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Nov 4, 2022 - World

Zelensky slams "Russian energy terror" after widespread Ukraine outages

Rebecca Falconer
Families ar a playground during an emergency blackout in the residential district of Troieshchyna on November 1, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Parents with children at a playground during an emergency blackout in the residential district of Troieshchyna in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday. Photo: Yevhenii Zavhorodnii/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said about 4.5 million residents were temporarily without power on Thursday night due to Russian military attacks.

Of note: That number equates to over 10% of Ukraine's pre-war population.

Situation report: The worst affected areas for power outages from the Russian military bombardments were in Kyiv and the regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kirovohrad, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy and Chernihiv, Zelensky said in a televised address.

  • "Blackouts may take place in other regions as well," he said. "To endure Russian energy terror and such a challenge is our national task, one of the main ones now.
  • "The very fact that Russia resorted to terror against the energy industry shows the weakness of the enemy. They cannot defeat Ukraine on the battlefield, and that is why they are trying to break our people in this way."

The big picture: An escalation in Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine since last month has caused rolling blackouts throughout the country and forced officials to ration energy.

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