KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian officials said on Saturday that all non-critical infrastructure had lost power in the southern port city of Odessa after Russia launched drone strikes to hit two power plants, adding the damage could take months to repair.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said more than 1.5 million people had lost power in the southern port city and the surrounding area, describing the situation as very difficult.
Since October, Moscow has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in a series of missile and drone attacks.
The regional administration said residents who depend solely on electricity to power their homes should consider leaving. Officials said Russian attacks hit major transportation and equipment lines in the early hours of Saturday.
“According to preliminary forecasts, it will take much longer to repair power plants in the Odessa region than in previous attacks,” he added.
“We’re not talking days, but even weeks, maybe two or three months,” he said in a Facebook post.
Odessa, Ukraine’s largest port city, had a population of over a million before the February 24 Russian invasion.
Kiev says Russia has launched hundreds of Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones on targets in Ukraine and describes the attacks as war crimes due to their devastating impact on civilian lives. Moscow says the attacks are militarily legitimate.
Zelinsky said in a video address that there is a significant shortage of power generation.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said Iranian Shahed-136 drones hit two energy plants in the Odessa region.
And the Armed Forces of Ukraine wrote on Facebook that 15 of these drones, which can carry explosives and fly to their targets, were fired at targets in the southern regions of Odessa and Mykolaiv, but 10 of them were shot down.
Tehran denies supplying drones to Moscow. Kiev and its Western allies say Iran is lying.
The British Defense Ministry said on Saturday it believed Iran’s military support for Russia was likely to increase in the coming months, including possible deliveries of ballistic missiles.
