Ukraine war: Kyiv water supply restored but blackouts remain

KYIV: The authorities in Kyiv say water and power supplies have been restored, a day after a wave of Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital’s infrastructure.

Announcing the resumption of services, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko on Tuesday said scheduled partial blackouts would continue, to manage electricity demand.

The latest strikes followed an attack on Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Crimea.

They appear to be part of a strategy to damage Ukraine’s infrastructure in the run-up to winter.

Power and water supplies across Ukraine were badly affected after Russia launched dozens of missiles targeting critical facilities on Monday.

Mr Klitschko said at one point, 80% of the capital city had been without water, and hundreds of thousands of homes without electricity.

Queues were seen across the city, with residents desperate to collect water from pumps.

Strikes were also recorded in the second city Kharkiv, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia in the south-east, central Vinnytsia and in the western Lviv region. However, Ukraine’s military said it had shot down 44 cruise missiles.

But in a post on social media on Tuesday, Mr Klitschko said water supply in Kyiv had been “fully restored” by emergency teams.

Electricity was also restored, he said, adding that planned blackouts would take place “because of the shortage in the energy system”.

As well as the power cuts, people have been urged to use as little power as possible, especially between 06:00 and 11:00 and 17:00 and 23:00. Restaurants, shops and other businesses face restrictions on external lighting.

In his post, Mr Klitschko said that from Wednesday, conventional buses would operate on all trolleybus routes, which run on electricity.

The city would set up 1,000 heating points to help keep residents warm during the winter, he added.

Thirteen people were injured in Monday’s attacks nationwide, Ukraine said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the strikes had been partly in response to a drone attack on its Black Sea fleet in annexed Crimea on Saturday.

The Kyiv government says Russia’s strikes on its infrastructure are a response to its military defeats as the Ukrainian army takes back territory in a successful counter-offensive.

In other developments on Tuesday:

• The UN says three more vessels left Ukrainian ports despite a Russian decision to suspend its backing of the Black Sea grain export deal. On Monday, 12 ships sailed from Ukraine
• The Russian-backed administration in the southern region of Kherson says up to 70,000 people are to be “evacuated” from the eastern bank of the River Dnipro, as Ukraine continue its counter-offensive
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on the phone to France’s Emmanuel Macron and thanked him for helping “restore the destroyed energy infrastructure”

-BBC