KIEV, Sept 19 (Askume) – The Russian military carried out a series of air strikes on a senior citizens centre and its energy sector in the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Thursday, killing at least one civilian, Ukrainian officials revealed.
UN regulators said the attack on the grid may have violated humanitarian law, while the International Energy Agency said in a report that Ukraine’s power supply shortfall was about a third of expected peak demand during the crucial winter months.
The northern city of Sumy was attacked during broad daylight when a Russian-guided bomb hit a five-story building housing about 211 elderly people, regional and military officials said.
The Interior Ministry said on Telegram that one person was killed and 12 injured in the attack. Rescuers helped people with disabilities to leave the scene.
Photos from the scene shared in the post showed elderly patients evacuated from the damaged building lying on carpets and blankets on the ground, waiting to be moved to a new location.
Overnight, the Ukrainian air force said it had shot down all 42 drones and four missiles launched by Russia in the war that has lasted more than two and a half years since Russia launched a full-scale invasion .
The Russian military carried out several attacks on energy systems in the Sumy region this week, cutting power supplies to some areas and forcing authorities to use backup power systems.
Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said power cuts were caused by air strikes and technical reasons in 10 regions.
In a sign of its concerns, the EU said a fuel-fired power plant in Lithuania was being dismantled and rebuilt in Ukraine and would increase electricity exports.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said Russian attacks on the energy grid threaten water supply, sewage and sanitation, heating and hot water systems, public health, education and the broader economy.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that a number of aspects of Ukraine’s military operations to damage or destroy civilian power, heating and transmission infrastructure violate fundamental principles of international humanitarian law,” the report says .
Kiev says targeting its energy system is a war crime and the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for four Russian officials and military officers for bombing civilian energy infrastructure.
Moscow says the power infrastructure is a legitimate military target and dismisses the allegations against its officers as irrelevant.
Frequent attacks
Moscow has repeatedly attacked the Sumy region, bordering Russia’s Kursk region, which is Ukraine’s main offensive area. Kiev claims it has seized more than 100 settlements in the region.
Three people were killed near Krasnopillia in the Sumy region in shelling late Wednesday, local prosecutors said, and a medical facility was damaged and two people were injured by shelling during the day on Thursday. Later that day, Russian forces launched another attack using bombs.
A senior Russian commander said on Thursday that Russia had captured two more villages in Kursk . He told reporters that Russian troops were also advancing in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian air force said Ukrainian air defence forces struck nine regions of Ukraine overnight, and the governor of central Dnipropetrovsk said a missile was shot down in his region.
The governor of the Kupyansk region, northeast of Kharkiv, said six people were injured and several buildings, including a school and a kindergarten, were damaged.
An educational institution in the Cherkasy region was also reported to have been damaged.
