According to a representative of the emergency services, quoted by Russian news agencies, “more than ten towns in the region are without electricity.”
The Ukrainian city of Jerson, in Russian hands, was deprived this Sunday of water and electricity after a bombardment attributed to the Ukrainian troops carrying out a counteroffensive in the south of the country.
“A terrorist attack, organized by the Ukrainian side, damaged three concrete power line poles on the Berslav-Kajovka axis,” the Russian occupation authorities said on Telegram.
“Currently there is no water or electricity in the city or in some districts in the region,” they added.
This is the first time Jerson, occupied by Russian troops shortly after the start of the invasion of Ukraine in late February and annexed by Moscow in September, is deprived of these vital services.
According to a representative of the emergency services, quoted by Russian news agencies, “More than ten towns in the region are without electricity.”
infrastructure
Russia proceeded in recent weeks to the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians from Kherson to turn it into a “fortress” against the advance of a rapid Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Until now, Ukraine has focused its attacks on the supply lines of the Russian army and has only rarely bombed civilian infrastructure in occupied areas.
Russian bombing, meanwhile, destroyed 40% of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing numerous blackouts and water cuts in several regions, including in kyiv, the capital.
Shortly before, the Russian occupation authorities reported a Ukrainian shelling of the Kajovka dam, about 60 km from Jerson.
“Today at 10:00 (08:00 GMT) six Himar missiles were launched. The anti-aircraft defense units shot down five, including one that hit the lock of the Kajokva dam, which was damaged,” said a representative of the emergency services of the Kherson region.
“It’s all under control”declared the representative of the administration installed by Russia in Nova Kajovka, the town where the dam is located.
“A missile hit [en el lugar] but it did not cause critical damage,” Ruslan Agayev said, quoted by the Russian press.
The Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, installed on the Dnieper River, supplies water to the Crimean peninsulaannexed in 2014 by Moscow.
the missiles
Since July, the United States has delivered Himar missiles to Ukraine with much greater precision than the Soviet-made ones used until now.
Both Ukraine and Russia warned since October risk of bombing against that strategic dam and the two countries accuse each other of endangering the lives of “thousands” of inhabitants of that area.
Two weeks ago, the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, accused Moscow of wanting to attack the dam with explosives. Russia called those accusations mere “lies.”
The Russian occupation authorities have been carrying out for three days “evacuations” of civilians in the towns near the dam, before a “possible missile attack” that could lead to “the flooding of the left bank” of the Dnieper.
Ukraine describes these evacuations as “deportations” of Ukrainians to territories less exposed to fighting or even to Russia.
Pope Francis, on a trip to Bahrain, prayed this Sunday for “martyred Ukraine”, for the “war to end”, after more than eight months of conflict.
On the ground, a 25-year-old Taiwanese man who was volunteering to fight against Russian forces was killed, the island’s Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday.
In Starytsya, a small northeastern border town recaptured by the Ukrainian army in September, soldiers from kyiv stand guard.
“Everyone in their house. Russia has her country and let them stay there“, told AFP the commander of the 127th Ukrainian brigade, Roman Grishchenko, at the head of 5,000 men guarding this liberated territory.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had eliminated “a depot of missiles and artillery weapons of the Ukrainian armed forces”, including “120 Himar system rockets”, in the occupied Donetsk region in the east.
Fuente: AFP
PB