Russian strikes on power facilities cause blackouts for 1 million Ukrainians

Russian strikes have caused mass blackouts in various regions of Ukraine, with more than a million people affected. Officials in multiple areas on Saturday reported attacks on energy facilities and outages as engineers struggled to restore the network. Residents were advised by governors to stock up on water. Moscow has since October 10 pummelled Ukraine's energy infrastructure, hitting at least half of the country’s thermal power generation and up to 40 per cent of the entire system. Moscow has acknowledged targeting energy infrastructure but denies targeting civilians. The latest round of missile attacks cut off power for more than a million people, presidential adviser Kyrylo Tymoshenko said. Parts of Kyiv suffered power cuts into the evening, and a city official warned strikes could leave the capital without power and heat for “several days or weeks”. As the war threatens to push into its ninth month, with winter fast approaching, there are fears people in Ukraine could freeze to death if energy supplies are severed. In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian attacks had struck on a “very wide” scale. He pledged his military would improve on an already good record of downing missiles with help from its partners. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday for the second time in three days and held a flurry of calls with three other counterparts from Nato countries. Moscow provided no details on the conversation with Mr Austin, which came after the two men spoke on Friday for the first time since May. According to a Pentagon readout, the call came at the request of Mr Shoigu. "Secretary Austin rejected any pretext for Russian escalation and reaffirmed the value of continued communication amid Russia’s unlawful and unjustified war against Ukraine,” the Pentagon said. Mr Austin spoke with Mr Shoigu on Friday to "emphasize" the need for "maintaining lines of communication amid the ongoing war against Ukraine," the Pentagon said in a release. The Russian defence ministry said of Mr Shoigu's call with French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu: "They discussed the situation in Ukraine which is rapidly deteriorating". "It is trending towards further uncontrolled escalation," it said. Mr Lecornu also said he spoke to Mr Shoigu on Sunday. Mr Shoigu told him of the Kremlin’s fears that Ukraine may use a “dirty bomb” on Russian territory. He said he told Mr Shoigu that France will not get drawn into any form of escalation in Ukraine, especially regarding nuclear options. He said France is keen to see a peaceful resolution to the war and he plans to hold talks with his Ukrainian counterpart soon. Previous Russian assertions that Ukraine might resort to using banned weapons such as biological arms have stirred concerns in the West that Moscow might be preparing to stage "false flag" attacks and blame them on Kyiv. Mr Shoigu also spoke to Turkey's defence minister Hulusi Akar and the UK's defence minister Ben Wallace. Britain said Mr Wallace had "refuted" claims by Mr Shoigu that Western countries were facilitating a plan by Kyiv to escalate the conflict. Civilians on Sunday continued to flee the Russian-occupied city of Kherson. Footage filmed secretly showed people carrying bags preparing to board a passenger boat on the Dnipro river. Russian-installed authorities in the area have urged people to leave the city. In a message posted on Telegram, occupation authorities said “due to the tense situation at the front, the increased danger of massive shelling of the city and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians must immediately leave the city and cross to the [east] bank of the Dnipro!” Residents have been arriving in the town of Oleshky on the opposite side of the river, laden down with boxes, bags and pets. One woman said she “really didn't want to” leave Kherson where she had been working, but said the situation had changed her mind. “We wanted to stay here in the region, but now we don't know,” she added. The Ukrainian military said it was continuing to make gains on the battlefield, as its troops moved south through the Kherson region. The army said it had retaken at least two villages it claimed had been abandoned by Russian soldiers. Kherson links Ukraine to the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Telegram: “Kherson region! Just a little bit more. Hang in there. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are at work.” A Russian military jet crashed into a residential building in the Siberian city of Irkutsk on Sunday, killing the two pilots, officials said. It was the second such fatal incident in six days involving a Sukhoi fighter plane. In a post on Telegram, Irkutsk governor Igor Kobzev said the plane crashed into a two-storey house in the city. He published a video showing firefighters clambering over the wreckage and directing jets of water at the still smouldering rubble. No one on the ground was hurt, the governor said. Officials said the plane was a Sukhoi Su-30 fighter on a test flight. Last Monday, a Sukhoi Su-34 crashed into an apartment block in the southern city of Yeysk, near Ukraine, and at least 15 people were killed. Videos of Sunday's incident shared on social media showed the plane dived almost vertically before crashing in a fireball, sending dense black smoke into the sky. Russia's state Investigative Committee said it had launched a criminal investigation into violations of air safety rules.

Russian strikes on power facilities cause blackouts for 1 million Ukrainians

Moscow has admitted targeting Ukraine's energy supply network