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The region of Kharkiv has emerged as the latest conflict zone in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. After Ukraine gained some ground thanks to their resistance forces, Russia retaliated with coordinated attacks of various infrastructural facilities in eastern Ukraine on Sunday.
The attacks on Kharkiv continued for a long time and it ended up damaging the power and water supply for most parts of the city. The mayor of Kharkiv city, Ihor Terekhov, described it as an “act of revenge” on the part of Russia who were left reeling after losing their foothold in the region.
According to Reuters, a number of eastern Ukrainian cities like Dnipro and Poltava were experiencing major blackouts due to the attack. However, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukrainian forces, maintained that they were making steady progress in the region
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“In the Kharkiv direction, we began to advance not only to the south and east, but also to the north. There are 50km to go to the state border [with Russia],” Zaluzhnyi told Reuters.
Zaluzhnyi also accused Russia of deliberately targeting the power grids in Kharkiv in order to cause problems to the civilians. The situation will just worse in the run out to the winter as lack of power can cause serious issues in a region which is known to experience extremely cold temperatures.
All top authorities in the eastern part of the country were on high alert after the strikes and most of them asked the people to unplug electrical devices in anticipation. “Electric tension has fallen in the network through the region,” Dmytro Zhyvytsky wrote on Telegram. “I recommend disconnecting electrical devices as much as possible.”
