Russia targets Ukraine’s energy grid with fresh attacks
Lviv, Ukraine, Oct 22 (EFE).- Russia launched fresh missile attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities on Saturday with the national operator warning the damage could exceed that of attacks launched on October 10 and 12.
Electricity transmission operator Ukrenergo said that Russian troops had carried out “another missile attack on energy facilities of our main networks in the western regions of Ukraine.”
“The scale of the damage is comparable to or may exceed the consequences of the attack on October 10-12,” the operator added in a statement quoted by Ukrinform, a Ukrainian news outlet.
The operator said its repair brigades would begin with restoration works as soon as rescue teams finished operations to clear the area.
Ukrenergo experts are taking all measures to restore power supply as soon as possible in regions that are currently in a blackout, the company was quoted as saying by Ukrinform.
The affected areas include Kyiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, and Kirovohra.
“Consumer restrictions are required to reduce the load on the grids and avoid repeated accidents after the power grids were damaged by terrorist missile attacks,” the operator added.
Russia launched a series of missile attacks on October 10 targeting electricity infrastructure, including power plants and electrical substations, across over 30 locations.
Between October 10 and 18, 408 Ukrainian infrastructure facilities were targeted and destroyed by Russian forces and a third of Ukraine’s power plants were damaged.
Ukraine has had to introduce power outages due to electrical power shortages, as a result of Russian attacks on critical infrastructure.
In Kherson, Pro-Russian authorities continued the evacuation of civilians from Kherson.
“All Kherson civilians must immediately leave the city,” the Kherson Region Administration wrote on Telegram.
“The civilians of Kherson and all subdivisions and ministries of the civil administration must cross to the left bank of the Dnieper today,” the statement added.
The authorities argued that “due to the tense situation on the front lines, the increased danger of massive shelling of the city and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians should immediately leave the city and cross to the left bank of the Dnieper.” .
Pro-Russian authorities began the process to evacuate up to 60,000 civilians in the occupied region on Wednesday.
So far some 25,000 residents of the region have moved to the left bank of the Dnieper, pro-Russian deputy governor Kirill Stremousov said Saturday.
Pro-Russian forces fear a major Ukrainian offensive around the regional capital, the only major city under Russian control, and they remain encircled with no escape on the right bank of Kherson after nearly all roads to the other side of the river were damaged by Ukrainian troops.EFE
int-egw/ch
