attacks” affecting a very important proportion of the country’s critical infrastructure and causing the destruction of electricity and other utility supplies. At the same time, a news blackout came underway in southern Ukraine, suggesting an impending push from Kyiv.
Vladimir Putin’s troops have launched almost 190 attacks using missiles, artillery, and kamikaze drones in 16 regions including the capital Kyiv, said Ukraine’s emergency services.
Emergencies services spokesperson Oleksandr Khorunzhyi
Khorunzhyi said at Tuesday’s conference in Kyiv, “In the interval from October 7 to 18, about 4,000 settlements in 11 regions of Ukraine were cut off, due to the shelling of energy facilities.
According to the energy ministry, “Currently, 1,162 settlements are remaining without power.”
More than 70 people have been killed and 240 more injured in the assaults, rocket and drone attacks since 7 October, said Emergencies services spokesperson Oleksandr Khorunzhyi.
Further, he also added, “For now, 1,162 settlements in Kirovogod, Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Lugansk, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions remain cut off from electricity”.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the presidential office, said power supply and energy infrastructure were targeted overnight in an eastern district of Kyiv, where two people were killed, and also in the cities of Dnipro and Zhytomyr.
Mayor Serhiy Sukhomlyn said All of Zhytomyr was devoid of electricity and water after a double missile strike on an energy facility and Hospitals were running on backup power.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko
All three victims of the latest Russian strikes were employees of “critical infrastructure”, adding that two “objects of critical infrastructure” were damaged in Kyiv, electricity and water supply were cut in many houses in Zhytomyr, west of the capital, and one energy facility was hit in the south-eastern city of Dnipro, said Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
The mayor requested residents to conserve electricity and said to use water as “economically as possible” for the houses that are experiencing reduced water pressure.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office, said that “everyone should be ready to save electricity and also if the strikes continue, rolling power blackouts are possible as well”.
“There is a need for the entire population to prepare for a tough winter,” Tymoshenko said.
Ukrainian emergency officials have rushed to repair the damage, but the strikes and attacks, after winter, have raised concerns about how the system will respond to it.
Ukrainian is being insisted on not using electric appliances between 07:00 – 09:00 local time (04:00 – 06:00 GMT) and 17:00 – 22:00 on daily basis.
“Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)”, drones used in attacks on Kyiv and Sumy
The latest attacks came 24 hours after “kamikaze” drones were believed to have been supplied by Iran, in the north-east, killing at least nine people in Sumy and Kyiv. In the beginning, It was not clear to what extent drones were involved, on Tuesday.
Ukraine has identified the drones used in deadly attacks on Sumy and Kyiv as Shahid-136 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). They are called Geran-2 in Russia.
Ukraine said Russian bombers had fired missiles and one S-300 anti-aircraft missile had struck a residential building, killing one person, in the southern city of Mykolaiv overnight. The city’s flower market was also wrecked.
In some cities, Ukrainians are buying power generators and gas burners. While some towns are already facing rolling blackouts.
Moscow accused of abducting two senior officials at its nuclear plant
Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company, in a separate development, accused Moscow of abducting two senior officials at its nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia.
The plant is Europe’s biggest one and is occupied by Russian forces but its Ukrainian staff continues to work there under adverse conditions.
Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko told the BBC, “We were expecting that Russia will inflame attacks on civilian infrastructure and energy infrastructure and increase the urban warfare towards autumn and here we are exactly with that scenario taking place”.
