According to officials, Russia’s use of Iranian-made drones to strike two energy facilities left all non-critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian port of Odesa without power, affecting 1.5 million people.
In his video address at night, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated, “The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult.”
“Unfortunately, the hits were critical, so it takes more than just time to restore electricity… Unfortunately, it doesn’t take hours but a few days.”
Large waves of missile and drone strikes from Moscow have been directed at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since October.
Zelenskiy stated that Norway was contributing $100 million to the restoration of Ukraine’s energy system.
The spokesperson for Odesa’s regional administration, Serhiy Bratchuk, stated that the city’s residents will have access to electricity “in the coming days,” although the restoration of the networks may take two to three months.
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Bratchuk stated that Ukraine’s security services were looking into a previous Facebook post by the region’s administration in which it advised some individuals to consider evacuating as “an element of the hybrid war” by Russia.
Since then, that post has been removed.
Bratchuk stated, “Not a single representative of the authorities in the region made any calls for the residents of Odesa and the region to be evacuated.”
Before the invasion on February 24 that Russia calls a “special military operation” to “denazify” its smaller neighbor, Odesa had more than 1 million people living there.
Kyiv claims that Russia has launched hundreds of Shahed-136 drones made in Iran at targets in Ukraine. The attacks, Kyiv says, are war crimes because they have a devastating effect on civilian life. Moscow asserts that it does not target civilians and that its attacks are legitimate under military law.
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Ukraine’s examiner general’s office said two power offices in the Odesa locale were hit by Shahed-136 robots.
On Facebook, the armed forces of Ukraine reported that ten of the 15 drones that were launched at targets in the southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv were shot down.
Tehran denies supplying Moscow with drones. That is false, according to Kyiv and its Western allies.
Saturday, the British defense ministry said that it thought Iran’s military support for Russia would likely grow in the coming months, including possible ballistic missile deliveries.
Source: Reuters
