A storm has left more than two thousand towns and villages in war-torn Ukraine without power Monday, the government said, piling pressure on the country’s fragile power grid.
The energy infrastructure has been targeted systematically by Russian forces and Kyiv has warned that Moscow is preparing fresh strikes on key facilities this winter.
“In total, 2,019 settlements in 16 regions are cut off from the grid,” the interior ministry said.
In the southern city of Odesa, which has been subjected to repeated Russian strikes, authorities said they had helped 1,624 people who had been trapped due to snow.
Regional authorities said the temperature had fallen to below freezing with reports of gusts of up to 72 kilometres (44 miles) per hour.
Ukraine’s largest private energy provider, DTEK, said early on Monday that it had been able to restore power to nearly 250 settlements.
On Sunday, the mayor of the Black Sea port of Odesa urged residents to stay at home, and authorities warned that water supplies were being interrupted by power cuts that stopped pumps from working.
Ukraine’s border service also said on Sunday that Moldova had temporarily suspended vehicle access to its territory from two crossing points in the Odesa region.