Early on Friday, a new round of deadly Russian airstrikes struck Ukrainian cities, knocking off water and electricity in the country’s largest cities and adding to the strain on the grid as it grew chilly outside.
The mayor of Kyiv said the metro had stopped running so that residents might seek cover in underground stations after multiple loud explosions were recorded by AFP journalists there.
In the southern city of Kryvyi Rig, the birthplace of President Volodymyr Zelensky, the attacks resulted in the deaths of two individuals and the injuries of numerous others, including children.
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“Another wave of massive Russian attacks on energy infrastructure,” Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on social media, adding that: “There will be emergency power outages.”
The assault is simply the most recent of multiple rounds of attacks that started in October following a string of humiliating losses for Russia on the battlefield in Ukraine.
Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, is without electricity and is close to the Russian border, according to the mayor.
Additionally without power were the key cities of Poltava and Kremenchuk.
While the extent of the damage was being determined, air raid sirens were sounding all over the nation.
Regional officials in Kryvyi Rig reported that a residential building had been struck by rockets.
Water cuts in Kyiv
There were explosions in several central districts of Kyiv, and water supplies were disrupted, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
He said metro services had been suspended so that stations could be used as bomb shelters.
“Due to damage to energy infrastructure, there are interruptions to water supplies in all areas of the capital,” Klitschko said on social media.
“Metro traffic is temporarily stopped on all lines.”
Earlier, Russian shelling in the southern city of Kherson recently recaptured by Ukraine cut power.
Kherson has been subjected to persistent Russian shelling since Moscow’s forces retreated in November.
The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed that a Ukrainian Red Cross volunteer had been killed by the strikes in Kherson and urged that humanitarian “personnel and property” be spared.
Moscow has said the strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure are a response to an explosion on the Kerch bridge connecting the Russian mainland to the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.
The Kremlin has also said Kyiv was ultimately responsible for the humanitarian impact of the strikes for refusing to capitulate to Russian negotiation terms.
The wave of attacks has spurred urgent pleas from Kyiv for greater air defence capabilities from Western allies.
And Ukrainian defence officials have credited newly supplied systems for downing Russian missiles and drones.
Defence officials said this week Ukraine forces had shot down a swarm of more than a dozen Iranian-made attack drones launched at Kyiv.
Separately on Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he will visit Belarus next week for talks with his counterpart and ally Alexander Lukashenko.
Minsk said the pair will hold one-on-one talks as well as wider negotiations with their ministers on “Belarusian-Russian integration”.
