Ukraine hit by blackouts as new Russian air strikes target power plants using missiles and drones

Ukraine plunged into darkness after Russia launches new strikes on power plants using missiles and drones

Ukraine plunged into darkness after Russia launches new strikes on power plants using missiles and drones

Russian forces early Tuesday morning, October 18 launched attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities, with strikes on Kyiv and other major cities.

Two facilities were seriously damaged in the central city of Dnipro and power cuts were reported in Zhytomyr while Ukraine’s Presidential aide Kyrylo Tymoshenko said there had been three explosions in Kyiv.

The latest attacks came 24 hours after Kyiv was hit by “kamikaze” drones on Monday.

Ukraine hit by blackouts

More air strikes pummelled Ukraine on Tuesday morning leaving cities in blackout as Russia continues a barrage of power stations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of terrorizing and killing civilians after its latest attacks.

Ukraine said it shot down 38 of the 43 drones Russia used to launch strikes on Monday.

But there are blackouts across the country on Tuesday after attacks, which President Zelenskyy said have destroyed one-third of the country’s power stations in the past 10 days.

The unmanned drones, believed to be Iranian-made, killed at least eight people in the capital and the northern city of Sumy, and struck critical infrastructure, with power outages reported in hundreds of towns and villages.

It was not clear as at press time whether drones were involved in Tuesday’s attacks, although Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office, said an S-300 anti-aircraft missile was fired at a residential building in the southern city of Mykolaiv overnight, killing one person. The city’s flower market was also destroyed.

Infrastructure in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia was also hit, although local officials said no one had been hurt.

Meanwhile, in one of the biggest prisoner swaps, since Russia’s war began in February, 218 detainees were exchanged – including 108 Ukrainian women between Russia and Ukraine on Monday.