Russian strikes damage buildings near Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant

Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Two buildings near the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant were damaged by Russian forces, the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy said Wednesday.

The Energy Ministry said Russi struck territory near the power plant with the explosion damaging windows in the administrative and laboratory buildings and damaging power lines.

As a result of the damage to the power lines, 1,860 customers in the cities of Slavuta and Netishyn, Khmelnytskyi oblast were left without power, while shelling also knocked out power to nine other settlements leaving customers in the Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv regions without power.

The ministry also said more than a thousand people remain without power in the Kherson region due to the collapse of the Kakhovka dam in June.

"Repair crews are working where the security situation allows," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian air force said 11 Shahed-136/131 drones were shot down Wednesday.

"On the night of Oct. 25, 2023, the Russian occupiers attacked from the south-eastern direction (Primorsko-Akhtarsk-Russia), using 11 Shahed attack UAVs," the Ukrainian air force said in a Telegram post Wednesday.

According to the air force, "fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft missile units, and mobile fire groups were involved in repelling the air attack."

"As a result of combat work, the forces and means of the Air Force, in cooperation with the air defense of the Defense Forces of Ukraine, destroyed all 11 Shahed-136/131s," the air force said.