By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) – Russian forces destroyed critical energy infrastructure before retreating from the Kherson region last week, according to the head of Ukraine’s national energy company.
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, chief of Ukrenergo, said Russian troops “practically destroyed” an energy facility that supplies power to “the entire right bank of the Kherson region and a large part of the Mykolaiv region.”
“It no longer exists. Two autotransformers, each weighing 250 tons, were blown up,” he said in a Facebook post on Monday.
Kudrytskyi said Ukrenergo is “doing everything possible” to restore power to Kherson, adding that the region has been without electricity since Nov. 6.
He said Ukraine has handed over a list of necessary equipment to foreign partners, with Poland and France having responded to the requests.
The Ukrainian military entered Kherson last Friday after Russia’s withdrawal from the region, a retreat that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and leaders of several Western countries have hailed as a major victory.