Russian missiles and strikes have knocked out power for roughly one-third of the country since October 10, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday, explaining that shelling has caused massive blackouts across Ukraine.
Missile strikes damaged two power facilities in Kyiv on Monday, killing at least four civilians, and after a double missile strike targeted an energy facility on Tuesday, the city of Zhytomyr, which is west of the capital Kyiv, also lost power and water, with hospitals running on back up energy.
Energy workers in some cities and regions of Ukraine were forced to limit the supply of electricity so that the entire system works stably.
According to DTEK, the local energy company in Kyiv, a residential neighborhood in the city is experiencing power cuts and water outages after the Russian shelling damaged a critical infrastructure facility in the Desnyansky district, the water channel that supplies water to Kyiv’s left bank and interrupted electricity supply to Troyeshchyna residential district and.
Electrical outages were also experienced in at least three areas in the Dnipropetrovsk region, including parts of Dnipro city, where a water pumping facility also lost power.
Reiterating that no space has been left for negotiations with Putin’s regime, Zelensky tweeted that in Russia’s recent strikes on critical energy infrastructure in Ukraine amounted to a terrorist attack.
Last Monday, just after Russian forces launched massive long-range missile strikes across Ukraine, the Russian president announced the shift in the military operation in Ukraine after accusing Kyiv of masterminding several terrorist attacks over the past several months targeting key Russian infrastructure, including the Crimean Bridge.
Earlier this month, a truck loaded with explosives blew off a portion of the Kerch Bridge, which connects the Crimean Peninsula to the Russian mainland, after which Moscow began targeting Ukrainian cities and infrastructure with coordinated missile strikes.
Putin stressed that Kyiv’s tactics justified response in kind, confirming that Russian troops now consider Ukrainian energy infrastructure to be a legitimate target for military attacks.
The latest phase of the war has seen Russia also using exploding unpiloted suicide drones, most recently in the attacks on Kyiv, after which Zelensky accused Moscow of acting insidiously by killing civilians and hitting housing and infrastructure.