Russia-Ukraine War: G7 and Allies Fail to Agree on Price Cap for Russian Oil
KYIV, Ukraine — A barrage of Russian missiles hit Ukraine on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people and leaving Kyiv and other cities without power, in what appeared to be one of the most damaging attacks in weeks.
The strikes sent plumes of smoke into the skies in Kyiv as Ukrainian air defense systems worked to shoot down incoming missiles.
Power was cut off in several cities and in the neighboring country of Moldova, whose power system remains entwined with Ukraine’s. Three nuclear power plants in Ukraine were forced to shut down, and about half the country’s train service was suffering delays, the authorities said.
“We have confirmation of hits on critical infrastructure facilities in several regions,” the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said in a statement.
Mr. Tymoshenko said later in an post on Facebook that at least 10 people had been killed in the missile strikes and other bombardments across the country, including a 2-day-old baby who died when a maternity hospital in Zaporizhzhia was hit.
The Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia launched about 70 cruise missiles from warplanes and from two boats in the Black Sea, and that Ukrainian air defenses shot down 51. Five unmanned attack drones were also shot down in southern Ukraine, the air force said.
From Lviv in the west to Kharkiv in the northeast, officials reported interruptions to electricity, water and other key services. Moldova was also experiencing “massive power outages across the country,” its infrastructure minister, Andrei Spinu, wrote on Facebook. Moldova’s Soviet-era electricity systems remain interconnected with those in Ukraine, its western neighbor.
Russia escalated its aerial attacks on Ukraine’s energy system in October after a series of battlefield losses, trying to plunge the country into darkness and cold just as winter approaches.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy said that, as a result of Wednesday’s attacks, “the vast majority of electricity consumers across the country were cut off.”
Some districts in the capital were without power, and “water supply has been suspended throughout Kyiv,” the mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said on Telegram. He said that three people had been killed, including a 17-year-old girl, and advised people to stay in shelters.
Ukrainian authorities disconnected three nuclear power plants from the country’s grid because of disruptions in the power supply, the state nuclear energy company, Energoatom, said on Telegram on Wednesday. The company said that radiation levels at the plants — in Rivne, Khmelnytsk and southern Ukraine — remained normal, and that the plants were able to use internal energy supplies.
For many Ukrainians, the latest wave of attacks disrupted daily life, which had already taken on a new rhythm since Russia’s full-scale invasion began.
In the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, subway service was halted and people were being evacuated from underground trains after power went out, said the mayor, Ihor Terekhov.
In the central city of Dnipro, traffic lights went dark and buses stopped after explosions were heard near the city at around 2:30 p.m. local time. An hour before that, at least one cruise missile was seen flying north of the city.
The barrage sent crowds into a neighborhood supermarket, whose generator made it a rare point of light in a city plunged into darkness.
But the crowds of people in the store, many buying water and bread, seemed to suggest that some citizens of Dnipro were preparing for a long stint without electricity.
“Usually power outages last two or three hours here,” one man, a construction worker who gave only his first name Oleg, said. “I think the power will be restored by morning, people need to cook.”
Marc Santora reported from Kyiv, Thomas Gibbons-Neff from Dnipro, Ukraine, and Matthew Mpoke Bigg from London.
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