UPDATE - Ukraine says energy facilities in Sumy region targeted during overnight Russian airstrike

UPDATES WITH STATEMENTS BY RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY & LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN UKRAINE

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Ukraine said early Tuesday that energy facilities in the country’s northeastern Sumy region were targeted during an overnight Russian airstrike.

“On the night of August 20, the enemy (Russia) launched a rocket attack on the energy facilities of the Hlukhiv community,” said a statement by the Sumy Regional Military Administration on Telegram.

The statement said 72 settlements and more than 18,500 people were left without electricity due to the attack, indicating that emergency and recovery works are currently underway.

It further said that electricity has already been restored to some of the critical infrastructure of Hlukhiv, which is located about 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) from the Russian border.

The regional military administration also said in an earlier statement that Sumy's border areas and settlements were shelled overnight and in the morning, adding that one person was injured in the region over the past 24 hours.​​​​​​​

Mykola Oleshchuk, the commander of Ukraine’s Air Force, claimed on Telegram that the country’s air defenses downed three missiles and 25 attack drones during an overnight Russian airstrike.

Oleshchuk went on to say that the missiles and drones launched were downed over the Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Sumy, and Chernihiv regions.

Local authorities in the aforementioned regions, including the capital Kyiv, did not report any casualties in their respective areas.

Ruslan Kravchenko, the governor of the Kyiv region, said on Telegram that four private homes and a commercial building were damaged due to fragments from the downed drones.

Meanwhile, the Ternopil Regional Military Administration urged the western region's residents to stay in their homes after a fire broke at an industrial facility in the region's administrative capital following an overnight air attack. Local authorities reported no casualties due to the attack.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed in a later statement that its forces blew up a command post and weapons depot near Hlukhiv overnight.