A local resident takes pictures of a building heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike
(Picture: REUTERS)More than a million Ukrainians were left without power after Russia continued to carry out air strikes on critical infrastructure.
Ukrainian authorities reported that at least 33 missiles had been fired in central and western Ukraine on Saturday morning, with several regions reporting strikes on energy facilities which resulted in power outages.
Shortly after daybreak on Saturday, local officials in regions across Ukraine began reporting strikes on energy facilities which caused power outages as engineers scrambled to restore the ruined network. Governors advised residents to stock up on water in case of cut-offs.
Presidential advisor Kyrylo Tymoshenko said more than a million people across Ukraine were without power as of Saturday afternoon, with 672,000 of those in the western region of Khmelnytskyi alone.
After the first wave of missiles hit early in the morning, air raid sirens rang out again nationwide at 11.15am local time.
Ukrainian presidential aide, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Moscow was seeking to create a new wave of refugees in Europe, while foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said they constituted genocide.
"Deliberate strikes on Ukraine’s critical civilian infrastructure are part of Russia’s genocide of Ukrainians," Mr Kuleba wrote on Twitter.
Moscow has acknowledged attacking energy infrastructure but denies targeting civilians.
State grid operator, Ukrenergo, said the attacks targeted transmission infrastructure in western Ukraine, but that power supply restrictions were being put in place in ten regions across the entire country, including in the capital, Kyiv.
"The scale of damage is comparable or may exceed the consequences of the attacks (between) October 10-12," Ukrenergo wrote on the Telegram app, referring to the first wave of strikes on Ukraine’s power system last week.
Petro Panteleev, the deputy head of Kyiv’s city administration, warned Russian strikes could leave Ukraine’s capital without power and heat for "several days or weeks".
"This possibility exists...we have to understand and remember this," he told Ukrainian outlet Ekonomichna Pravda.
