President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the Russian attacks were “very broad” in scale. He pledged that his military would improve its already good record of shooting down missiles with the help of its partners. At the same time, Russian occupation authorities in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson urged civilians to leave immediately, citing what they called a tense military situation. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up The Ukrainian military said it was making gains as its forces moved south through the Kherson region, seizing at least two villages it said Russian troops had abandoned. Since October 10, Russia has unleashed devastating blasts on Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure, knocking out at least half of its thermal power generation and up to 40% of the entire system. Shortly after dawn, officials in a number of regions reported strikes at power facilities and power outages as engineers tried to restore the grid. Governors advised residents to stock up on water. Parts of Kyiv suffered power outages until the evening. In one central district, shops were closed and traffic lights were out. “The geography of this latest mass strike is very broad,” Zelensky said in his video address overnight, citing areas in western, central and southern Ukraine. “Of course we do not have the technical ability to shoot down 100% of Russian missiles and shoot down drones. I am sure that, gradually, with the help of our partners, we will achieve this. Already now, we are shooting down the majority of cruise missiles, the majority of drones”. Ukrainian forces shot down 20 missiles and more than 10 Iranian Shahed drones on Saturday, he said. Air Force Command earlier said 33 missiles had been fired at Ukraine. Eighteen were shot down.
POWER OUTAGES HIT SOUTH, CENTRAL UKRAINE
Reuters eyewitnesses in the southern city of Mykolaiv reported power outages lasting several hours, knocking out mobile phone signals. A view shows a residential building destroyed by a Russian drone strike, which local authorities believe to be an Iranian-made Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine on October 17, 2022 .REUTERS/Roman Petushkov/File photo In the southeastern city of Nikopoli, which is regularly shelled from Russian positions across the Dnipro River, local authorities warned that air raid sirens would go off due to power cuts. Instead, emergency vehicles driving around the city would warn of incoming air threats, officials said. Zelensky said teams are working to restore power to the affected areas. Presidential adviser Kirill Tymoshenko said earlier that more than a million people were without power after two early morning airstrike alerts. Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said Moscow wanted to create a new wave of refugees in Europe with the strikes, while Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter that the attacks amounted to genocide. Moscow has acknowledged targeting energy infrastructure but denies targeting civilians. State grid operator Ukrenergo said the attacks targeted transmission infrastructure in western Ukraine, but that supply restrictions were imposed in 10 regions, including Kiev. “The scale of the damage is comparable or may exceed the consequences of the attacks (between) October 10-12,” Ukrenergo wrote on its Telegram app, referring to the first wave of strikes on the power system last week. The deputy head of Kyiv’s municipal government, Petro Pandeleev, warned that Russian strikes could leave the Ukrainian capital without electricity and heating for “several days or weeks”. In Kherson, which connects Ukraine to the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, thousands of civilians have fled in recent days across the Dnipro River after warnings of an imminent Ukrainian offensive to retake the city. But Saturday’s warning was issued with renewed urgency. “Due to the tense situation at the front, the increased risk of mass shelling of the city and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians must immediately leave the city and cross to the left (eastern) bank of the Dnipro!” Russian occupation authorities said in a statement posted on Telegram. The General Staff of Ukraine stated that Ukrainian forces are moving into areas abandoned by Russian forces. “Individual units of the Russian occupation forces continue to leave the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region,” it said in an afternoon report on Facebook. It said Russian forces had abandoned the towns of Charivne on the west bank of the Dnipro and Chkalovo on the east bank, and officers and medical staff had been evacuated from the main center of Beryslav, also on the west bank of the river. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Reporting by Max Hunder in Kyiv, additional reporting by Felix Hoske in Kyiv and Valentyn Ogirenko in Mykolaiv Editing by Ron Popeski, Diane Craft and Matthew Lewis Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
