30% of Ukraine's power stations 'destroyed in week'

STORY: A day after Russia launched air strikes in multiple Ukrainian cities at rush hour, the country's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is now saying that 30 percent of Ukraine's power stations have been destroyed in just over a week...

... causing widespread blackouts across the country, in what appears to be a deliberate campaign by Moscow to destroy electricity and water facilities before winter.

That includes new Russian air strikes on Tuesday morning. Smoke was seen on the Kyiv skyline, and explosions in an area where there is a thermal power station.

The mayor reported an attack on what he called "critical infrastructure," although officials have not confirmed if the station was hit.

Strikes have also left the northern city of Zhytomyr, home to 263,000 people, without water and electricity supply.

And according to a Ukrainian presidential aide two explosions rocked an energy facility in Dnipro, a southeastern city of nearly 1 million, causing serious damage.

There are also reports of power facilities being targeted in the northern eastern city of Kharkiv and of an apartment building in the southern Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv being hit.

Zelenskiy has accused Russia of terrorizing and killing civilians with the air attacks.

Moscow denies targeting civilians and using Iranian-made ‘kamikaze’ drones.

Its defense ministry has said it is carrying out attacks on military targets and energy infrastructure across Ukraine using high-precision weapons.

Russia earlier this month named General Sergey Surovikin as overall commander of what Moscow calls its "special operation".

Surovikin served in Syria and Chechnya where Russian forces pounded cities in a scorched earth policy against its foes.

Nicknamed "General Armageddon" by the Russian media because of his alleged toughness, his appointment was followed by the biggest wave of missile strikes against Ukraine since Moscow invaded on Feb. 24.