Russia’s Continued Bombing Of Ukraine’s Crucial Infrastructure Causes Nationwide Power Outages

According to foreign media reports on October 22nd, Russian forces continued their bombing across Ukraine by launching dozens of missiles that day, leading to a nationwide power outage.

Ukraine’s national grid operator said that the strike mainly targeted the leading networks in western Ukraine, but as a precautionary measure, electricity has been restricted in 10 regions of the country.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said in a statement the strike cut off power to nearly 1.5 million citizens nationwide. The governors of western and central Ukraine noted large-scale missile attacks had targeted energy facilities. Ukrainians in cities such as Kyiv and Dnepro took shelter during several hours of air strikes and blackouts, and the assaults have also disrupted water supplies in several regions.

The Ukrainian Air Force has destroyed 18 of the 33 cruise missiles fired at critical infrastructure in at least five regions of Ukraine. Since October 21st, 10 additional Shahid drones provided by Iran have been shot down by Ukrainian forces in the southern Mykolaiv region.

On October 14th, Putin said at the Asia-Europe Meeting that Russia had neither intentions to devastate Ukraine nor plans for new large-scale strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure. However, as of now, Moscow has been strengthening air raids against Ukrainian infrastructure.