Officials reported on Saturday that electricity was cut off to all non-essential infrastructure facilities in the coastal city of Odessa in southern Ukraine after Russia launched drones to strike two energy facilities, causing a power outage for 1.5 million people.

In a video clip during the night, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated: "The situation in the Odessa region is very difficult. Unfortunately, the strikes were strong, so it takes more than just time to restore electricity ... It does not take hours, but a few days, unfortunately."

It is also noted that since October, Moscow has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with a series of missile and drone strikes.

On his part, Zelensky said that Norway sent $100 million to help repair the power grid in Ukraine.

Also, Serhiy Bratchuk, the spokesperson for the Odessa regional administration, stated that electricity will return to the city residents "in the coming days" while the full repair of the networks may take between two to three months.

In the same context, Bratchuk said that Ukrainian security services are investigating a previous post on Facebook by the regional administration, in which some people were advised to consider evacuation as a part of the war being waged by Russia. This post was later deleted. Bratchuk also said: "No representative of the authorities in the region has issued any calls to evacuate the residents of Odessa and the region."

The population of Odessa, the largest coastal city in Ukraine, was over one million before the Russian invasion on February 24.

According to Kyiv, Russia launched hundreds of Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones at targets in Ukraine, describing the attacks as war crimes due to their devastating impact on civilians’ lives, but Moscow said the attacks are militarily legitimate.

Additionally, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones hit two energy facilities in the Odessa region.