Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said he experts Russia to continue hammering Ukraine’s infrastructure with missile strikes, vowing to mount a response to the attacks.
“We also understand that the terrorist state is concentrating forces and means for a possible repetition of mass attacks on our infrastructure,” Zelensky said in his nightly address. “First of all, energy. In particular, for this, Russia needs Iranian missiles. We are preparing to respond.”
As Kyiv forces make increasing gains in an autumn counteroffensive, Russia has launched a barrage of strikes across Ukraine in recent weeks, largely targeting the country’s energy infrastructure and causing blackouts and water outages.
Ukraine’s Kyiv, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Kharkiv and Poltava regions will see blackouts on Monday from 6 a.m. until the end of the day because of the strikes, according to Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s state-owned power company.
Zelensky in his nightly address said 4.5 million people had no electricity.
“No one chose the areas that will suffer from blackouts — this is a consequence of the destruction of the energy infrastructure after missile and drone attacks,” Ukrenergo wrote on Telegram.
Ukrainian officials have asked residents in recent weeks to conserve electricity use. The county has also stopped exporting electricity to Europe.
Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, is preparing for a total electricity blackout and potentially mass evacuations amid Russian bombardment.
Ukraine’s energy sector has been a focal point in Russia’s invasion.
International observers have raised concerns for months over the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest, calling for a protection zone around the plant to avoid a nuclear disaster.
The area remains under Russian control, but Ukrainian employees have maintained operations at Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine’s nuclear energy arm previously indicated Russia kidnapped the plant’s top managers and intimidated employees.
The United Nations’s nuclear watchdog said on Saturday that external power had been restored to the plant two days after Russian shelling required it to be disconnected from the power grid.
Concerns have also been growing over the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant, which is located in Ukraine’s south near the strategic city of Kherson.
Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations that the other is planning to blow up the dam as Ukrainian forces make territorial gains toward Kherson.