Ukrainian strikes cut power to Russian-held areas

UKRAINIAN attacks triggered power cuts over swathes of Russian-controlled territory in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in Ukraine’s south, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without electricity, Russia-installed officials said on Tuesday.

Officials said there was no effect on operations at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station — Europe’s largest nuclear facility which was seized by Russia in the weeks after Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russian officials running the plant said radiation levels were normal at the facility, which operates in shutdown mode and produces no power at the moment.

Russia-installed governors in the two regions, which are among the key areas that Moscow demands that Ukraine give up in order for the war to end, said the Ukrainian attacks prompted authorities to introduce emergency measures to preserve power sources.

As of Tuesday morning, more than 600,000 people in nearly 500 settlements in Zaporizhzhia were without electricity, after shelling by Ukraine’s forces damaged high-voltage infrastructure, Russia-installed Governor Yevgeny Belitsky wrote on Telegram.

“As a result of shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, high-voltage equipment was damaged in the northwestern part of the Zaporizhzhia region,” Mr. Belitsky wrote.

The attacks came hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Turkey for peace talks where Moscow said it would only agree to end the war if Kyiv gives up big new chunks of territory and accepts limits on the size of its army.

The Energy Ministry of Zaporizhzhia region has been instructed to conserve sources of power and healthcare sites have been transferred to reserve power sources.

In the adjacent Kherson region, farther west, Russia-appointed Governor Vladimir Saldo said debris from fallen drones had damaged two substations, knocking out power to more than 100,000 residents of 150 towns and villages in Russian-held areas. Emergency crews were working to restore power quickly, he said.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched in February 2022. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, most of them Ukrainian.

For many long months in the winter, it was Ukrainian towns and villages that endured repeated electricity cuts as Russian attacks focused strikes on generating capacity.

Each side has repeatedly accused the other of launching attacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and running the risk of a nuclear accident.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said last week in response to a Ukrainian complaint that it saw no sign that Russia was preparing to restart the Zaporizhzhia plant and connect it to the Russian grid.

The IAEA has stationed monitors permanently at Zaporizhzhia and Ukraine’s other nuclear power stations.

Meanwhile, Russia’s overnight attacks killed one person in Ukraine’s northeastern region of Kharkiv and injured several more in the northern city of Chernihiv, regional Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday.

A private enterprise was hit in the small town of Balakliia in the Kharkiv region that borders Russia, killing one employee and injuring several others, Vitali Karabanov, the head of the town’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.

“A massive UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) attack on the town,” Mr. Karabanov said, without providing details of the scale.

The attacks came hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Turkey for peace talks where Moscow said it would only agree to end the war if Kyiv gives up big new chunks of territory and accepts limits on the size of its army.

Ukraine has repeatedly rejected the Russian conditions as tantamount to surrender.

Falling drones on streets and residential buildings in the northern city of Chernihiv sparked several fires, including at residential houses, Dmytro Bryzhynskyi, the head of the city’s military administration, said on Telegram.

Four people were hospitalized, Bryzhynskyi said. Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said another 20 people, including eight children, received medical assistance at the site.

The service posted photos on its Telegram account showing firefighters battling blazes in the dark and medics attending to a group of children.

In the southern port city of Odesa, Russian overnight air attacks damaged residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, but there were no injuries, Mayor Hennadiy Trukhanov wrote on Telegram.

The full scale of the overnight Russian attack on Ukraine was not immediately known. There was no immediate comment from Moscow and Reuters could not independently verify the Ukrainian reports. — Reuters