As part of a second wave of kamikaze drone air strikes in less than a week, Russian forces reportedly targeted energy and water facilities across Ukraine on Monday.
An estimated 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed since October 10, leading to rolling blackouts throughout the country, Ukrainian leader Zelenskyy tweeted on Tuesday.
Another kind of Russian terrorist attacks: targeting ?? energy & critical infrastructure. Since Oct 10, 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country. No space left for negotiations with Putin's regime. @United24media pic.twitter.com/LN4A2GYgCK
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 18, 2022
The social media remarks were made by Zelenskyy just one day after Russian forces carried out a massive wave of rocket and drone attacks across Ukraine, which resulted in at least four deaths in the country’s capital city.
In addition to the city of Kyiv, there were reports of rocket and drone attacks in the regions of Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Mykolaiv. Zhytomyr was also targeted.
Some are concerned that Russia may have shifted to frequently employing drone strikes to avoid depleting its long-range precision missile stockpiles. On Monday, the Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, stated that the barrage consisted of waves of 28 drones.
The White House stated that the most recent round of strikes highlights the “brutality” of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Moscow claimed it is using high-precision weapons to minimize the number of civilian casualties, reported The Dallas Express.
The most recent city to lose power was Zhytomyr, located approximately 85 miles west of Kyiv. The region is filled with numerous industrial parks and military installations.
The entire city of 250,000 people was initially without power and water. Even though repairs were begun in short order, regional authorities reported that 150,000 people were still without power several hours after the morning strike.
Late Tuesday, blackouts were experienced in 1,162 towns and villages in Ukraine, and additional drone and missile strikes were felt in the cities of Dnipro, Mykolaiv, and Kharkiv.
Tuesday’s airstrikes left hundreds of thousands of more people across the war-torn nation without power or water. For example, a morning missile strike on a Kyiv power plant killed two people and knocked out power for about 50,000 people, the New York Post reported.
Ukrainians are buying power generators and gas burners as towns face rolling power blackouts.
“The entire population needs to prepare for a tough winter,” said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office, BBC reported.
“Everyone should be ready, first, to save electricity, and second, rolling power blackouts are also possible if strikes continue.”
