President’s Office: 4 killed, 9 injured as gale-force winds hit Ukraine.

Gale-force winds hit across Ukraine, knocking down trees, killing four people, and injuring nine others, President's Office Deputy Head Oleksiy Kuleba reported on Oct.

28. The winds, gusting up to 90 kilometers per hour, felled trees and blew debris around the city, damaging power lines. In Kyiv alone, more than 250 trees have been knocked over, according to local authorities.

In the capital and the surrounding region, three people were killed, and seven were injured, while one was killed in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and two were injured in Kharkiv Oblast, Kuleba said. All injured have been hospitalized. The weather also disrupted power in Zhytomyr, Rivne, and Khmelnytskyi oblasts, where over 130,000 people in almost 800 settlements are without electricity, Kuleba reported.

Khmelnytskyi Oblast, located in western Ukraine, was particularly impacted by the storm. As weather conditions are worsening, power outages are expected in more settlements. The weather disrupted power all over Ukraine, affecting over 1,000 communities in 14 oblasts, Ukraine's Energy Ministry reported on Oct.

28. Emergency services were underway nationwide, removing downed trees and repairing damage.

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Surrounded by a pond and a field is a base station, which connects thousands of Ukrainians in the south. A car arrives and three engineers get out. Instead of vacationing with their families, they are going back to work.

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Reporter

Alexander Khrebet is a reporter with the Kyiv Independent. He covers Ukraine's foreign policy, alleged abuse of power in the country's military leadership, and reports on the Russian-occupied territories. Alexander is the European Press Prize 2023 winner, the #AllForJan Award 2023 winner and Ukraine's 2022 National Investigative Journalism Award finalist.

His was published in the Washington Times and Atlantic Council.