The attack began in the early hours of Thursday morning, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Russian missiles struck the capital Kyiv, the second-largest city Kharkiv in the northeast and the Black Sea port of Odesa in the southwest, among other cities, according to officials.
The strikes knocked out power supply to several areas, and the targets included the cities of Zhytomyr and Vynnytsia in the west as well as Dnipro and Poltava in central Ukraine, Britain’s The Guardian newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, Europe’s biggest, had to rely on back-up generators after Russian missiles damaged Ukrainian infrastructure that had been delivering electricity to the facility, the Reuters news agency reported, citing Ukraine’s state power company Energoatom.
In all, Russia fired 81 missiles at targets in Ukraine during Thursday’s barrage, according to news outlets.
Five killed in Lviv region
According to Ukraine’s state broadcaster Suspilne, in Kyiv, the air-raid alarm lasted for about seven hours and “two people were hospitalised due to falling rocket fragments.”
Meanwhile, five people were killed in the Zolochiv district of the western Lviv province after a rocket hit a residential area, Suspilne reported, as quoted by The Guardian.
One person was killed and two others injured in the central Dnipropetrovsk region where Russia damaged energy infrastructure and industrial enterprises, according to officials.
Moreover, Kharkiv and the surrounding region suffered some 15 strikes, which injured two people and targeted critical infrastructure. Kharkiv’s metro and electric transport were not working, Suspilne reported.
Russian missiles also hit energy infrastructure in the western Zhytomyr province, the Odesa region in the southwest, and the central Kirovohrad province, officials said.
During the night, the Ukrainian government applied electricity restrictions around the country to limit risks to the system. In regions where infrastructure was hit, emergency power outages have been introduced, with the Kharkiv and Zhytomyr regions “partially de-energized” and the city of Kharkiv “completely without electricity,” Suspilne also said, as quoted by The Guardian.
‘Attacks on critical infrastructure and residential building’: Zelensky
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky took to the Telegram social messaging app to condemn Thursday’s attack, the Ukrainska Pravda website reported.
Zelensky said: “It’s been a difficult night. A massive rocket attack across the country. Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia regions. Attacks on critical infrastructure and residential buildings.”
He added: “Unfortunately, there are injured and dead. My condolences to the families.”
The Ukrainian president assured his compatriots that “all services" were working and that the energy system was "being restored.”
'They won’t avoid responsibility for everything they have done'
Zelensky said: “The enemy fired 81 missiles in an attempt to intimidate Ukrainians again, returning to their miserable tactics. The occupiers can only terrorise civilians. That’s all they can do. But it won’t help them. They won’t avoid responsibility for everything they have done.”
Zelensky thanked “the guardians of our skies and everyone who helps to overcome the consequences of the occupiers’ sneaking attacks.”
Thursday is day 379 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, Reuters, The Guardian, Ukrainska Pravda