Ukraine (Commonweath Union)_ Once again, Russian soldiers have attacked Ukraine’s energy installations, cutting off water and electricity to parts of Kyiv and other towns. A few minutes after 9:00 (06:00 GMT), explosions were reported in the nation’s capital, and smoke billowed from a power plant beside the Dnipro river. In the city of Zhytomyr, which links Warsaw with Kyiv, Minsk with Izmail, and several major cities of Ukraine, there were power and water outages, while in Dnipro, two facilities suffered severe damage.The most recent assaults happened 24 hours after ‘kamikaze’ drones attacked Kyiv.
At least five people were murdered by the unmanned drones, which were thought to be Iranian-made, in the capital as well as four in Sumy, a city in the north. The drones also damaged vital infrastructure, causing power outages in hundreds of towns and villages.
In recent weeks, Russia has intensified its attacks on cities without power infrastructure. Authorities have moved quickly to fix the damage, but because the attacks occurred before winter, questions have been raised about how the system would react. Although Ukraine claimed that Russian bombers had launched missiles and that one S-300 anti-aircraft missile had struck a residential building in the southern city of Mykolaiv overnight, killing one person, it was originally unclear to what degree drones were engaged. The flower market for the city was also devastated.
While consumers have been asked to cut back on their energy use during peak hours nationwide, some cities in Ukraine are seeing a rise in the sales of gas burners and power generators. Already, rolling blackouts are affecting several areas. According to Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko, “we anticipated that Russia would step up its strikes on civilian and energy facilities as well as escalate urban warfare near fall, and here we are exactly where that scenario is playing out.”
The latest missile and drone assaults have led to new requests for the supply of air defense missiles from the Ukrainian administration. Prior to that, the US declared its support for its allies France and the United Kingdom in claiming that Iran’s sale of drones breached a UN Security Council resolution related to a nuclear accord.
