Vitalina Reznichenko works in her shop selling products at a local market in Dnipro, Ukraine, Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022. (AP Photo / Leo Correa)

Ukraine hit by blackouts as new air strikes target power stations


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More air strikes pummelled Ukraine on Tuesday morning leaving cities in blackout as Russia continues a barrage of power stations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of terrorising and killing civilians after its latest attacks.

Ukraine said it shot down 38 of the 43 drones Russia used to launch strikes on Monday.

But there are blackouts across the country on Tuesday after attacks, which President Zelenskyy said have destroyed one-third of the country’s power stations in the past 10 days.

A Ukrainian serviceman prays during a funeral ceremony for his brothers-in-arms, who were recently killed while fighting against Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Lviv, Ukraine October 18, 2022. REUTERS / Pavlo Palamarchuk
A Ukrainian serviceman prays during a funeral ceremony for his brothers-in-arms, who were recently killed while fighting against Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Lviv, Ukraine October 18, 2022. REUTERS / Pavlo Palamarchuk

Several regions, including the capital Kyiv, were experiencing power cuts after multiple strikes targeted energy facilities, local officials and agencies said.

“Ukraine is under fire by the occupiers. They continue to do what they do best — terrorise and kill civilians,” Mr Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“The terrorist state will not change anything for itself with such actions. It will only confirm its destructive and murderous essence, for which it will certainly be held to account.

“Russia doesn’t have any chance on the battlefield, and it tries to compensate for its military defeats with terror.

“Why this terror? To put pressure on us, on Europe, on the entire world.”

One person was killed in a strike on a residential building on the southern city of Mykolaiv, he said, without giving other details of casualties.

Russia also attacked energy infrastructure in northern Kyiv, causing several explosions and sending smoke rising over the city, Ukrainian officials and witnesses said.

Many settlements in Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, and parts of Dnipro city in central Ukraine were without electricity, while power was restored to Mykolaiv after strikes overnight.

A Russian Emergencies truck is seen parked in front of a partially destroyed nine-storey apartment building after a Sukhoi Su-34 military jet crashed in the courtyard of a residential area in the town of Yeysk in southwestern Russia on October 18, 2022. - At least 13 people, including three children, were killed after a Russian military plane crashed into a residential area of Yeysk, a town in southwest Russia near the border with Ukraine, Moscow authorities said Tuesday as search operations ended. (Photo by STRINGER / AFP)
A Russian Emergencies truck is seen parked in front of a partially destroyed nine-storey apartment building after a Sukhoi Su-34 military jet crashed in the courtyard of a residential area in the town of Yeysk in southwestern Russia on October 18, 2022. - At least 13 people, including three children, were killed after a Russian military plane crashed into a residential area of Yeysk, a town in southwest Russia near the border with Ukraine, Moscow authorities said Tuesday as search operations ended. (Photo by STRINGER / AFP)

“There is currently no light or water in the city. Hospitals are on reserve [power] supplies,” Zhytomyr mayor Serhiy Sukhomlyn wrote on Facebook.

The governor of southern Zaporizhzhia region, which is partly occupied by Russia, reported a fire caused by drone strikes at an infrastructure facility.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's state nuclear energy agency accused Moscow on Tuesday of detaining two senior employees at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

In a statement on social media, Energoatom said Russian forces “kidnapped” Oleg Kostyukov, head of information technology, and Oleg Osheka, the plant's assistant general director, on Monday and “took them to an unknown destination”.

Russia stepped up its offensive across Ukraine on Monday, cutting electricity supply and killing eight people in attacks that included the use of kamikaze drone strikes in the capital.

President Vladimir Putin is thought to be trying to counter battlefield losses in its eight-month war in Ukraine by waging a punitive policy of striking energy infrastructure before winter, in a move that he hopes will weaken resistance.

Indian Army PINAKA MLRs missiles on display during the DefExpo 2022 in Gandhinagar, India, on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022. The exhibition is scheduled to run until Oct. 22. Photographer: T. Narayan / Bloomberg
Indian Army PINAKA MLRs missiles on display during the DefExpo 2022 in Gandhinagar, India, on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022. The exhibition is scheduled to run until Oct. 22. Photographer: T. Narayan / Bloomberg

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russia launched five strikes against Kyiv and against energy infrastructure in Sumy and the central Dnipropetrovsk regions, knocking out electricity to hundreds of towns and villages.

Four people were killed in Kyiv, including a married couple expecting a baby, and another four in the north-east region of Sumy, officials said.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba demanded that the EU impose sanctions against Iran, which Kyiv accuses of providing Russia with drones.

Ukraine's military said it shot down eight Iranian-made drones and two Russian cruise missiles on Monday.

While Iran denies exporting any weapons to either side, the US has warned it would take action against companies and nations working with Tehran's drone programme, following the strikes in Kyiv.

The strikes come a week after Russian missiles rained down on Kyiv and other cities on October 10, in the biggest wave of attacks in months. These strikes killed at least 19 people and wounded 105, sparking international outcry.

Those strikes followed an attack on the Kerch bridge linking Russia with the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

Senior Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak called for Russia to be excluded from the G20 following the strikes.

“Those who give orders to attack critical infrastructure, to freeze civilians and organise total mobilisation to cover the front line with corpses cannot sit at the same table with leaders of [the] G20,” he said on social media as he called for Russia to be “expelled from all platforms”.

Updated: October 31, 2022, 3:40 PM