Ukraine working to restore power after devastating strikes by Russians

ABOUT 70 per cent of the Ukrainian capital was left without power yesterday morning after Moscow unleashed yet another devastating missile barrage on the country’s energy infrastructure, Kyiv’s mayor said.

A barrage of Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure on Wednesday caused power outages across large parts of the country, piling more damage onto Ukraine’s already battered power network and adding to the misery of civilians as winter begins.

The strikes also caused power outages in neighbouring Moldova.

Russia has been launching devastating strikes on Ukraine’s power infrastructure as its forces have suffered battlefield setbacks in the full-scale war that it launched February 24, exactly nine months ago.

Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko said in a Telegram statement that “power engineers are doing their best to get [electricity] back as soon as possible” and added that the water supply has been restored in about half of Kyiv on the left bank of the Dnieper River.

Ukraine’s general staff reported yesterday morning that Russian forces fired 67 cruise missiles and 10 drones during Wednesday’s “massive attack on residential buildings and energy infrastructure” in Kyiv and several other regions in Ukraine.

An effort to restore power, heating and water supplies disrupted by the Wednesday attacks was under way elsewhere in Ukraine.

Governor of Poltava Dmytro Lunin said “an optimistic scenario” suggested that electricity will come back to residents of his central Ukrainian region yesterday.

“In the next few hours, we will start supplying energy to critical infrastructure, and then to the majority of household consumers,” Mr Lunin said on Telegram, noting that power has already been restored for 15,500 people and 1,500 firms or organisations.