Russia launches massive wave of missile attacks across Ukraine

Kyiv:

Russia launched a massive wave of missile attacks across Ukraine while people were sleeping on Thursday, killing at least six civilians, knocking out electricity and forcing a nuclear power plant off the grid.

The first major flurry of missile attacks since mid-February broke the longest period of comparative calm since Moscow launched a campaign to attack Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure five months ago. President Volodymyr Zelensky said infrastructure and residential buildings had been affected in 10 regions.

Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement, “The occupiers can only terrorize civilians. That’s all they can do. But that won’t help them. They won’t absolve them of responsibility for everything they do.”

At least five people were killed in a missile attack that destroyed a village house in the western Lviv region, according to emergency services. Drone footage from the area, some 700 km (440 miles) from any military battlefield, showed a flattened house surrounded by badly damaged buildings.

Another civilian death was reported by missiles in the Central Dnipro region. Three civilians were reported killed separately by artillery in Kherson.

Explosions woke people up in the capital city of Kiev. The seven-hour air raid warning through the night was the longest of the Russian air campaign that began in October.

“I heard a loud bang, very loud,” said 58-year-old Lyudmila. “We quickly got out of bed and saw a car on fire. Then other cars caught fire as well. The glass on the balcony and windows were shattered.” ” A child in her arms.

“It’s very frightening. Very frightening. The child got scared and jumped out of bed,” she said. “How can they do this? How is that possible? They are not humans, I don’t know what to call them. They are scaring children, their mental state will be disturbed.”

Moscow says its campaign to target Ukraine’s infrastructure far from the front is aimed at reducing its fighting capability. Kiev says the airstrikes have no military purpose and are intended to harm and intimidate civilians, a war crime.

Ukrainian officials said Moscow fired six of its Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, an unprecedented number, which Ukraine has no way of shooting down. Russia is believed to have only a few dozen of the missiles, which President Vladimir Putin regularly touts in his speeches as a weapon that NATO has no answer to.

Ukraine said the missiles had shut down the power supply to Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, disconnecting it from the Ukrainian grid.

The plant, which Russia has held since capturing it at the start of the war, is near the front line and both sides have warned in the past of the potential disaster caused by the fighting. Moscow said it was being kept safe on diesel backup power.

“Everything is absolutely normal: the plant’s specialists are working quite professionally, automation has started,” Renat Karcha, an adviser to the CEO of Russian state energy firm RosengAtom, said on state TV channel Rossiya 24.

“There is no threat or danger of a nuclear incident. There is more than enough fuel and, if necessary, it will be supplied to the plant.”

Kiev, the Black Sea port of Odessa and the second-largest city of Kharkiv were all targets, officials said, as the missiles struck a wide arc of targets stretching from Zhytomyr, Vinnitsa and Rivne in the west to Dnipro and Poltava in central Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, a Kinzal-type missile hit an infrastructure object,” said Serhiy Popko, head of the Kiev region’s military administration.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported an explosion in the southwestern part of the capital. He said on Telegram that 40% of consumers in Kiev were without heating due to power outages.

The governor of the Odessa region, Maxim Marchenko, said on a telegram that a massive missile strike hit an energy facility in the city, cutting off power. Residential areas were also hit.

The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Tsinehubov, said there had been 15 attacks in the city and region, including on infrastructure.

Ukraine fights on Bakhmut

On the battlefield, the week has seen a stark change as Ukraine decided to stay and fight in Bakhmut, a small town that bore the brunt of the Russian winter offensive in the bloodiest battle of the war.

Moscow says it is strategically important as a key war objective to secure the surrounding Donbass region. The West says the ruined city has no value and that Russian generals have sacrificed their lives to give Putin his only victory since sending hundreds of thousands of reservists into battle late last year.

Ukraine had appeared likely to withdraw from Bakhmut, but has now signaled a new determination to fight on, with commanders saying they are doing enough damage to Russia’s invasion force to make continued fighting worthwhile.

“The importance of holding Bakhmut continues to grow,” General Alexander Syrsky, commander of Ukraine’s army, said in a statement issued by the military on Thursday.

“Each day of the city’s defense allows us to gain time to prepare reserves and prepare for future offensive operations,” he said. “The enemy loses the most ready and combat-capable part of his army.”

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner private army that led the fighting in Bakhmut, said on Wednesday that his forces controlled the entire town east of the Bakhmut River that runs through it.

About two-thirds of the city is on the west coast. Russian forces are advancing north and south of the city to cut off the Ukrainian garrison, but have not yet succeeded in closing the encirclement.

Moscow, which claims to annex a fifth of Ukraine, says it launched its “special military operation” a year ago to counter security threats from ties to its neighbor to the west. Kiev and the West call it an unprovoked war of aggression to subdue and conquer an independent state.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)