Power failures spread as Russia hits energy grid

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s state electricity operator on Saturday announced blackouts in Kyiv and seven other regions of the country in the aftermath of Russia’s devastating strikes on energy infrastructure.

The move comes as Russian forces continue to pound Ukrainian cities and villages with missiles and drones, inflicting damage on power plants, water supplies and other civilian targets in a grinding war that is nearing its ninemonth mark.

Ukrenergo, the sole operator of Ukraine’s high-voltage transmission lines, initially said in an online statement Saturday that blackouts would take place in the capital and the greater Kyiv region, as well as several regions around it — Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Poltava and Kharkiv.

Later in the day, however, the company released an update saying that scheduled outages for a specific number of hours aren’t enough and instead there would be emergency outages, which could last an indefinite amount of time.

Ukraine has been grappling with power outages and disruption of water supplies since Russia started unleashing huge barrages of missile and drone strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure last month. Moscow has said those came in response to what it alleged were Ukrainian attacks on Crimea, the region that Russia illegally annexed in 2014. Ukraine has denied the allegations.

Meanwhile, Russian shelling of Ukrainian regions continued Saturday.

About 40 shells were fired overnight at the city of Nikopol, said Valentyn Reznichenko, the regional governor. Two fires broke out, and more than a dozen residential and utility buildings, as well as a gas pipeline, were damaged.

Russian forces also fired missiles at the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, which has been illegally annexed by Moscow. According to regional Gov. Oleksandr Starukh, the attack took place shortly after midnight, damaging buildings and vehicles.

In the eastern Donetsk region, also annexed and partially occupied by Russia, eight cities and villages were shelled, including Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Porkovsk.

Russian-installed authorities in Donetsk reported an attempt on the life of a Moscow-appointed judge of the region’s Supreme Court. Alexander Nikulin, who was on a judicial panel that in June sentenced to death two Britons and a Moroccan fighting on the Ukrainian side, was hospitalized in grave condition with gunshot wounds, Kremlin-backed officials said.

According to Ukraine’s presidential office, at least three civilians were killed and eight others were wounded over the past 24 hours by Russian shelling of nine Ukrainian regions, where drones, missiles and heavy artillery were used.

Russia has denied that the drones it has used in Ukraine came from Iran, but the Islamic Republic’s foreign minister on Saturday for the first time acknowledged supplying Moscow with “a limited number” of drones before the invasion. Hossein Amirabdollahian claimed, however, that Tehran didn’t know if its drones were used against Ukraine and stated Iran’s commitment to stopping the conflict.

Ed Ram/Getty Images A worker repairs damage Friday at a power station in the Kyiv area that was struck by a Russian air attack. The Kremlin has targeted utility installations, leading to widespread blackouts.