KYIV — Water and power supplies were fully restored
in Kyiv on Tuesday a day after Russian missile strikes, as grain exports from
Ukraine continued despite Moscow pulling out of a deal to let ships through.
اضافة اعلان
Russian
authorities meanwhile announced that tens of thousands more civilians would be
“evacuated” from the Russian-occupied southern Ukrainian region of Kherson amid
a counter-offensive by Kyiv.
Ukrainian
presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich said Monday’s bombardment was “one of
the most massive shellings of our territory” by Russia.
Following the
strikes, aerial views showed Kyiv plunged in darkness overnight, with the only
lights coming from cars on the road.
In a town near
Kyiv on Monday, the powerful explosions had woken up
Monday’s
shelling had left 80 percent of the capital’s consumers without water and 350,000
homes without electricity.
On Tuesday, Kyiv
mayor
Vitali Klitschko said water and electricity supplies had been “fully
restored” in the capital.
Klitschko warned
that there would still be planned power cuts in the city “because of the
considerable deficit in the power system after the barbaric attacks of the
aggressor”.
Ukrainian energy
operator Ukrenergo said it would limit supplies to all consumers in central and
northern regions of the country to “reduce the pressure on the network”.
‘Help energy sector’
Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to his French counterpart
Emmanuel Macron Tuesday.
He thanked
Macron for “specific decisions on strengthening Ukraine’s defense capabilities.
Specific initiatives to restore the destroyed energy infrastructure.”
The Ukrainian
army said Russia launched 55 cruise missiles on Monday, mainly at energy
infrastructure.
In a statement
Tuesday, the
Russian defense ministry claimed the “massive strikes ...
significantly disrupted the management and logistics of the Ukrainian armed
forces”.
Russia has
pivoted to systematically attacking Ukrainian energy infrastructure after
setbacks on the battlefield, where the Russian army is facing pushbacks on the
eastern and the southern fronts.
In the south,
Kyiv’s forces are preparing for fierce battles to recapture the city of Kherson
and its surrounding region.
Kherson is one
of the four regions — along with Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Lugansk — that
Moscow claims to have annexed but does not fully control.
New ‘evacuations’ from Kherson
Russian occupation authorities in Kherson said Tuesday that tens of
thousands more people would be “evacuated” from the region amid Kyiv’s
counteroffensive.
This comes after
70,000 people already left their homes in Kherson, Moscow-appointed local
authorities said last week.
The
Russian-backed leader of the Kherson region,
Vladimir Saldo, said Tuesday new
resettlements were being carried out because of the risk of a “massive missile
attack” by Ukrainian forces on a local dam.
But Ukraine said
that Russian “occupiers are carrying out forced displacement of the civilian
population”.
Grain corridor
Also on Tuesday, three more grain-loaded cargo ships left Ukrainian
ports despite Russia’s decision to suspend its participation in a deal to allow
grain exports to cross the
Black Sea.
Russia announced
the move after accusing Kyiv of a “massive” drone attack on its fleet on
Saturday, which Ukraine labelled a “false pretext”.
Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country brokered the July grain export
agreement along with the UN, is to speak with his Russian and Ukrainian
counterparts in the coming days with the aim of restoring the deal.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
