Russian strikes will cause emergency power cuts across country: Ukraine

Ukraine Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko on Saturday said damage to power infrastructure from a wave of Russian missile strikes would lead to emergency power outages in most regions across the country.

"Today, the enemy attacked the country's power generation facilities and power grids again," Halushchenko said on Facebook, according to CNN. "There are attacks in Kharkiv, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia and Kyiv regions."

The Ukraine energy minister said the next few days "will be difficult". "Power engineers are already working to restore the electricity supply."

In the early morning hours on Saturday, Ukrainian officials reported missile attacks that hit Kyiv and Kharkiv. In a Telegram post, the leader of the Kyiv regional military administration, Oleksiy Kuleba, said that explosions were heard in the region and that a fire started at a critical infrastructure facility and caused damage to dozens of private homes.

The CEO of the Ukrainian state power company Ukrenergo said the country's power system suffered waves of missile strikes. "Unfortunately, energy facilities in 5 regions were hit," Volodymyr Kudrytskyi wrote on Facebook. Kudrytskyi said power engineers are already working on the restoration.

The latest missile attacks follow a relative lull that allowed Ukrainian power companies to reduce the power deficit caused by damage to transformers, according to CNN.

As many as 12 died due to a Russian missile strike on an apartment block in the city of Dnipro, according to Valentyn Reznichenko, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration.

"Russian terror" can only be stopped on the battlefield, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his nightly on Saturday.

"Can Russian terror be stopped? Yes," Zelensky was quoted as saying by CNN. "Is it possible to do it somehow differently than on the battlefield in Ukraine? Unfortunately, no. This can and must be done on our land, in our sky, in our sea," he emphasized.

The conflict in Ukraine started in February last year. Russian officials continue to say the "special military operation" was started to protect the eastern part of Ukraine.