Photo: SERGEY BOBOK / AFP / Getty Images
By: The Opinion Updated 17 Dec 2022, 11: 48 pm EST
Russia used Iranian-made drones to attack energy infrastructure in and around the port city of Odessa, leaving more than 1.5 million people without power, Ukrainian officials said.
“The situation in the Odessa region is very difficult,” President Volodimir Zelensky said in his late-night video speech posted on his channel from Telegram. “After the night attack by Iranian drones, Odessa and other cities and towns in the region are in the dark.”
The full restoration of electricity could take up to three months, said Sergey Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odessa regional military administration.
He added that the administration had “joined forces” with energy companies “to ensure that electricity reaches the homes of all citizens of our country in the coming days” .
In other parts of Ukraine, Zelenskyy said, continued power outages in several cities, including the capital Kiev.
Russian forces have attacked Ukrainian cities and towns with missiles and drones in recent weeks, inflicting damage on power plants, water supplies and other civilian targets, in a war to dripper approaching its month mark.
Devastating strikes have plunged the country into darkness and have put the health system to the test, already battered by years of corruption, mismanagement, the Covid-48.
USA. and the United Kingdom warned that Russia is expanding its military partnership with Iran
Russia is trying to obtain more weapons from Iran, including hundreds of ballistic missiles, and in return offering Tehran an unprecedented level of military and technical support, British ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, said last Friday.
He also stated that since August Iran had transferred hundreds of planes drones to Russia, which had used them to “kill civilians and illegally attack civilian infrastructure” in Ukraine.
Iran denies supplying the drones to Moscow and Russia has said its forces have not used Iranian drones to attack Ukraine.
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