A massive barrage of Russian cruise missile and drone strikes hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities on Monday morning, knocking out water and power supplies in apparent retaliation for what Moscow alleged was a Ukrainian attack on its Black Sea Fleet.
Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s power plants and other key infrastructure as the war enters its ninth month.
Large parts of Ukraine are already experiencing rolling power cuts as a result.
“The Kremlin is taking revenge for military failures on peaceful people who are left without electricity and heat before the winter,” Kyiv region governor Oleksii Kuleba said.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces carried out “strikes with long-range, high-precision air- and sea-based weapons against the military command and energy systems of Ukraine”.
“The goals of the strikes were achieved. All designated targets were hit,” the ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, 12 ships with grain left Ukrainian ports on Monday despite a Russian threat to reimpose a blockade that threatened hunger across the world, Ukraine’s Ministry of Infrastructure said.
One vessel carried Ukrainian wheat to Ethiopia, where a severe drought is affecting millions of people.
Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 44 of more than 50 cruise missiles that Russia launched.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russian missiles and drones hit 10 Ukrainian regions and damaged 18 sites, mostly energy facilities.
Hundreds of localities in seven Ukrainian regions were left without power, he said in a Facebook post, adding that “the consequences could have been much worse” if the Ukrainian forces had not shot down most of the Russian missiles.
Thirteen people were wounded as a result of the morning attacks, the head of National Police, Ihor Klymenko, said on national television.
Loud explosions were heard across the Ukrainian capital as residents prepared to go to work. The emergency services sent out text messages warning about the threat of a missile attack, and air raid sirens wailed for three hours during the morning commute.
Prime Minister Shmyhal said that in the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions, emergency power shutdowns were under way.
“Today, just like in previous weeks, it is important that Ukrainians consume energy mindfully and reduce the load on the grid,” the official said.
In the eastern city of Kharkiv, two strikes hit critical infrastructure facilities, according to authorities.
Critical infrastructure sites were also hit in the Cherkasy region southeast of Kyiv.
In the Kirovohrad region of central Ukraine, an energy facility was hit, according to local authorities.
In Vinnytsia, remnants of a missile that was shot down landed on civilian buildings, resulting in damage but no casualties, according to regional governor Serhii Borzov.
Power was cut to parts of Ukraine’s train network, the Ukrainian Railways reported.
The attacks come two days after Russia accused Ukraine of a drone strike against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet off the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Ukraine has denied the attack, saying that Russia mishandled its own weapons, but Moscow still announced it was retaliating by halting its participation in a UN and Turkey-brokered deal to allow safe passage of ships carrying grain from Ukraine.
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar urged his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, in a phone call on Monday to “reconsider” Moscow’s suspension of its participation in the grain deal, which has allowed more than nine million tons of grain to be exported from Ukraine.
According to a statement, Mr Akar hailed the deal as an example of how problems can be solved through “co-operation and dialogue” and argued it is a “completely humanitarian activity” that should be kept separate from the conflict.
Monday’s strikes were the third time this month that Russia unleashed massive attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure.
On October 10, a similar attack rocked the war-torn country following an explosion on the Kerch Bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia — an incident Moscow blamed on Kyiv.
One of the Russian missiles Ukraine shot down landed on a Moldovan border city, causing damage but no casualties.
Moldova’s interior ministry released photos showing a thick plume of smoke rising over the northern city of Naslavcea, on the border with Ukraine, as well as broken house windows.
In another development, Russia’s Defence Ministry on Monday reported completing a partial mobilisation of troops, ostensibly fulfiling a promise to end the call-up at 300,000 men. Some human rights lawyers, however, warned that only Vladimir Putin can end the call-up by signing a decree.
Discover more from London Glossy Post
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
