Ukrainians continued to suffer massive power cuts on Sunday, the result of repeated Russian strikes targeting the country’s infrastructure as winter approaches, while Russia congratulated itself for having destroyed a fuel depot in the Ukrainian Air Force.
The national operator Ukrenergo carried out power cuts in the Ukrainian capital, kyiv, on Sunday to “stabilize” the supply of electricity, according to the private Ukrainian electricity supplier DTEK.
The cuts, affecting alternately the different districts of the capital divided into three groups, should not however last more than four hours, specified DTEK, without however excluding durations a little longer “due to the importance of the damage “.
More than a million Ukrainian homes have been left without electricity following Russian attacks on electricity infrastructure, the presidency of Ukraine said on Saturday.
For the past ten days, Russia has been increasing its strikes on the Ukrainian network, leading to the destruction of at least a third of its capacities, just before winter.
Individuals and companies are therefore also called upon to limit their electricity consumption in Ukraine.
Fuel depot destroyed
Russian military strikes on Sunday targeted and destroyed a depot with 100,000 tons of fuel for Ukrainian aviation, as well as several ammunition depots and an oil tank with diesel fuel for Ukrainian military vehicles.
“A depot that housed more than 100,000 tons of fuel for the Ukrainian Air Force was destroyed near the town of Smela, in the Cherkassk region”, in central Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry announced. in a press release.
On the international dialogue front, the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, spoke on the phone on Sunday with the French Minister for the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, and his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, also announced the Russian army in a statement. In the process, the Russian official also spoke, a rare thing, with his British counterpart, Ben Wallace.
During the conversation with Mr. Lecornu, the Russian minister denounced the situation in Ukraine “which has a tendency to escalate uncontrollably”, according to the press release.
He also informed all his interlocutors of “his concerns linked to possible provocations on the part of Ukraine with the use of a ‘dirty bomb’”.
Sébastien Lecornu recalled that “France [refusait] any form of escalation, particularly nuclear”.
On Friday, Sergei Shoigu also spoke on the phone with his American counterpart, Lloyd Austin.
Russian cross-border regions on alert
Russia is currently facing a vast Ukrainian counter-offensive and denounces a “considerable increase” in Ukrainian fire on several Russian border regions, including that of Belgorod, but also that of Kursk and Briansk.
Two lines of defense have been built in the Russian region of Kursk to deal with a possible attack by Ukrainian forces, the region’s governor, Roman Starovoit, announced on Sunday. “We are ready to face any attack on our territory,” he said.
The governor of the Russian border region of Belgorod also announced on Saturday the start of construction of a line of defense.
On Saturday, two people were killed in Ukrainian strikes against civilian infrastructure in the Belgorod region, according to local authorities.
The pro-Russian authorities in the Kherson region, annexed by Russia in southern Ukraine, on Saturday called on civilians to leave the regional capital “immediately” in the face of advancing forces from kyiv.
Evacuations to the left bank of the Dnieper River, which borders Kherson, have been underway since Wednesday.
One person was killed on Sunday when a homemade device that hung from a pole on a street in Kherson exploded, pro-Russian occupation authorities said.
Kherson is the first major city to be taken by Russian forces at the start of their offensive launched on February 24.