President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that more than 1.5 million residents in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa were without electricity on Saturday following an attack by Russian “kamikaze drones” throughout the night.
After the strikes on Friday, the region’s energy regulator warned that repairs might take weeks or even three months.
Zelensky says that after the Iranian drone attack last night, Odessa and several nearby towns and cities are completely dark.
The Odessa region currently has more than 1.5 million people without energy.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, who is the deputy head of the presidential administration, says that only essential infrastructure like hospitals and birthing rooms have power.
The situation is still challenging, but everything is under control, according to Tymoshenko.
The Black Sea port was a popular destination for both Ukrainians and Russians before Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine‘s pro-Western government on February 24.
Maksym Marchenko, who is in charge of the area, said that Russia attacked the city overnight with “kamikaze drones.”
“Almost all neighborhoods and towns in our area are without power because of the strike,” he said.
According to Marchenko, Ukrainian air defense units shot down two drones.
In a statement released on Friday, Kyiv said that the worst power outages were happening in the south of the war-torn country, especially in Odessa. This is because Russia has been attacking the Ukrainian energy grid on purpose.
On Monday, Russia fired dozens of cruise missiles at important infrastructure in Ukraine. This added to the damage done to the country’s power grid by previous attacks.
Following devastating military failures, Russia started focusing on Ukraine’s infrastructure.
Putin promised to continue attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Thursday in the face of protests over the attacks, which have left millions of people in the dark and cold.
