By Pavel Polityuk
KYIV (Reuters) - Washington said on Thursday it believed Iranian military staff had been deployed in Crimea to provide assistance to Russian forces using Iranian-made drones to attack Ukraine, as the West slapped sanctions on Tehran in response.
The drones have been used to destroy Ukrainian power plants and other utilities in strikes that appear designed to disrupt and demoralise as winter approaches. Ukrainian citizens endured the first scheduled power outages since the war began on Thursday as authorities sought to begin repairs.
"Russian military personnel based in Crimea have been piloting Iranian UAVs and using them to conduct kinetic strikes across Ukraine, including in strikes against Kyiv," State Department spokesman Ned Price told a news briefing, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles.
"We assess that ... Iranian military personnel were on the ground in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations."
Russia's defence and foreign ministries did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tehran has denied the drones are Iranian-made.
European Union members had agreed on new measures against Iran over its supply of drones to Russia, the bloc said, and Britain imposed sanctions on senior military figures and a firm it said were involved in the supply of Iranian drones to Moscow.
"Iran's support for Putin's brutal and illegal war against Ukraine is deplorable," Britain's foreign minister James Cleverly said in a statement.
A White House spokesman said Washington was looking at imposing new sanctions on Tehran over the drones and considering air defence solutions for Ukraine.
BLACKOUTS
People across Ukraine were urged to use less power as the government enforced nationwide curbs on electricity usage between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.
The first such restrictions since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion included blackouts in some areas, and followed a barrage of Russian attacks that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said had struck a third of all power plants.
The northeast region of Sumy went without water as some Kyiv grocery stores reported sales of bottled water picking up in preparation for possible shortages there.
"There is much anger against Russian leaders and Russian people," Mikhaylo Holovnenko, a Kyiv resident, told Reuters.
"But we are ready for outages. We have candles, charged power banks. Ukraine is charged to win."
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday inspected a training ground for mobilised troops and was shown firing shots from a sniper rifle in footage apparently intended to show his personal backing for soldiers heading to fight in Ukraine.
Russia's defence ministry said it was again targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure, a strategy it has stepped up since the appointment this month of Sergei Surovikin - nicknamed "General Armageddon" by the Russian media - as commander of what Moscow calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko told national TV that Russia had carried out more than 300 air strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities since Oct. 10. He said the government was seeking a 20% reduction in energy use as a result.
Kyiv and Kharkiv announced curbs on the use of electric-powered public transport such as trolleybuses and reduced the frequency of trains on the metro.
Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that the power problems would take time to resolve.
"We assume that Russian terror will be directed at energy facilities until, with the help of partners, we are able to shoot down 100% of enemy missiles and drones."
He was due to address a European Union summit later on Thursday.
Leaders of the 27 member states will discuss options for more support to Ukraine, including energy equipment, helping restore power supply and long-term financing to rebuild.
KHERSON ADVANCE
On the ground, the Ukrainian military continued to try to press its advance towards the southern city of Kherson, the only regional capital Russian forces have captured.
The Russian-appointed administration on Wednesday told civilians to leave the city - control of which gives Russia a land route to Crimea, which it seized in 2014, and the mouth of the Dnipro river.
Kherson residents were shown on footage taken by Russian media gathered at the city river port waiting in long queues to board boats to get to the left, eastern bank of the Dnipro River which bisects Ukraine.