Ukraine works to restore infra after Russian strikes
A total of 15 residents were killed and 35 injured, including one child, as a result of enemy shelling, Kherson city official Galyna Lugova said
KYIV: Ukrainian authorities endeavoured on Saturday to restore electricity and water services after recent pummeling by Russian military strikes that vastly damaged infrastructure, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying millions have seen their power restored since blackouts swept the war-battered country days earlier.
Skirmishes continued in the east and residents from the southern city of Kherson headed north and west to flee after punishing, deadly bombardments by Russian forces in recent days.
The attack on Kherson, a key southeastern city recently recaptured by Ukrainian forces, marked the deadliest Russian bombardment in recent days.
A total of “15 residents were killed and 35 injured, including one child, as a result of enemy shelling”, city official Galyna Lugova said.
Several “private houses and high-rise buildings” had been damaged, she added
Blackouts continue
“The key task of today, as well as other days of this week, is energy,” Zelensky said in his nightly televised address late on Friday. “From Wednesday to today we have managed to halve the number of people whose electricity is cut off, to stabilise the system.”
He said, however, that blackouts continued in most regions, including Kyiv, the capital.
“In total, more than 6 million subscribers are affected. On Wednesday evening, almost 12 million subscribers were cut off,” Zelensky added.
Early on Saturday, the Kyiv municipal administration said water connections had been restored throughout the city, but that about 130,000 residents remain without electricity.
Food summit
President Zelensky hosted a summit in Kyiv on Saturday to promote its “Grain from Ukraine” initiative to export grain to countries most vulnerable to famine and drought.
Zelensky said Kyiv had raised around $150 million from more than 20 countries and the European Union to export grain to countries including Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.
The summit was attended in-person by the prime ministers of Belgium, Poland and Lithuania and the president of Hungary.
Germany and France’s presidents and the head of the European Commission delivered speeches shown by video.
The gathering coincided with Ukraine’s annual memorial day for Holodomor, the man-made Stalin-era famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the winter of 1932-33.