Ukraine's Russian-occupied city of Kherson and a number of settlements in the Kherson region have been cut off from water and electricity supplies after an air strike, a local official and Kherson city's Russian-installed administration said on November 6.
"About 10 settlements in the region were left without electricity and, as a result, without water. Including all of Kherson," Yuriy Sobolevskiy, deputy chairman of the Kherson Regional Council, said on Telegram.
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Sobolevskiy said a high-voltage electrical transmission line was damaged. The Russian "occupiers" reported the attack, he said, but they "did not specify that the terrorist attack was carried out by them."
The city's Moscow-installed administration said on Telegram that there was "temporarily no electricity or water supply" in Kherson and a number of other areas in the region. TASS cited emergency services in the region as saying that 10 settlements, including Kherson city, were affected.
The Russian-installed administration said the outages were the result of an attack by the Ukrainian side on a highway that damaged three concrete poles of high-voltage power lines.
Energy specialists were working to resolve the issue, the Russian-backed authorities said as they called on people to "remain calm."
Russian officials last month began warning civilians to leave Kherson -- both the city and the region -- ahead of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Kherson city lies on the western bank of the Dnieper River and has been cut off from supplies and food by Ukrainian bombardment. Russian forces last week were continuing what they said was an evacuation. Ukrainian officials have likened the departures to Soviet-style deportations, though it’s unclear to what extent the departures have been forced.
News of the outages in Kherson followed claims that the dam at the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant was damaged by a Ukrainian strike. Russian news agencies quoted local emergency services as saying U.S.-supplied HIMARS rockets hit the dam. The report said Russian air defense units shot down five of six missiles fired at the dam. The one that was not shot down hit a lock, damaging it.
The RIA Novosti news agency quoted a local Moscow-backed official saying the damage was not "critical." The reports could not be independently verified.
Russian forces have for weeks rained missiles and drones onto Ukraine's infrastructure ahead of an anticipated Ukrainian ground counteroffensive. Russian strikes over the past month have destroyed around a third of Ukraine's power stations, and the government has urged Ukrainians to conserve electricity as much as possible.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak accused Russia on November 6 of wanting to carry out "energy genocide" against Ukraine, but he said the Ukrainian authorities have a clear plan to counter this.
"Let's be honest: Russia is trying to commit ‘energy genocide,’ but Kyiv and Ukraine will stand,"Podolyak said on November 6 on Twitter.
Ukraine will counter the "energy genocide" by deploying air defense systems, protecting infrastructure facilities, and optimizing electricity consumption, he said.
"The state is effectively overcoming these challenges. We are working on solutions together with our partners," Podolyak said.
Ukraine's national grid operator said November 5 that it would increase rolling blackouts in Kyiv and seven other regions after severe damage to the grid by Russian air strikes. The announcement comes as the weather turns colder and electricity consumption rises.