Ukraine Says Downed Nine of 14 Russian Drones Overnight

Ukraine's air force on Saturday said it downed nine out of 14 drones launched by Russia over southern and central regions overnight. 

Kyiv said most of the drones were directed at energy facilities in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, where thousands have been without power since Russian strikes on Friday. 

The outages have mainly affected the main city of Krivyi Rig -- the home town of President Volodymyr Zelensky. 

"Ukraine destroyed nine enemy drones within the Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Mykolaiv and Zhytomyr regions," the air force said, adding that most of the Iranian-made Shahed drones were directed at "energy infrastructure facilities" in the Dnipropetrovsk region.  

Regional head Sergey Lysak said 15,000 people were without electricity in the city after the drone strikes.   

He said fires caused by the strikes affected "two boiler houses" in the city and said "some families were left without water supply".  

He reported "no deaths or injuries" in the strikes but damage to two private houses.   

The head of Kryvyi Rig, Oleksandr Vilkul, said energy companies will "introduce schedules of emergency shutdowns" in the city. 

He said the city's high-speed tram will stop running and that a part of some hospitals will switch to energy generators.   

Ukraine's energy ministry said it was working to restore critical infrastructure.  

Ukraine said Friday that  tens of thousands of people were without power after a barrage of two dozen Russian drones damaged energy infrastructure in the centre of the country.

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The energy provider Ukrenergo said one of its substations in the city of Kryvyi Rih – President Volodymyr Zelensky’s home town – was damaged during the attack.

The air force said Moscow had launched 24 Iranian-designed drones at Ukraine, where a national energy provider said its facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk region were damaged, adding that defence systems had downed 11.

“This led to a power outage for more than 40,000 subscribers,” the head of the region, Sergiy Lysak, said on social media, adding that two mines were without power.

Lysak also said a 37-year-old man was injured by Russian shelling on the village of Pokrovske.

In the northeastern Kharkiv region meanwhile, authorities said around 64 towns and settlements had been left without electricity by Russians shelling.