Massive Russian strikes target energy grid – Zelensky
Russia has launched a “new massive strike” targeting Ukraine’s energy grid, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
He said the attacks were on a “very wide” scale, hitting Ukraine’s regions in the west, center, south, and east.
Nearly 1.5 million households were without electricity, Kyiv said.
But Zelensky said most of the Russian missiles and drones were being shot down, and such strikes would not stop a Ukrainian military advance.
“Of course, we do not yet have the technical ability to shoot down 100% of Russian missiles and attack drones. We will gradually come to this – with the help of our partners, I’m confident of this,” the Ukrainian leader said in his video address late on Saturday.
Almost a third of Ukraine’s power stations and other energy-generating facilities have been destroyed in a wave of air strikes since Monday last week.
The areas targeted by the latest attacks include the Cherkasy region, southeast of the capital Kyiv, and the city of Khmelnytskyi, further west.
Air strikes and power disruptions were also reported from Odesa in the south to Rivne and Lutsk in the northwest.
The national electricity operator, Ukrenergo, said the strikes may have caused more damage than intense bombardment earlier this month.
President Zelensky said that 36 rockets had been launched on Saturday, and most of them had been downed.
Later, in his evening address, he said officials had managed to restore power in multiple regions of the country where electricity had been cut off as a result of the attack.
Agencies