Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says most regions are without power in freezing temperatures following a barrage of Russian missile attacks all over the country. "As of this evening, there are power outages in most regions of Ukraine," he said.
ADVERTISEMENTRussian missiles hit Ukraine Thursday in the biggest wave of strikes in weeks, damaging power stations and other critical infrastructure in the freezing winter weather.
Russia fired 69 missiles at energy facilities and Ukrainian forces shot down 54, Ukraine's military chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi said. Local officials said attacks killed at least two people around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The strikes also wounded at least seven people across the country.
Russia dispatched explosive drones to selected regions overnight before broadening the barrage with air and sea-based missiles, the Ukrainian air force said. Air-raid sirens rang out across the country, and the military activated air-defence systems in Kyiv, the regional administration said.
Ukraine's defence ministry said the attack damaged 18 residential buildings and 10 pieces of critical infrastructure in 10 regions.
Russia has attacked Ukrainian power and water supplies almost weekly since October while its ground forces struggle to hold ground and advance.
In the southeastern Kyiv district of Bortnychi, an explosion flattened at least one house and broke the doors, roofs and windows of several others nearby.
Yana Denysenko went through the broken glass inside her grandparent's home to collect personal items. Though she does not live there, she came immediately after the explosion and found her wounded mother, sister and 14-year-old niece in ambulances.
Denysenko hugged her tearful grandmother Anhelina, who was at work when the explosion happened.
“I’m scared to see all this, how many mothers are crying?” Anhelina said. “I want my children to recover.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the attacks “senseless barbarism.”
“There can be no ‘neutrality’ in the face of such mass war crimes. Pretending to be ‘neutral’ equals taking Russia’s side,” Kuleba tweeted.
After more than 10 months of fighting, Russia and Ukraine are locked in a grinding battle of attrition. The Ukrainian military has reclaimed swaths of Russian-occupied territory in the country's northeast and south and continues to resist persistent Russian attempts to seize all of the industrial Donbas region in the east.
The Ukrainian military has reported success in shooting down incoming Russian missiles and explosive drones in earlier attacks but many cities have gone without heating, internet and electricity for hours or days at a time.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said a number of energy facilities were damaged during what he said was the 10th such large-scale attack on his country.
“Russia is trying to deprive Ukrainians of light before the New Year,” Shmyhal wrote in a Telegram post. He said that emergency blackouts may be necessary “in some areas.”
About 90% of Lviv was without electricity, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi wrote on Telegram. He stressed that trams and trolleybuses were not working and residents might experience water interruptions.
Most of the southern city of Odesa and nearby areas were left without power, Odesa regional Gov. Maksym Marchenko said in a video statement on Thursday evening. Ukrainian air defence systems shot down 21 Russian missiles, he said, but some hit infrastructure.
Meanwhile, a Telegram channel affiliated with the presidential press service in Belarus said a Ukrainian S-300 air defence missile landed in Belarusian territory early Thursday morning. It said the missile could have veered off course accidentally and there were no casualties.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Belarusian Defence Ministry said later that the missile was downed by the Belarusian air defence over the western Brest region and fell into a field, according to a statement carried by the state Belta news agency.
Belarus’ foreign ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to express “strong protest,” it said, demanding that Ukraine “conduct a thorough investigation” and “hold those responsible to account.”
In response, Ukraine's Defense Ministry said that Kyiv was “ready to conduct an objective investigation” into the incident and to invite “authoritative experts” from abroad to participate in it, with a caveat that these experts should come from countries that do not support Russia.
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