Russian missiles continue hitting Ukraine’s power, water facilities

Russia military forces continued airstrikes against Ukraine on Tuesday, bombing the country’s energy and infrastructure facilities as part of aggressive efforts to weaken Ukraine as winter looms.

Zhytomyr, a Ukrainian city with military bases, had no working electricity or water after a double missile strike hit an energy facility. According to Mayor Serhiy Sukhomlyn, local hospitals were forced to operate on backup power.

An energy facility in Kyiv was also hit by Russian drones, along with another facility in the south-central city of Dnipro. 

Russia’s aggressive use of so-called “kamikaze drones” have been used to targeted Ukraine’s vital energy infrastructure and urban centers. In the past week, more than 100 “suicide drones” have slammed into Ukraine’s power plants, sewage treatment plant  and other targets, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry.

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The Shahed-136 drones, which are manufactured in Iran, are called “kamikaze drones” or “suicide drones” because they crash into buildings and explode. 

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Suicide drones recently caused a fire at an infrastructure facility in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, according to the area’s governor.

The use of Shahed-136 drones ramped up after Vladimir Putin’s annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in September, which escalated the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Strikes in central Kyiv were rare occurrences before Putin’s widely-denounced annexation of the Ukrainian territories. Putin’s actions against Ukraine have been staunchly disavowed by Western leaders. 
The Associated Press contributed to this report.