15 Russian Iranian-made combat drones attack targets in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa on Saturday night. Since then, 1.5 million people in the region have been cut off from electricity. This is likely to remain the case for months.
Russian attacks with “Kamikaze drones” have caused massive power outages in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa. “Odessa and other cities and villages in the region are in darkness after the night-time attack by Iranian drones,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his daily video message on Saturday. More than 1.5 million people in the region are currently without electricity.
Only facilities such as hospitals and maternity wards are still supplied with electricity, said the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, on the Telegram messenger service. The situation is “difficult but under control”. According to regional governor Maksym Marchenko, almost all districts and communes in the Odessa region were affected by power outages as a result of the drone strikes. Two of the 15 drones were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses, he said.
The residents of the region now have to prepare for a winter without an energy supply. “Odessa and almost the entire oblast remain without light,” says a statement distributed by the electricity supplier on Saturday evening. The severely damaged power grid could take longer to repair. “It’s not about days or weeks, rather two to three months are not excluded,” quoted the Unian state agency from the announcement. Residents have been advised to temporarily leave the city if possible.
After a series of defeats at the front and with the onset of winter, Russia had begun attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Last Monday, the Russian armed forces launched another wave of missile attacks. The regions in the south of the country were hardest hit, the government in Kiev announced on Friday.
Internationally, the Russian attacks on Ukraine’s civilian energy supply, which left millions of people without electricity and heating in freezing temperatures, met with sharp criticism. Despite this, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday that he would continue the attacks.
