OUR Vladimir Zelensky said today that Russia responsible for power outages affecting large areas in the east Ukrainian and accused Moscow of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure.

“Complete power outage in Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, partial power outage in Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk and Sumy regions,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a post on a social network, blaming “Russian terrorists.”

“Not a single military facility was damaged. The goal is to deprive people of light and heating.”

Local Ukrainian authorities have previously reported Russian shelling of strategic infrastructure, resulting in power outages across vast swaths of eastern Ukraine, where Kyiv launched a counterattack, breaking through Russian positions and forcing Russian forces to retreat.

Power outages affected areas where millions of people lived before the war.

The governor of the Kharkiv region, where Kyiv reported the biggest territorial gains in the counteroffensive, posted on social media that the Russian military had struck at the strategic infrastructure of the city and region. According to Oleg Sinekhubov, “Many cities no longer have either water or electricity. Emergency services are trying to contain the fires in the affected areas.”

“They can’t accept their defeat on the battlefield”

The governor of the Dnepropetrovsk region in central Ukraine, Valentin Reznishenko, accused the Russians of cutting off electricity in his region. “Many cities and villages of the Dnepropetrovsk region were left without electricity. The Russians hit the energy infrastructure. They cannot accept their defeat on the battlefield.”

His colleague from the Sumy region said that the power outage affected at least 135 cities and villages in his area.

In the Donetsk region, the city of Kramatorsk, one of the largest in eastern Ukraine under Ukrainian control, was left without electricity, local AFP journalists report. The local governor announced the holidays in other areas of his district.

Source: APE/MEB