Power cuts in many parts of Ukraine and Russian authorities are urging civilians in the southern city of Kherson to leave
Russia bombed energy facilities in Ukraine on Saturday, cutting power to several areas, Kyiv said, while Russian authorities in the southern city of Kherson urged civilians to leave.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had carried out strikes on a “very large scale” and pledged to improve the capabilities of Ukraine’s military, which is already doing well in shooting down missiles, with help from his country’s partners.
In Kherson, which was the target of a Ukrainian counter-attack ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, the Russian occupation authorities ordered civilians to leave immediately.
“Given the tense situation on the front line, the increased risk of intense bombardment of the city and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians must immediately leave the city and cross to the eastern bank of the Dnipro River!”, Russian authorities said in a statement on Telegram.
Thousands of civilians left Kherson after warnings of an imminent Ukrainian attack to retake the city.
In Olichki, on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River, Reuters reporters saw people arriving by boat from Kherson.
“I didn’t really want to leave… We wanted to stay here in the area but now we don’t know what will happen”, one resident said.
The Ukrainian army said it was making gains as its forces moved south through the Kherson region, capturing at least two villages from which Russian forces withdrew.
Kherson links Ukraine with Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Since October 10, Russia has launched a series of devastating missile bursts into Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, hitting at least half of the thermal plants and up to 40 percent of the entire network.
Soon after morning broke out on Saturday, officials in regions across Ukraine began reporting strikes on power facilities and blackouts, and engineers rushed to fix the grid.
District governors advised residents to store water in case of outages.
Presidential adviser Kirillo Tymoshenko said more than a million people are without electricity.
Parts of Kyiv suffered blackouts that extended into the evening and a city official said the strikes could leave the Ukrainian capital without power and heating for “several days or weeks”.
Ukraine’s presidential aide, Mikhailo Podolyak, said Moscow wanted to create a new wave of refugees to Europe through the strikes, while Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba described the strikes as genocide.
Moscow has acknowledged targeting energy infrastructure, but denies targeting civilians.
“The geographic scope of the latest intensive bombing is very wide,” Zelensky said in his video evening speech, referring to the missile strikes targeting areas in western, central and southern Ukraine.
“Of course, we do not have the technical ability to destroy 100 percent of the Russian attack missiles and drones… I am sure we will achieve this gradually with the help of our partners…Currently, we are shooting down most of the cruise missiles and most of the drones”.
He said Ukrainian forces shot down 20 missiles and more than a dozen Iranian-made Shahed drones on Saturday.
The Air Force Command had said earlier that it had shot down 18 of the 33 missiles fired at Ukraine.
No new developments have been reported regarding the Nova Kakhovka Dam.
Zelensky urged the West on Friday to warn Moscow against blowing up the Russian-controlled dam on the Dnipro River.
Russia accused Kyiv of bombing the dam with missiles and planning to destroy it, in what Ukrainian officials described as an indication that Moscow might bomb the dam and blame Kyiv.
Neither side presented evidence to support his accusation.
