A Russian bombardment of energy infrastructure cut power to hundreds of thousands of people in northern Ukraine’s Chernihiv region on Tuesday, with repairs unable to start due to the lingering threat of drone strikes, Ukraine’s energy ministry said.

It said that the regional capital, which had a pre-war population of about 280,000, and the northern part of the region had totally lost power.

Chernihiv has been hammered by Russian drone and missile attacks on its power infrastructure in recent weeks, causing regular blackouts and disrupting daily life.

“Emergency crews in Chernihiv region are unable to begin work on restoring power supply due to continuous attacks by Russian drones,” the ministry said in a statement on Telegram.

It accused Russia of launching drones to circle above damaged facilities to make it impossible to carry out repairs and “deliberately prolong the humanitarian crisis”.

Chernihiv’s acting mayor Oleksandr Lomako said Moscow was seeking to deprive local residents of power and heat ahead of the cold winter.

SOURCE:- Reuters and agencies