Russia has hit Ukraine with attacks across the country over the weekend as Moscow continues its assault on the country’s infrastructure and power grid ahead of winter.
“The geography of this massive new strike is very broad,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. said in an address Saturday, noting that Russia’s main target seemed to be Ukraine’s energy system.
As the war drags on into its eighth month, Ukrainian officials have urged citizens to conserve power ahead of what promises to be a bleak winter, while the World Health Organization has warned of a crisis humanitarian.
“The aggressor continues to terrorize our country. At night, the enemy launched a massive attack: 36 rockets, most of which were shot down,” Zelensky said in a Sunday address.
Here are some of the areas believed to have been targeted by Russian attacks over the weekend:
South of Ukraine
Mykolaiv and Odessa regions in southern Ukraine have come under fire from Russia’s “new massive strike”, Zelensky said on Saturday.
A building in Mykolaiv — a short distance from Khersonof which Ukraine appears ready to resume of the Russian occupation – was hit by Russian strikes over the weekend, according to Reuters.
The Black Sea port city of Odessa has also faced strikes and power cuts, although Zelensky said on Saturday that some power had returned to the city.
Maksym Marchenko, head of the Odessa regional military administration, said two rocket hits hit “an object of energy infrastructure”, according to The Washington Post.
The Post reported that Ukrainian forces claimed to have shot down 18 of the 33 Russian missiles fired on Saturday as well as 10 suicide bomber drones in Mykolaiv.
Eastern Ukraine
In the southeast, Russian attacks have again endangered the area near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zelensky said on Saturday.
The Zaporizhzhia region and its Russian-occupied, Ukrainian-operated power station have been a source of international concern throughout the conflict, as nearby fighting increases the risk of a nuclear accident.
Mayor Dmytro Orlov of the Ukrainian town of Enerhodar in Zaporizhzhia said the town is “on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe because constant enemy shelling is destroying civilian infrastructure and power grids”, according to a CNN report.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of Donetsk regional administration, also reported on Telegram that a hospital was partially destroyed in Bakhmut as night shelling hit the Donetsk region in the east.
“Again and again the Russians have struck our civilian infrastructure in an attempt to create panic,” he wrote, adding that no one was killed in the attack.
However, Bakhmut has been the scene of heavy fighting as the Ukrainian army seeks to repel Russian attacks led by the notorious paramilitary group Wagner.
Central and Western Ukraine
Missile fire was reported in Kirovohrad, located on the Inhul River in central Ukraine, and in Rivne and Khmelnytsky regions in western Ukraine.
“The situation remains difficult in the Cherkassy and Kirovohrad regions, in some localities of the Khmelnytskyi and Rivne regions”, say it CEO of Ukrainian power grid Ukrenergo Volodymyr Kudrytskyi on Sunday as the company works to restore power to millions of Ukrainians.
The power grid operator said on Sunday it had restored power to most of Khmelnytsky after a “massive missile attack” ripped through the region’s energy system and work is underway to continue the restoration of electricity in Rivne and Cherkasy, among others.