State electricity operator Ukrenergo on Saturday announced blackouts in Kyiv and seven other regions of Ukraine after Russia’s devastating strikes on energy infrastructure.

Russian forces continue to pound Ukrainian cities and villages with missiles and drones, inflicting damage to power plants, water supplies, and other civilian targets, in a grinding invasion that is nearing its nine-month mark.

Russia denies that the drones it has used in Ukraine were obtained from Iran, but the Islamic Republic for the first time acknowledged sending Moscow a limited number of drones before the invasion.

While Hossein Amirabdollahian claimed that Iran was surprised that its drones were used to strike against Ukraine, he also stated that Iran would continue to stop the conflict.

Ukrenergo, the sole operator of Ukraine’s high-voltage transmission lines, originally said that planned power outages would take place in the capital and the greater Kyiv region, as well as several other areas of the country.

The company said in a statement that they are confident they can resolve the issue, but will be monitoring the situation to make sure the outages don’t last longer than originally planned.

Ukraine has been dealing with massive power outages and disruptions of its water supplies since Russia unleashed massive barrages of missile and drone strikes against the country’s energy infrastructure last month.

Moscow has announced that new missiles are being prepared for its forces. They say they were in response to what it says were Ukrainian attacks on Crimea.

Ukraine has denied those allegations. The shelling by Russia of Ukrainian regions continued into the early hours of Saturday, but there were no reported casualties.

About 40 shells were fired overnight at the city of Nikopol, Donetsk Gov.

Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram. The Russian forces targeted the city and the areas around it with heavy artillery.

There have been two small-scale fires in the village and more than a dozen residential and utility buildings have been damaged, the official said.

Elsewhere in the region, the Ukrainian army shot down a drone and another projectile.

Overnight shelling of rural areas in the south of Mykolaiv region didn’t result in casualties but caused several houses to be damaged.

Vitaliy Kim said on Twitter.

Russian forces have fired missiles at the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, an area that has been illegally annexed by Russia. Parts of the region remain under Russian occupation.

The attack happened shortly after midnight in Kyiv when three buildings were damaged and a number of cars were also destroyed.

At the time of writing, fighting was still taking place in the eastern Donetsk region, which had been annexed by the Russian army. Eight cities and villages have been shelled, including the towns of Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Porkhovsk.

A Russian-installed authority in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk is reported to have attempted to kill a Moscow-appointed judge of the region’s Supreme Court.

In June, a judicial panel sentenced to death two Britons and Moroccan fighting on the Ukrainian side to fight again. Now one of those two has been shot by Russian snipers.

At least three civilians were killed and eight others were wounded in the last 24 hours by Russian shelling of nine Ukrainian regions, where drones, missiles, heavy artillery, and mortars were used.

Russian forces have been abducting residents in the Kherson region where an offensive is underway by Ukrainian forces. The most recent cases took place in the last 24 hours.