Russian attacks kill four people in Ukraine, leave thousands without power

KYIV - Russian attacks killed four people in southeastern Ukraine and left much of the northern region of Chernihiv without power on March 21, officials said.

Zaporizhzhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said the morning attack on the city killed a man and a woman, and injured six others, including two children.

In the adjacent Dnipropetrovsk region, officials said two people died in an area south-east of the main regional centre, Dnipro. Five people were injured in attacks at multiple places.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his nightly video address, noted Russian strikes in several regions across eastern and southern Ukraine.

He said power had been cut to parts of Chernihiv region, where Governor Viacheslav Chaus said efforts were under way to fix damage after a drone strike on an energy facility.

The region borders Russia and Belarus. The regional capital, also called Chernihiv, was fully without power, the city administration said.

Power and water supplies were cut to parts of the capital Kyiv after what officials described as an incident on the power grid.

Russia has conducted a bombardment campaign against Ukrainian energy facilities throughout the war, causing regular, hours-long blackouts across the country.

Chernihiv was badly hit by power outages over the winter as Russia carried out its biggest bombing campaign of the four-year war against Ukraine’s electricity grid.

Across the Russian border in Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Ukrainian forces shelled a public building in the village of Smorodino, killing four people. Belgorod has come under frequent Ukrainian attack during the war. REUTERS