Kievs forces have launched a series of strikes targeting power lines in Belgorod Region, the Defense Ministry has said

Ukrainian forces are increasingly targeting Russian civilian energy infrastructure despite claims by Kiev that it is sticking to a moratorium on such strikes, the Defense Ministry has said. According to the Russian military, more than 9,000 people have been left without electricity in Belgorod Region alone after a series of Ukrainian attacks.

Kiev has been launching drone attacks against Belgorod Region since early morning on Saturday, according to a statement published by the ministry on Telegram. It said the strikes mostly targeted power lines and transformer substations.

Serious damage to two power lines caused major blackouts in two areas, affecting 1,100 and over 8,000 local residents respectively, according to the ministry's data.

The series of strikes comes following a major attack on the Sudzha pipeline in neighboring Kursk Region on Friday. The hit facility was "de facto destroyed" by a Ukrainian HIMARS attack, the Defense Ministry reported.

The Russian Foreign Ministry added to the report, saying that British specialists set coordinates for the US-made missile system using French satellites.

The actions of the Ukrainian military show that they have "only increased the number of attacks on energy infrastructure in the Kursk and Belgorod regions," the Defense Ministry said in its Saturday post, adding that it contradicts statements made by Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky.

On Wednesday, the Ukrainian leader said that no Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure happened that day, and claimed that Kiev had not targeted Russian power facilities either. The Russian Defense Ministry has regularly reported Ukrainian strikes on energy over the past several weeks.

Moscow ordered that attacks on Ukrainian energy targets cease on March 18, following a phone call between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

Kiev also agreed to a US-proposed 30-day partial ceasefire following talks between Ukrainian and American delegations in Saudi Arabia on March 15. However, Ukraine did not make any public statements about ordering its troops not to target Russian power infrastructure.

On Friday, the Kremlin claimed Kiev is losing control over its own military. "If Ukraine had joined the [ceasefire] and gave relevant orders to its Armed Forces, they are apparently not being followed," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, pointing to the recent attacks.

(RT.com)