More than 700,000 people were left without power overnight after Ukrainian drone strikes hit Russian-occupied parts of southern Ukraine, Moscow-installed officials said Tuesday.
The strikes targeted the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, where the Russian military holds around three-quarters of the territory. Moscow claimed to annex both regions, along with Donetsk and Luhansk, in September 2022.
In the Zaporizhzhia region, Kremlin-appointed governor Yevgeny Balitsky said the entire occupied territory was initially left without power late Monday. On Tuesday morning, he said 457 settlements, home to over 600,000 people, remained without electricity.
In neighboring Kherson, Russian-installed governor Vladimir Saldo said more than 104,000 people across 150 settlements were also affected by the strikes.
“Debris from downed drones damaged a new substation in the Henichesk district of Kherson region and another substation in the Melitopol district of Zaporizhzhia region,” Saldo wrote on Telegram, sharing a photo of an electrical substation on fire.
Both Saldo and Balitsky said critical infrastructure, including water supplies, had been connected to backup generators. Emergency crews had either extinguished fires caused by the attacks or were close to doing so, while utility workers had started power restoration efforts.
Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the reports.
The Russian military also controls the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where officials said the blackout had not affected operations, according to Reuters.
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