The Ukrainian city of Khersonin Russian hands, was deprived this Sunday of Water Y 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 poles of high-voltage lines 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 of the region,” they added.
This is the first time that Kherson, occupied by Russian troops shortly after the start of the invasion of Ukraine at the end of February and annexed by Moscow in September, is deprived of those 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.”
In recent weeks, Russia has evacuated tens of thousands of civilians from Kherson to turn it into a “fortress” against the advance of a rapid counteroffensive.
Until now, kyiv 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 the infrastructure Ukrainian energy companies, causing numerous blackouts and water cuts in several regions, including kyiv, the capital.
Shortly before, the Russian occupation authorities reported a Ukrainian shelling of the Kajovka dam, about 60 kilometers as the crow flies from Kherson.
“Six Himar missiles were launched today. Air defense units shot down five, including one that hit the Kajokva dam lock, which was damaged,” said a representative of the Kherson region emergency services.
“Everything is under control,” declared the representative of the Russian-installed administration in Nova Kakhovka, the town where the dam is located. The Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, installed on the Dnieper River, supplies water to the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014 by Moscow.
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 have warned since October of the risk of bombing this strategic dam and the two countries accuse each other of endangering the lives of “thousands” of inhabitants of that area.
AFP
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