Energy facilities throughout Ukraine were targeted by a new wave of Russian strikes on October 22, while Kyiv's air defense shot down several missiles above the Ukrainian capital, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports.
Local officials said power stations were hit in the regions of Odesa, Kirovohrad, and Lutsk, while other regions reported problems with electricity.
"Another rocket attack from terrorists who are fighting against civilian infrastructure and people," the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote on the Telegram app.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that air defense shot down several rockets that were flying in the direction of the capital.
"Several rockets flying towards Kyiv were shot down in the region by air defense forces. Thanks to our defenders!" Klitschko said, while local police chief Andriy Nyebytov posted a photograph of a column of smoke rising from a forest where he said the missile debris had landed.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a government meeting that from October 10 to October 20, Russian strikes damaged more than 400 facilities in 16 regions of Ukraine, including dozens of energy installations.
"The Russian Amy has identified our energy sector as one of the key targets for its attacks," Shmyhal said on October 21.
"Russian propagandists and officials speak openly about the purpose of all these attacks: Ukraine, according to them, should be left without water, without light, without heat," he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces shelled Russian positions in the occupied and illegally seized southern Kherson region, targeting Moscow's resupply routes across the Dnieper River in apparent preparation for a full assault on Kherson city, one of the first urban areas occupied by Russia at the start of the conflict.
