The Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine battled extensive power outages on September 17 after an overnight attack by Russian drones that sent emergency crews and Ukrainian officials scrambling to repair damage and tap into backup facilities for water and other utility infrastructure.
The Sumy regional military administration said households in Sumy, Konotop, Ohktyr, and a handful of other communities were cut off from the electrical grid.
Acting Mayor Artem Kobzar said there were no casualties from the attack but that water pressure plummeted and electricity supplies were experiencing problems.
The Ukrainian Energy Ministry said Russia's attacks had caused a fire at a power substation and cut power to more than 281,000 consumers. Power was later partially restored, it said
Two weeks ago, authorities in Sumy expanded a list of areas for evacuation amid intensified Russian bombardment by drones and missiles.
A spokesman for a northern Ukrainian military unit, Vadym Mysnyk, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that Russia's stepped-up shelling of energy facilities in Sumy appeared to be retaliation for the Ukrainian incursion into Russia's nearby Kursk region.
"It's just a matter of time before they dump it all on us," Mysnyk said. "Either here or in another city. But they'll hit Ukraine using everything they have -- the entire arsenal."
Ukraine's military said early on September 17 that it had downed 34 drones overnight but that 51 had been detected.
Kyiv claims to have gained control of more than 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory since launching its surprise incursion into Russia's southern Kursk region in early August in an effort to gain leverage as Russia's full-scale invasion nears its 32nd month.
The General Staff of Ukraine's military said more than half of the 88 clashes that took place on the front on September 17 took place in the areas around Kurakhiv and Pokrovsk.
Fighting also continued in several other areas, including Lyman, Kupyansk, Kharkiv, Toretsk, Kramatorsk, Orihiv, and the Dnieper, the General Staff said.
A rescuer was killed in Russian shelling of a village in the Pokrovsk area, the State Emergency Service reported. The service also said that Russian forces hit Kharkiv with glide bombs, injuring four rescuers who were extinguishing a fire in a forest when they were hit. Three are in serious condition, the service said.
Russian forces captured the town of Ukrayinsk in the eastern Donetsk region, Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency and a pro-Russian war blogger reported. Russian troops raised their flag on a mine-ventilation shaft on the outskirts of the town, RIA Novosti said, citing an unidentified source in the Russian military.
Blogger Yury Podolyaka said Russian forces had taken the city "almost intact," allowing them to use it as a base for further offensive operations.
There was no immediate comment from the Russian or Ukrainian militaries.
The Ukrainian Navy said it destroyed several supply depots of the Russian armed forces around the port city of Mariupol. They were attacked with missiles and destroyed. Tons of ammunition was blown up in the process, the Ukrainian naval command said.
On September 16, Ukraine invited the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit the territory it has captured in the subsequent six weeks to confirm its adherence to humanitarian law.
The Kremlin called the invites a "provocation" and said it expected the UN and Red Cross to decline them.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was reportedly planning to meet with senior ICRC officials in Moscow on September 17, less than a week after three Red Cross staff members were killed when artillery struck a planned aid distribution site in Donetsk.
Kyiv blamed Russian shelling for the deaths.
