Russian Airstrikes Hit Ukrainian Energy Sites

2022-10-18

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Russian forces launched airstrikes Tuesday on numerous Ukrainian cities, hitting energy facilities and cutting power and water supplies to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy characterized the Russian attacks on energy and critical infrastructure "terrorist attacks" that eliminated any chance for peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy said the attacks were aimed at driving the country into the cold and dark as winter approaches.

"Since Oct 10, 30% of Ukraine's power stations have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country," he tweeted Tuesday. "No space left for negotiations with Putin's regime."

Russia and Ukraine held several rounds of talks in the first month after Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion, but they collapsed. The Kremlin has said talks could only be possible if Ukraine meets Russian demands and accepts its takeover of Ukrainian territory, but Kyiv has rejected talks on such terms.

The mayor of Zhytomyr in western Ukraine said the entire city of 250,000 was initially without electricity and water after a double missile strike Tuesday on an energy facility. Quick repairs restored power to some homes but hours later about 150,000 residents were still without power.

Missile strikes also hit an energy facility in Kyiv and killed two people, while a strike severely damaged another energy plant in the south-central city of Dnipro, Ukrainian authorities said. A regional Ukrainian governor in the eastern city of Kharkiv said that eight rockets fired from across the nearby border with Russia hit an industrial area.

A barrage of explosive-laden drone attacks Monday on Kyiv and the airstrikes on energy and water facilities appear to be aimed at diminishing the capability of the Ukrainian people to continue the fight against Putin's eight-month invasion.

Ukraine says Russia is getting thousands of drones from Iran, although Tehran denies it is assisting Moscow. The Iranian-made Shahed drones that hit targets in Kyiv have also been widely used elsewhere in Ukraine in recent weeks.

An Associated Press photographer caught one of the Iranian drones on camera Monday, its triangle-shaped wing and pointed warhead clearly visible, though the Kremlin refused to confirm their use.

Ukraine's foreign ministry said that in the past week alone, more than 100 self-destructing Iranian-made drones have slammed into power plants, sewage treatment plants, residential buildings, bridges and other targets in urban areas.

In his nightly televised address on Monday, Zelenskyy said Russia is using the drones because it is losing territory in the war.

"Russia doesn't have any chance on the battlefield, and it tries to compensate for its military defeats with terror," he said. "Why this terror? To put pressure on us, on Europe, on the entire world."

The airstrikes have prompted renewed calls by Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian leaders for their Western allies to provide Ukraine with more air defense weapons.

Britain's defense ministry said Tuesday that in addition to the drone attacks, Russia has spent the past week using cruise missiles to carry out "a heightened tempo of long-range strikes against targets across Ukraine."

"As Russia has suffered battlefield setbacks since August, it has highly likely gained a greater willingness to strike civilian infrastructure in addition to Ukrainian military targets," the ministry said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday that the drone attacks continued "to demonstrate Putin's brutality." She said the United States will hold Russia accountable for "its war crimes."

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was "deeply disturbed by the continuing missile and drone attacks against Ukrainian cities and towns," according to U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Guterres called for the attacks "to immediately cease and for urgent de-escalation."

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.