Millions left without power after strikes on energy stations

MORE than a million households in Ukraine were left without electricity yesterday after Russian air strikes hit the country’s energy infrastructure.

People in central and western Ukraine woke up to power outages and periodic bursts of gunfire, as Ukrainian air defence tried to shoot down drones and incoming missiles.

Russia has intensified its strikes on power stations, water supply systems and other key infrastructure across the country as the war nears the eightmonth mark. Ukraine’s air force said in a statement yesterday that Russia had launched “a massive missile attack” targeting “critical infrastructure”, adding that it had shot down 18 out of 33 cruise missiles launched from the air and sea.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said yesterday: “The aggressor continues to terrorise our country. At night, the enemy launched a massive attack. These are vile strikes on critical objects. Typical tactics of terrorists.”

Air raid sirens had blared across Ukraine twice by the early afternoon, sending residents fleeing into shelters.

Ukraine’s top diplomat said that the attacks were proof that Ukraine needs new Western-reinforced air defence systems “without a minute of delay”.

“Air defence saves lives,” Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said on Telegram yesterday that nearly 1.4 million households lost power as a result of the strikes.

Ukraine’s state energy company Ukrenergo responded to the strikes by announcing that rolling blackouts would be imposed in Kyiv and 10 Ukrainian regions in order to stabilise the situation.