Russian missile barrage slams into ukrainian cities

Russian missile barrage slams into ukrainian cities

Russia launched 81 missiles and eight exploding Shahed drones which killed at least six; President Zelensky says the attack hit critical infrastructure and residential buildings in 10 regions of Ukraine.

Russia unleashed “a massive rocket attack” that hit critical infrastructure and residential buildings in 10 regions of Ukraine, the country’s President said on Thursday, with officials reporting at least six deaths in the largest such night-time attack in three weeks.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the barrage that came while many people slept and knocked out power in cities across the country was an attempt by Moscow “to intimidate Ukrainians again.”

“The occupiers can only terrorise civilians. That’s all they can do,” Mr. Zelensky said in an online statement.

The war has largely ground to a battlefield stalemate over the winter. The Kremlin’s forces started targeting Ukraine’s power supply last October in an apparent attempt to demoralise the civilian population and compel Kyiv to negotiate peace on Moscow’s terms. The attacks later became less frequent, with analysts speculating Russia may have been running low on ammunition. The last major bombardment took place on February 16.

Overall, Russia launched 81 missiles and eight exploding Shahed drones on Thursday, according to Ukraine’s chief commander of the armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Thirty-four cruise missiles were intercepted, as were four drones, he said.

The Russian Defence Ministry said the attacks were in retaliation for an alleged incursion into the Bryansk region of western Russia a week earlier by what Moscow claimed were Ukrainian saboteurs. Ukraine denied the claim and warned that Moscow could use the allegations to justify stepping up its own attacks.

The strikes left almost half of consumers in Kyiv without heating, with temperatures at around 9 degree Celsius. Kharkiv was left without running water, heating, trams and trolleybuses after 15 missiles hit the region, mayor Ihor Terekhov told the Ukrainian public broadcaster.

Around 150,000 households were left without power in Ukraine’s north-western Zhytomyr region. In Odesa, emergency blackouts occurred due to damaged power lines.

It’s the sixth time that Europe’s largest nuclear plant has been in a state of blackout since it was taken over by Russia months ago, forcing it to rely on diesel generators. Nuclear plants need constant power to run cooling systems and avoid a meltdown, and fears remain about the possibility of a catastrophe at Zaporizhzhia.