A Russian attack on energy infrastructure has caused a massive power outage in Zhytomyr Oblast. This was reported by the energy supplier AT “Zhytomyroblenerho” on Saturday via the messaging service Telegram, as the news agency Ukrinform reports. The specialists were doing everything to restore power supply as quickly as possible, it added.
The governor of Zhytomyr Oblast, Vitalii Bunechko, stated that during a combined air attack that began the previous evening, Russian forces had hit energy and fuel infrastructure facilities in the Zhytomyr and Zviahel communities. Repair work and the clearing of the aftermath had lasted all night and were continuing. No information on dead or injured had been received, Bunechko said according to Ukrinform. Already on Friday, 6 November, Russian attackers had attacked an energy infrastructure facility in the Zhytomyr community, according to Ukrinform.
The attack was part of a larger wave: according to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia fired 172 drones and 36 ballistic missiles at the capital and other regions, as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports. According to this, energy facilities, residential buildings and important transport infrastructure were hit. Parts of Kyiv were without power, heating and water. Mayor Vitali Klitschko described the state of the power supply after the hits in the Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions as “extremely difficult”. In Kyiv, five people were injured, including a 14-year-old. According to these reports, several residential buildings, a kindergarten and a non-residential building were also damaged.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the attacks targeted, among other things, substations that connect the Rivne and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plants with Kyiv and the central regions; further substations were damaged in Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Rivne, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. In a Telegram post on Saturday, Zelensky called on Washington to maintain and expand support for Ukraine. “If Russia tries to plunge Kyiv – a city of millions – and the whole country into a blackout, Ukraine must not be left alone,” he wrote.
