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Around 50 towns in Ukraine’s Odesa region lost power Saturday morning following an overnight attack by Russian drones on energy infrastructure, according to regional authorities.
Ukraine’s private energy company DTEK reported that power had been restored to 240,000 affected households.
Regional governor Ole Kiper said two residential buildings and a hotel were damaged, as well as energy infrastructure. One 47-year-old woman was injured.
Power was restored to more than 800,000 Kiev residents on Saturday, after another Russian attack on Ukraine’s power grid caused power outages in large parts of the country the previous day.
DTEK said “major work to restore power supplies” had been completed, but some localized power outages were still affecting the Ukrainian capital following Friday’s “massive” Russian attack.
Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko described the attack as “one of the largest concentrated attacks” on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Saturday that its air defense forces intercepted or intercepted 54 of the 78 Russian drones launched into Ukraine overnight, and the Russian Ministry of Defense said it had shot down 42 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory.
At least four people have been killed and 18 others injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine in the past day, according to regional authorities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday accused Russia of taking advantage of the world’s focus on the Middle East to step up attacks on Ukraine and target energy facilities. “This is a new record of Russia’s cowardice, to step up its terrorist attacks and attack the lives of our people at a time like this,” he said.
“There’s only one way to respond to this, and that’s to increase our military strength to protect our critical infrastructure, strengthen our air defenses, and put pressure on Russia to hold real responsibility for everything it does,” he added.
The energy sector has been a key battleground since Russia launched a full-scale invasion more than three years ago.
Russia attempts to cripple Ukraine’s power grid every year before the onset of winter, apparently aiming to undermine public morale. Winter temperatures last from late October to March, with January and February being the coldest months.
Additional sources of information • AP