Blackouts in over 1,000 Ukraine towns after massive Russian rocket attacks

Kiev:  More than a thousand towns and villages across Ukraine remain without power after massive Russian attacks in recent days, Ukrainian officials said, as per media reports.

Emergency services spokesman Oleksandr Khorunzhyi said that more than 70 people have been killed in rocket and drone strikes since October 7, the BBC reported.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that 30 per cent of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed in the past eight days.

Parts of the capital Kiev have no power and water after new strikes on Tuesday, BBC reported. Kiev Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said that all three victims of the latest Russian strikes were employees of “critical infrastructure”, adding that two facilities in the capital have been hit.

Power and water were cut in Zhytomyr, west of the capital, and one energy facility was hit in the south-eastern city of Dnipro. At Tuesday’s briefing in Kiev, Khorunzhyi said: “In the period from October 7 to 18, as a result of shelling of energy facilities, about 4,000 settlements in 11 regions [of Ukraine] were cut off. Currently, according to the energy ministry, 1,162 settlements remain without power.”

After suffering a series of painful defeats on the battlefield, Russia has stepped up attacks in recent weeks on electricity infrastructure in cities away from the front lines, BBC reported.

Ukrainian emergency officials have rushed to repair the damage, but the strikes, ahead of winter, have raised concerns about how the system will respond.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the president’s office, said that “everyone should be ready, first, to save electricity, and second, rolling power blackouts are also possible if strikes continue”.

“The entire population needs to prepare for a tough winter,” Tymoshenko said.