KYIV, Ukraine — Russian missiles hit Ukraine Thursday in the biggest wave of strikes in weeks, damaging power stations and other critical infrastructure during freezing winter weather.
Russia fired 69 missiles at energy facilities and Ukrainian forces shot down 54, Ukrainian military chief Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi said. Local officials said attacks killed at least two people around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The strikes also wounded at least seven people across the country, although the toll of the attacks was growing as officials assessed the day’s events.
Russia dispatched explosive drones to selected regions overnight before broadening the barrage with air and sea-based missiles, the Ukrainian air force said. Air-raid sirens rang out across the country, and the military activated air-defense systems in Kyiv, the regional administration said.
Ukraine’s defense ministry said the attack damaged 18 residential buildings and 10 pieces of critical infrastructure in 10 regions.
Russia has attacked Ukrainian power and water supplies almost weekly since October while its ground forces struggle to hold ground and advance. Mayor Vitali Klitschko warned of power outages in the capital, asking people to stockpile water and to charge their electronic devices.
In the southeastern Kyiv district of Bortnychi, an explosion flattened at least one house and broke the doors, roofs and windows of several others nearby.
Yana Denysenko went through broken glass inside her grandparent’s home to collect personal items. Though she does not live there, she came immediately after the explosion and found her wounded mother, sister and 14-year-old niece in ambulances.
Denysenko hugged her tearful grandmother Anhelina, who was at work when the explosion happened.
“I’m scared to see all this, how many mothers are crying?” Anhelina said. “”I want my children to recover.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the attacks “senseless barbarism.”
“There can be no ‘neutrality’ in the face of such mass war crimes. Pretending to be ‘neutral’ equals taking Russia’s side,” Kuleba tweeted.
After more than 10 months of fighting, Russia and Ukraine are locked in a grinding battle of attrition. The Ukrainian military has reclaimed swaths of Russian-occupied territory in the country’s northeast and south, and continues to resist persistent Russia attempts to seize all of the industrial Donbas region in the east.
At the same time, Moscow has targeted Ukrainian power facilities and other key infrastructure in a bid to weaken the country’s resolve and force it to negotiate on Russian terms. The time between strikes has increased in recent weeks, though, leading some commentators to theorize Russia is trying to ration its missile supply.
The Ukrainian military has reported success in shooting down incoming Russian missiles and explosive drones in earlier attacks but many cities have gone without heat, internet and electricity for hours or days at a time.