Ukrainian strikes cause major blackout – Russian governor

Kiev’s forces have attacked a substation in Kursk Region with drones, Aleksandr Khinshtein has said

Ukrainian forces have left tens of thousands of people without electricity in a drone strike targeting a substation in Russia’s border Kursk Region, Governor Aleksandr Khinshtein has said.

Kiev’s troops “are continuing to attack civilian infrastructure,” he said in a Telegram post on Sunday. According to Khinshtein, the strike targeted an electricity substation with a capacity of 110 kilowatts in the western Rylsk district.

The Rylsk district had a population of around 30,000 as of 2021, according to government data. The strike on the substation affected parts of two neighboring districts as well, Khinshtein said. The governor vowed to restore power “as soon as the security situation allows.”

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Kiev has significantly intensified its drone raids on civilian infrastructure in Moscow and other Russian regions since mid-May, when the first meeting between negotiators from Russia and Ukraine took place in Istanbul. The attacks peaked during the final week of May, when 2,300 UAVs were shot down, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has described the raids as attempts to derail the peace process.

Last week, two bridges collapsed in Russia’s border regions. In one case, a bridge fell in front of a moving passenger train in Bryansk Region. The second incident took place in Kursk Region, when a railway bridge collapsed under a moving freight train. In total, seven people died and 113 were injured.

Moscow deemed both cases deliberate acts of sabotage. The Russian Investigative Committee stated that they were terrorist attacks planned by Ukraine to cause maximum civilian casualties. Both attacks came shortly before the second round of Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul.