Russia pounded Ukraine overnight with more than 80 missiles, knocking out the power supply to Europe’s largest nuclear plant and plunging parts of the country into darkness.
Russia said its forces had carried out the “massive retaliatory strike” on Ukrainian infrastructure in revenge for what it called a “terrorist attack” in its Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, last week when members of a group called the Russian Volunteer Corps staged an incursion.
Ukraine said at least six civilians were killed in the overnight attacks, which were the first sustained volley of Russian missile strikes since the middle of last month.
Moscow also used six hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, which cannot be intercepted by the Ukrainian air defence. However, at least 34 missiles and four Shahid drones were intercepted, Ukraine claimed.
In the western province of Lviv, five people were killed, while one more died in Dnipropetrovsk in southeastern Ukraine.
Three people were killed during a Russian shelling in the city of Kherson (south) this morning, the head of the office of the Ukrainian president, Andriy Yermak, said in a Telegram post.
In the Ukrainian capital, at least two people were injured, according to the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko, who noted that 40% of Kyiv has no heating after the strikes took out the city’s thermal power plant.
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Kharkiv governor Oleh Synehubov pointed out that the city was hit by about 15 S-300 ballistic missiles, which also cannot be intercepted by Ukrainian air defences. “The enemy launched about 15 strikes against the city and the countryside,” he said on Telegram. ” Infrastructure was again among the targets”.
For its part, the Ukrainian company Energoatom announced that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under the control of Russian troops in southern Ukraine, lost its connection to the Ukrainian electricity grid.
According to the company, the nuclear plant’s fifth and sixth reactors have been shut down, while 18 diesel-powered generators have been activated to ensure the plant’s basic operation.
Russian-appointed officials in the Moscow-held region of Zaporizhia province said the blackout at the nuclear plant was a “provocation”.
