KYIV/MYKOLAIV, Ukraine (Dispatches) -- Ukraine said Russia had destroyed almost a third of its power stations over the past week as Moscow stepped up a pre-winter campaign to strike infrastructure.
Missiles struck power generating facilities in a clutch of Ukrainian cities and several people were killed. Moscow acknowledged targeting energy plants, while Ukraine said water infrastructure had also been hit.
“The situation is critical now across the country ... the whole country needs to prepare for electricity, water and heating outages,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, told Ukrainian television.
“Since Oct 10, 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Twitter.
Power cuts were reported in parts of Kyiv, many parts of the Zhytomyr region west of the capital and Dnipro, which, like Mykolaiv, is in the south but also far from the front line where Ukraine is pressing Russian forces.
Zelensky reiterated his refusal to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin whom he has accused of immorality.
Putin has dismissed Zelensky as a puppet of Washington, which has given Kyiv more than $17.5 billion in security aid.
There was no immediate word on how many people had been killed in Tuesday’s strikes overall, which came a day after Russia sent swarms of drones to attack infrastructure in Kyiv and other cities, killing at least five people.
The Russian defense ministry, whose troops have this month been forced to retreat on two separate fronts, reiterated that it was carrying out attacks on military targets and energy infrastructure across Ukraine with high-precision weapons.
Russia earlier this month named General Sergei Surovikin as overall commander of Moscow’s forces in Ukraine. Surovikin served in Syria and Chechnya.
Nicknamed “General Armageddon” by the Russian media because of his alleged toughness, his appointment was followed by the biggest wave of missile strikes against Ukraine since Moscow invaded on Feb. 24.
Putin cast those strikes as revenge for what he said was a Ukrainian attack on the bridge which links Russia to Crimea - the peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. At least three people were killed in the bombing for which Ukraine has not officially taken responsibility.