(Reuters) – The Russian-installed administration in Ukraine’s Kherson region said on Sunday that a number of settlements, including Kherson city had lost water and power supplies after what it said was an act of “sabotage”.
In a statement on Telegram, the Russian-installed Kherson administration said that electricity and water supplies were “temporarily absent” after what it said was a “terrorist attack” damaged three power lines in the region.
It said that the attack had been organised by Ukraine, though it provided no evidence. Reuters was unable to immediately verify battlefield accounts from either side.
Russian state-owned news agency TASS cited emergency services in the region as saying that ten settlements, including Kherson city, which had a pre-war population of 280,000, had been left without electricity.
Russian officials have in recent weeks repeatedly warned civilians to leave Kherson, amid what they say are preparations for a Ukrainian offensive against the city, the only regional capital that Russia has captured since ordering tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by David Goodman/Guy Faulconbridge)