Russia and Ukraine: electricity and water cut across Ukraine after Russian attacks

“Everyone must be prepared, firstly to provide electricity, and secondly because power outages may continue if the raids continue. All residents must prepare for a severe winter,” said Kirilo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the office of the president.

On Tuesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter that about 30 percent of Ukraine’s power plants had been destroyed in the past eight days, “causing power outages across the country.”

The Ukrainian energy company said two of its thermal power plants were badly damaged by Russian bombing, killing one worker and injuring six others.

Russia has intensified its attacks on electricity infrastructure in cities far from the front in recent weeks.

Officials were quick to repair the damage, but continuing raids before the winter raised concerns about how the regime would respond.

The latest attacks occurred 24 hours after at least nine people were killed in Kiev and Sumei by “kamikaze” drones believed to have been supplied by Iran to Russia. The raids by those planes on infrastructure caused power outages in hundreds of towns and villages.

It was initially unclear to what extent the drones were involved in Tuesday’s attacks, although Ukraine claimed that Russian bombers had fired missiles and that an S-300 anti-aircraft missile struck an apartment building in the southern city of Overnight. Mykolaiv, killing a person. The flower market in the city was also destroyed.

Presidential aide Kirilo Tymoshenko told Kiev that the Troychina district on the bank of the Dnipro River and some other residential areas were left without electricity and water.

Other attacks occurred in the early hours of Tuesday morning:

In a separate development, the Ukrainian state-owned nuclear power company accused Moscow of kidnapping two senior officials at its Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. The station was occupied by Russian forces, but its Ukrainian crew continues to work there under difficult conditions.

“We expected Russia to step up its attacks on energy and civilian infrastructure and escalate urban warfare by the fall, and here we are,” Ukrainian MP Lesya Vasylenko told the BBC.

British Defense Intelligence, in its latest assessment, said it is very likely that Russia has become increasingly prepared to hit civilian infrastructure, as well as military targets, after setbacks on the battlefield in recent weeks.

The Russian missile and drone attacks were met with renewed demands from the Ukrainian government to deliver air defense missiles.

Previously, the United States said it had agreed with its French and British allies that Iran’s supply of drones to Russia violates a UN Security Council resolution on the nuclear deal and prohibits the transfer of some military technologies.

Ukraine has identified the drones used in the deadly attacks on Kiev and Sumy as Shahid-136 UAVs.

Vidant Patel of the US State Department said the US would not hesitate to resort to sanctions.

Russia and Iran have both denied deploying Iranian drones. The European Union said it was gathering evidence and was ready to act.

Meanwhile, in one of the largest prisoner exchanges since the Russian war began in February, Russia and Ukraine exchanged 218 inmates, including 108 Ukrainian women.

A Russian fighter plane crashed across the Sea of ​​Azov from Ukraine in the courtyard of an apartment building in the southern Russian city of Yeisk.

At least 13 people were killed, including three children, while dozens of residents were rescued from the nine-story building.

The pilot managed to eject from the plane, which was a Su-34.