A Russian drone strike severely damaged energy infrastructure in the Ukrainian town of Konotop. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is holding talks in Warsaw after a visit to Kyiv.
Russian drones inflicted significant damage on the energy infrastructure of the northern Ukrainian town of Konotop in an overnight attack that injured at least 14 people and cut off electricity to the settlement.
There were 10 explosions during the attack and the power system is in critical condition, according to regional officials.
“At the moment, energy workers are doing everything they can to provide electricity to the hospital and the water supply system,” Mayor Artem Semenikhin said in the early hours of Thursday. The hospital remained open, he added.
Semenikhin said authorities in Konotop had no idea when power would be restored, and that they were planning water supplies on an hourly basis.
Regional prosecutors and local officials said the attack also damaged seven apartment buildings, medical and educational facilities, a store, a bank and a section of the town’s tramway.
Konotop is in the Sumy region, which has been particularly targeted by Russia in recent weeks. Ukraine used Sumy as a staging ground for a surprise incursion across the border into Russia’s Kursk region last month in an attempt to seize the battlefield initiative as Russian forces advance in eastern Ukraine.
The strike on Konotop was part of a broader Russian attack using 64 drones, the Ukrainian air force said. It shot down 44 of them over nine different regions, it added.
