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Bad Weather, Russian Strikes Leave More Than 500 Ukrainian Settlements Without Power

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service December 22, 2023

Bad weather and ongoing Russian strikes have left an estimated 520 settlements in Ukraine without electricity as the capital, Kyiv, was targeted by more than two dozen drones launched by Russia on December 22.

The Energy Ministry said about 400 settlements were cut off the power grid by a sudden bout of bad weather in five regions.

The Zakarpattya region was the worst hit, with 271 settlements left in the dark and cold, while the western Lviv region reported 70 settlements as being affected. Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, and Donetsk were among those that were hit by power cuts, the ministry said, adding that in Donetsk, some 120 settlements have been cut off the grid by Russian shelling amid heavy fighting in the eastern region.

The ministry also announced the deaths of two miners in the Russian shelling of a coal mine in Donetsk the previous day.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and emergency services said that a block of apartments south of the city center was struck by one drone, resulting in the reported injuries and triggering a fire that was quickly brought under control.

A nationwide air-raid alert was declared in early afternoon on December 22 but was later lifted.

Earlier, the Ukrainian military said on December 22 that 24 of 28 Iranian-made kamikaze drones launched by Russia were shot down.

"Aircraft, antiaircraft missile units, and mobile groups of the air force and the defense forces of Ukraine were involved in repelling the air attack," the Ukrainian Air Force said. "As a result, 24 'Shaheds' were shot down within Kyiv, Odesa, Mykolayiv, Kherson, Zhytomyr, Rivne, and Khmelnytskiy regions."

The military said the drones were launched from the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula and from the Kursk and Primorsko-Akhtarsk areas of southwestern Russia.

On the battlefield, the Ukrainian military reported that it repelled 95 clashes on December 21 on the eastern front, with heavy fighting near Kupyansk in the Kharkiv region and Avdiyivka and Maryinka in the Donetsk region. Twelve clashes were reported in the southern Kherson region, where the military said that Ukrainian forces were expanding their areas of control.

The Ukrainian military reported that civilians had been killed and wounded in the attacks and that private residences and infrastructure had been destroyed.

Ukraine's southern command said infrastructure in the southern Mykolaiv region had been struck and that fragments from a downed drone had damaged a grain storage facility in the southern Odesa region.

With reporting by Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-kyiv-drone-attack-russia- war/32742955.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.