Air-raid alerts were called throughout Ukraine, with the exception of the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula, Polish state news agency PAP said.
Russia targets Kyiv, Odesa, Khmelnytskyi
Blasts hit energy infrastructure facilities in the Rivne, Kyiv, Odesa, Chernihiv, and Kirovohrad provinces, among others, according to kyivindependent.com website.
Oleksii Kuleba, head of the Kyiv Regional Military Аdministration, said that air defence was working in the province, and urged residents to stay in shelters, PAP reported.
Problems were reported with the electricity and water supply, according to officials.
Meanwhile, explosions also rocked the western city of Khmelnytskyi, leaving it without electricity and possibly also water, the Ukrainska Pravda website reported.
"Khmelnytskyi residents - the city has a blackout. We ask you to stock up on water because it too will disappear in an hour," the city council said on Telegram, as cited by Ukrainska Pravda.
Russian strikes cut off electricity, water supply
Oleksandr Tretiak, mayor of the western Rivne City, said that a critical infrastructure site was hit and residents of the surrounding areas were evacuated from their homes, adding that no casualties have been reported yet, according to kyivindependent.com.
Ihor Polishchuk, mayor of Lutsk, the capital of the western Volyn Oblast, said that a Russian strike had hit an energy facility in the city, cutting off part of Lutsk from electricity. He added that a residential building was also damaged in the attack, and a civilian injured, as cited by kyivindependent.com.
Russian forces also shelled the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, including the city of Nikopol, where a barrage from multiple-launch rocket systems and heavy artillery damaged more than 20 houses and a few gas pipelines, regional officials said.
Russia’s latest strikes also shut down water supply in many of the targeted areas, kyivindependent.com reported.
Russian strikes have destroyed 30 percent of Ukrainian power stations: Zelensky
Since October 10, Russia has stepped up attacks on civilian facilities and critical infrastructure across Ukraine with air, missile, and “kamikaze” drone strikes, news outlets reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on Tuesday that Russian strikes had destroyed 30 percent of his country's power stations since October 10.
Russia prepares Kherson City for street battles
Meanwhile, a large part of the population left the Russian-occupied city of Kherson in southern Ukraine, the General Staff in Kyiv reported on Saturday.
Ukraine’s military command added in a Facebook post: “The russian occupiers, who remained in the city, change into civilian clothes and move into the abandoned apartments.”
“The enemy is preparing Kherson for street battles,” Ukraine’s General Staff said.
The Institute for the Study of War described the exodus of residents from Kherson City and the west bank of the Dnipro river as “mass forced removal of civilians” by Russian occupation authorities, “under the guise of civilian ‘evacuations.’”
It comes as Russian forces have begun a general withdrawal from the occupied Kherson province, in anticipation of a Ukrainian counter-offensive to liberate Kherson City and the region, the Washington-based think tank said in its latest report on the war in Ukraine, published on Friday night.
Saturday is day 241 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Source: PAP, facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua, pravda.com.ua, kyivindepenent.com, global.espreso.tv, understandingwar.org