Russian air strikes damage electric system in southern Ukraine

KYIV (Reuters) -Russian missile and drone attacks damaged Ukrainian energy facilities in the Black Sea region of Odesa and the nearby city of Mykolaiv on Wednesday, keeping up pressure on the embattled power grid, officials said.

Russia, which has targeted Ukrainian utilities throughout the two-year-old war, renewed its aerial assaults on Ukraine’s energy system last month with strikes that destroyed at least eight power plants and several dozen substations.

The Ukrainian grid operator said Wednesday’s attacks caused emergency blackouts in the southern regions of Mykolaiv and neighbouring Kherson. The energy ministry said blackouts had affected over 400,000 consumers but power was later restored for most of them.

The air force said Russia launched 17 attack drones and three missiles at Ukraine in its latest overnight attacks and that air defences downed 14 of the drones and two of the missiles.

The strikes on Odesa region targeted critical and logistics infrastructure, regional governor Oleh Kiper said. He did not identify the damaged energy facility. State-owned Ukrainian Railways said two of its employees were injured in the attack.

The military said energy infrastructure in the southern city of Mykolaiv was damaged and power supply was disrupted for several hours. There were no casualties there, it added.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Lisbon, Max Hunder and Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Tom Balmforth and Alison Williams)