More than a thousand Ukrainian cities and towns are without water and electricity due to Russian bombing which, according to kyiv, destroyed 30 percent of the country’s power plants in just over a week. Russia did not lag behind and warned of a possible Ukrainian attack on a hydroelectric plant in the annexed Kherson region with “prohibited methods of warfare”. Meanwhile, Ukraine is finalizing the severance of diplomatic relations with Iran over the supply of kamikaze drones to Russia, an accusation emphatically denied by both Moscow and Tehran.
1,162 towns without light
“We have a critical situation throughout the country, because one region depends on another. The entire country must prepare for blackouts of both electricity supply and water and heating and save energy”, summed up the deputy chief of staff of the presidency, Kirill Timochenko. For his part, the spokesman for the emergency services, Oleksandr Jorunzhyi, added that “currently 1,162 towns are without electricity.”
Russia attacked, as on Monday, civil and electricity infrastructure in eastern, central and southern Ukraine. He did it in kyiv, Sumy, Donetsk, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Zhitomir, Kharkov, Krivoi Rog, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhia. At least six people died. The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged that “the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continued to strike with high-precision long-range weapons from the air and sea Ukraine’s military command and power systems, as well as stockpiles with foreign-made ammunition and weapons.”
Attack with “prohibited methods of warfare”
The commander of the Russian forces in Ukraine, Even Sergei Surovikwarned that it has information on a possible attack by Ukraine with “forbidden methods of war” against the city of Jershon, in the south of the Ukrainian territory but annexed by Russia. As detailed by the Russian military high command, the Ukrainian Army could carry out a “massive missile attack” against the dam of the Kajovskaya hydroelectric power plant, located in the city of New Kajovka.
Precisely this Tuesday Moscow denounced a Ukrainian attack in that city, located in Jerson, where two people lost their lives. In addition, the pro-Russian governor of Jershon, Volodimir Saldo, reported that the population of the eastern sector of the region began to be evacuated to the western part of the Dnieper River due to threats about a possible attack on the hydroelectric plant.
The Russian Army admitted on Tuesday that its troops face a complex situation in Ukraine, where a new counteroffensive caused several setbacks in the east and south. “The situation in the area of the special military operation can be described as tense. The enemy does not relent in its attempts to attack the positions of the Russian forces”warned the general Sergei Surovikincommander of operations in Ukraine for ten days, speaking to public television Rossiya 24.
Russian authorities on Tuesday raised the death toll to 14, including three children, in the accident of the fighter-bomber that crashed on Monday in the courtyard of an apartment building in the spa city of Yeisk, near Ukraine and bathed by the Sea of Azov. The authorities consider a technical failure as the most likely cause of the accident..
Punishment of Iran and request for help from Israel
On Tuesday, Russia used more missiles than kamikaze drones in its attacks. The spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force Command, Yury Ignat, assured that kyiv has already managed to shoot down 85 percent of the Iranian Shahed-136 suicide drones launched by Russia. According to the head of the Main Intelligence Department of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Kyrylo Budanov, Russia would have bought a first batch of 1,750 Iranian drones, after which there were new acquisitions.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kulebasaid He proposed to President Volodimir Zelensky to break diplomatic relations with Iran “taking into account the numerous destructions caused by Iranian drones to the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine, the deaths and the suffering caused to our people.” He also explained that kyiv will send an official letter to Israel asking it to “urgently supply anti-aircraft defense systems.”
The responses of Moscow and Tehran
From the Kremlin, however, they said they did not know if these unmanned devices were used in the attacks of these days. “We don’t have that information. Russian gadgets are used, you know. They have Russian names“said the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskovin his daily telephone press conference.
Along the same lines, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Born in Canaanmaintained that “the baseless claims that have been made against Iran are based on false information and biased assumptions and are part of a political atmosphere directed by the media of some countries against Iran.” Kanani stressed Iran’s readiness for “dialogue with Ukraine in order to remove ambiguities.”