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Ukraine warns situation is ‘critical’ after Russia attacks power grid

Ukraine on Tuesday said there were new “significant” risks to its power grid after President Volodymyr Zelensky said repeated Russian bombings had destroyed a third of the country’s power installations as winter approached. warned.

The warning came as Russian forces claimed to have recaptured territory from Ukrainian forces in the eastern Kharkov region. Moscow has announced its capture of the village for the first time since being almost completely evicted from the region last month.

“At the moment, the situation is critical in the whole country. The whole country needs to be prepared for the interruption of electricity, water and heating,” Kirilo Tymoshenko, deputy director of the Ukrainian President’s Office, told Ukrainian TV. said.

But drones also bombed Kyiv on Monday, killing five people for the second time in a row, officials said.

“Since October 10, 30% of Ukrainian power plants have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country,” the Ukrainian leader said on Twitter.

Many towns and cities in the Zhytomyr region west of Kyiv and parts of the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine were without power, but power was restored in the southern city of Mykolaiv after a nighttime strike.

About 1,162 towns and villages in nine regions lost power after a 10-day strike against energy facilities, killing more than 70 people and injuring 290, according to the National Emergency Service.

Zelensky has previously said that the new wave of nationwide strikes that damaged Mykolaiv’s housing and flower market was Russia’s attempt to “terrorize and kill civilians.”

Following a wave of kamikaze drone attacks on Kyiv on Monday, Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba called for EU sanctions against Iran and accused Tehran of providing drones to Russia.

The Kremlin said Tuesday it was unaware that the Russian military was using Iranian drones in Ukraine.

But the Ministry of Defense has confirmed there have been attacks on energy facilities in the past 24 hours, saying they used long-range precision weapons.

But Western officials said it was “increasingly clear that Russia is pursuing a deliberate strategy of trying to destroy heating and electrical networks,” adding that Iran’s drones “could be used in the conflict.” It plays an increasingly important role,” he said.

The Ukrainian military said it had shot down 38 Iranian-made Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicles in the past 24 hours as fighting continued on vast fronts in eastern and southern Ukraine.

It was the first claim of victory since Ukrainian forces reclaimed a vast swath of the east in September in a series of embarrassing battlefield defeats.

One shopper, Yulia, echoed a popular conspiracy theory on social media, saying she believed Ukrainian forces had bombed a city that was about to be taken by Russia.

Separately on Tuesday, Russian investigators said initial signs suggested that a military plane had crashed into a residence near Ukraine.

bar/kjm

Ukraine warns situation is ‘critical’ after Russia attacks power grid

Source link Ukraine warns situation is ‘critical’ after Russia attacks power grid

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