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Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Russia's continued strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure have destroyed about 30% of the country's electrical plants since Oct. 10, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday. Zelensky said the attacks have led to "massive blackouts across the country" as officials have moved urgently to repair the damage as winter approaches.
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"According to the investigation, on [Tuesday], the armed forces of the Russian Federation, using means of warfare prohibited by international law, launched a missile attack on an energy supply facility on the left bank of the capital," the Ukrainian prosecutor general office said, according to CNN.
Two people died Tuesday in renewed Kremlin attacks on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv; one was injured. The attacks come after a series of "kamikaze" drone strikes in Kyiv that killed five.
Missiles overnight hit a residential building in Mykolaiv while another strike destroyed the city's flower market, officials said. Ukrainian authorities said power and water supplies were disrupted in the central city of Dnipro, where a large energy facility was destroyed.
Russian shelling was reported in Kharkiv, while more infrastructure facilities were hit in Zaporizhzhia, but there were no reports of injuries.
The British Defense Ministry said that since Oct. 10, Moscow has maintained a heightened tempo of long-range strikes against targets across Ukraine. The Kremlin has used cruise missiles, air defense missiles in a surface-to-surface role.
Iran continued to provide its Shahed-136 drones for attacks, despite Russia and Iran denying that the weapons are being used.
"It is highly likely that a key objective of this strike campaign is to cause widespread damage to Ukraine's energy distribution network," the British defense said on Twitter.
"As Russia has suffered battlefield setbacks since August, it has highly likely gained a greater willingness to strike civilian infrastructure in addition to Ukrainian military targets."
