KYIV – Ukraine worked Saturday to restore power to hospitals, heating systems, and other key infrastructure in major cities, following Russia’s latest wave of power grid strikes, which sparked claims of “war crimes.”
The rocket barrage launched on Friday plunged many cities into darkness, cutting off water and heat and forced people to suffer temperatures below zero.
People clad in winter coats packed into subterranean metro stations in the capital after air raid sirens rang out in the morning, when the mayor estimated only a third of inhabitants had heat or water.
“I woke up and saw a rocket in the sky,” Kyiv resident Lada Korovai, 25, said. “I saw it and realized I needed to go to the tube.”
Ukraine’s national energy company declared an emergency blackout, claiming that its system had lost more than half its capacity due to strikes on “backbone networks and generation facilities.”
Ukrenergo cautioned that the amount of the damage in the country’s north, south, and center would mean it would take longer to restore supplies than in past attacks.
“Priority will be given to vital infrastructure: hospitals, water supply facilities, heat supply facilities, and sewage treatment plants,” Ukrenergo warned Friday.
By the evening, Kharkiv’s second city had restored power to slightly over half of its citizens, with the hope of having a fully operating grid by midnight.
Following a string of humiliating battlefield defeats, Russia has launched an aerial assault against what it claims are military-related sites since October.
However, France and the European Union have said that the pain caused on Syrian civilians amounts to war crimes, with the bloc’s foreign policy leader calling the airstrikes “barbaric.”
“These brutal, inhumane acts seek to deepen human misery and deprive Ukrainians,” said Josep Borrell.
According to the Ukrainian army, Russia fired 74 missiles, mostly cruise missiles, on Friday, 60 of which were shot down by anti-aircraft systems.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the strikes have caused power and water outages in Kyiv and 14 other regions.
“Today, all of their targets are civilian, primarily electricity and heat supply infrastructure,” he stated in his nightly speech.
“Most likely, as a result of this war, the meaning of the word ‘terror’ for most people throughout the world will be linked exclusively with Russia’s insane activities.”
The attacks hit a residential building in the center city of Kryvyi Rig, where Zelensky was born.
“A mother, 64, and a young couple were killed. “Their small son is still under the wreckage of the house,” regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said, adding that 13 people were injured.
The head of the frontline Zaporizhzhia district, which is home to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Oleksandr Starukh, said his territory had been targeted by more than a dozen Russian missiles.
Meanwhile, Kyiv has weathered one of the most powerful missile attacks since the start of the full-fledged invasion. Regional officials reported that 37 of 40 missiles were shot down by their air defense personnel.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko stated barely 40% of citizens had power and that the metro had been shut down so people might seek refuge underground.
With over half of Ukraine’s energy grid destroyed, the national operator issued an emergency blackout warning on Friday.
Volunteers provided wood stoves to households in Ukrainian-held Bakhmut, an eastern city at the epicenter of the war, according to journalists.
Oleksandra, 85, braved the cold to go to a pharmacy in the Donetsk region city to pick up medication.
“I’ll get through the winter. “I’ll simply walk a little longer to warm up,” the elderly lady responded.
In the south, new Russian shelling killed one person and injured three more in Kherson, which Ukraine recently regained.
Since Moscow’s soldiers retreated in November, Kherson has been subjected to relentless Russian shelling, and the city’s power was cut earlier this week.
According to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president’s office, 14 persons were killed in Russian strikes on Thursday.
Moscow-installed officials in the Russian-controlled territory of Lugansk in eastern Ukraine say shelling by Kyiv’s military killed eight people and injured 23.
“The enemy is carrying out barbarous shelling of republican cities and districts,” stated Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-installed leader of Lugansk, on social media.
The strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, according to Moscow, are in response to an explosion on the Kerch bridge, which connects the Russian mainland to the Crimean peninsula.
The Kremlin has stated that Kiev is ultimately liable for the humanitarian consequences of disregarding Russian discussion terms.
Ukrainian defense authorities announced this week that their forces shot down more than a dozen Iranian-made attack drones launched towards Kyiv, indicating that Western-supplied equipment are having an effect.
Ukrainian military leaders have warned that Moscow is planning a huge winter offensive, including a new assault on Kyiv.
To force Moscow to the bargaining table, the EU announced new sanctions on Friday, including limitations on the transfer of drone engines to Russia or nations like Iran eager to supply Moscow with weaponry.
However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that Russia is preparing for a long battle.
“We see them gathering more soldiers, willing to suffer a lot of deaths, and attempting to gain access to more weapons and ammunition,” he said.
Source: AFP