KYIV
\nRussian missiles pounded Ukrainian energy and other facilities on Saturday, causing blackouts in various regions, Kyiv said, while Russian occupation authorities in the southern city of Kherson urged civilians to evacuate.
\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the Russian attacks had struck on a \u201cvery wide\u201d scale. He pledged his military would improve on an already good record of downing missiles with help from its partners.
\nWith the war about to start its ninth month and winter approaching, the potential for freezing misery loomed as Russia continued to attack Ukraine\u2019s power grid.
\nIn Kherson, a target for Ukraine\u2019s aggressive counterattack to the invasion Russian President Vladimir Putin launched on Feb. 24, the occupation authorities instructed civilians to get out.
\n\u201cDue to the tense situation at the front, the increased danger of massive shelling of the city and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians must immediately leave the city and cross to the (east) bank of the Dnipro!\u201d occupation authorities posted on Telegram.
\nThousands of civilians have left Kherson after warnings of a Ukrainian offensive to recapture the city.
\nAt Oleshky on the opposite bank of the Dnipro, Reuters saw people arriving by river boat from Kherson, loaded with boxes, bags and pets. One woman carried a toddler under one arm and a dog under the other.
\n\u201cI really didn\u2019t want to (leave), I\u2019m still in work,\u201d one resident said. \u201cWe wanted to stay here in the region, but now we don\u2019t know.\u201d
\nUkraine\u2019s military said it was making gains as its forces moved south through the region, taking over at least two villages it said Russian troops had abandoned. Kherson links Ukraine to the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
\nDeputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Telegram: \u201cKherson region! Just a little bit more. Hang in there. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are at work.\u201d
\nReuters could not independently verify the accounts.
\nSince Oct. 10, Russia has launched devastating salvos at Ukraine\u2019s power infrastructure, hitting at least half its thermal power generation and up to 40% of the entire system.
\nOfficials in a swath of regions on Saturday reported strikes on energy facilities and power outages as engineers scrambled to restore the network. Governors advised residents to stock up on water.
\nMore than a million people were without power, said presidential adviser Kyrylo Tymoshenko. Parts of Kyiv suffered power cuts into the evening, and a city official warned strikes could leave Ukraine\u2019s capital without power and heat for \u201cseveral days or weeks\u201d.
\nPresidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said Moscow wanted to create a new wave of refugees into Europe with the strikes, while Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter the attacks constituted genocide.
\nMoscow has acknowledged targeting energy infrastructure but denies targeting civilians.
\nZelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said the \u201clatest mass strike\u201d affected regions in western, central and southern Ukraine.
\n\u201cOf course we don\u2019t have the technical ability to knock down 100% of the Russian missiles and strike drones. I am sure that, gradually, we will achieve that, with help from our partners. Already now, we are downing a majority of cruise missiles, a majority of drones.\u201d
\nUkrainian forces had downed 20 missiles and more than 10 Iranian-made Shahed drones on Saturday, he said. The air force command earlier had said 33 missiles had been fired at Ukraine, with 18 shot down.
\nNo new developments were reported regarding the Nova Kakhovka dam. Zelenskiy on Friday urged the West to warn Moscow not to blow up the Russian-controlled dam on the Dnipro.
\nRussia has accused Kyiv of rocketing the dam and planning to destroy it in what Ukrainian officials called a sign that Moscow might blow it up and blame Kyiv. Neither side has produced evidence to back up their allegations.
\nThe Soviet-era structure holds back 18 cubic km (4.3 cubic miles) of water, about equal to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah. Its destruction could devastate much of the Kherson region. It supplies water to Crimea and the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
\nRegarding the Zaporizhzhia plant, considered a potential flashpoint for catastrophe, the Group of Seven industrial powers on Saturday condemned Russia\u2019s kidnapping of the Ukraine-operated plant\u2019s leaders and called for the immediate return of full control of the plant to Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV Russian missiles pounded Ukrainian energy and other facilities on Saturday, causing blackouts in various regions, Kyiv said, while Russian occupation authorities in the southern city of Kherson urged civilians to evacuate. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the Russian attacks had struck on a \u201cvery wide\u201d scale. He pledged his military would improve on an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-291165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n