KYIV: Volleys of Russian missiles struck targets across Ukraine early on Thursday, including Kyiv, the Black Sea port of Odesa and the second city of Kharkiv, knocking out power to several areas, regional officials said. Around 40% of the capital’s consumers are currently without heating.
A source said that missiles hit an energy facility in the port city, cutting power. Residential areas were also hit. Rescue operations began in Kyiv. So far two people are said to have been injured.
Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Synehubov said the city and region had been hit by 15 strikes, with targets including infrastructure.
The attacks struck a wide arc of targets, including cities stretching from Zhytomyr, Vynnytsia and Rivne in the west to Dnipro and Poltava in central Ukraine.
The strikes cut Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant off from the power grid, the company Enerhoatom announced on Thursday morning. “Today, the last line of communication between the occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP and the Ukrainian power system has been cut off. Fuel for operation remains for 10 days,” the company said in a statement. In August last year fires caused by shelling cut the last remaining power line to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, temporarily disconnecting it from Ukraine’s National Grid for the first time in nearly 40 years of operation. Then, it took two weeks for power to be restored to the plant.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military said it managed to push back intense Russian attacks on the city of Bakhmut despite a Russian claim of control over its eastern half and the NATO chief’s warning that the city could fall in the next few days.
As one of the bloodiest battles of the year-long war ground on amid the ruins, Ukrainian defenders – who last week appeared to be preparing for a tactical retreat from Bakhmut – remained defiant on Wednesday.