Heatwave and drone strikes disrupt power for 600,000 in southern Russia

In many southern regions of Russia, there is no power. According to the latest data provided by the Russian daily "Kommersant," nearly 600,000 people are cut off from electricity supplies. The Ministry of Energy claims that this is the result of "abnormally high temperatures."

Southern Russia has been hit by a heatwave. According to weather.com, for example, the temperature in Rostov-on-Don was 38°C on Tuesday. The Ministry of Energy believes this is the "main cause" of power outages and production shortages.

According to official data released by the ministry, 324,000 people are without power in the Rostov region, 181,000 in Krasnodar Territory and the Republic of Adygea, and 94,300 in Astrakhan region. In total, this is just under 600,000 Russians.

"Kommersant" notes that a schedule of temporary power outages was introduced in the southern regions of the country on July 8. "In conditions of high demand, wholesale electricity prices in the south are rising twice as fast as in the entire European part of the country," the daily writes.

In its statement, the ministry did not specify what is causing the production shortages. However, "Rzeczpospolita" reported last week that Ukrainian drones are increasingly accurately attacking and destroying power plants, transformer stations, and power grids in southern Russia.

The daily recalled that Russian local authorities warned citizens about power outages. They indicated that this was a consequence of "external influence" or "technological disruptions." They remained silent, however, about the nighttime attack by Ukrainian drones on power plants.

The shortages in supplies have caused widespread problems. The lack of traffic lights has resulted in traffic chaos in cities, and in the heat, there is also a lack of water from taps due to problems with pressure in the water supply system.