Russia has introduced a large wave of missile strikes into Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said Friday, forcing civilians to seek shelter and cutting off electricity, water and critical infrastructure as Moscow prepares for a primary offensive in the new year.
Russia “massively attacked” Ukraine with missile moves on Friday, the governor of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration, Oleksiy Kuleba, said on Telegram.
The moves reportedly affected parts of the country, adding Kyiv, Odessa and Kharkiv, and appear to have targeted energy services and other critical infrastructure.
The salvo reportedly triggered power cuts across the country, adding Kyiv and Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, where temperatures have fluctuated at or below freezing, believed to be absolutely electricity.
Nine Ukrainian force facilities were breached by the strikes, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said, and Ukraine’s national corporate force said more than a portion of consumers were affected by the strikes, according to Al Jazeera and the BBC.
Officials and media reported explosions in the capital, Kyiv, and Mayor Vitaly Kitschko said water supplies had been cut off in all parts of the city and urged citizens to obtain them.
It is not yet known how many others were killed or wounded in the attack, two other people were killed and at least five wounded in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on social media, claiming that a Russian missile hit a residence.
Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s electrical installations since October after suffering a series of crushing army defeats. Human rights teams in Kyiv and its Western allies say planned attacks on civilian electrical installations amount to war crimes. The resulting blackouts left much of the country without heat, electricity. energy or water as Ukraine’s harsh winter approaches. Ukrainian General Valery Zaluzhny told The Economist that this could happen in January.
Putin is scheduled to travel to Minsk and meet Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday, the Kremlin said Friday. The possibility of Belarus going to war against Russia has been an active factor throughout the war. It helped Moscow in its war effort, as well as allowing it to use its territory to organize the invasion of Ukraine in February, but resisted pressure to sign up for the war more formally.
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