By HANNA ARHIROVA and ELENA BECATOROS (Associated Press)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia unleashed “a massive rocket attack” that hit important infrastructure and residential buildings in 10 areas of Ukraine, the nation’s president stated Thursday, with officers reporting at the very least six deaths within the largest such night-time assault in three weeks.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the barrage that got here whereas many individuals slept as an try by Moscow “to intimidate Ukrainians again.”
“The occupiers can only terrorize civilians. That’s all they can do,” Zelenskyy in a web based assertion.
The struggle has largely floor to a battlefield stalemate over the winter. The Kremlin’s forces began concentrating on Ukraine’s energy provide final October in an obvious try to demoralize the civilian inhabitants. The barrages later grew to become much less frequent, with analysts speculating Russia might have been working low on ammunition. The final large barrage passed off on Feb. 16.
The newest assault left virtually half of shoppers in Kyiv with out heating, with temperatures at round 9 levels Celsius (48 Fahrenheit) amid a spring thaw.
In southern Ukraine, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is occupied by Russian forces, misplaced energy on account of the missile assaults, in line with nuclear state operator Energoatom.
It is the sixth time the plant has been in a state of blackout because it was taken over by Russia months in the past, forcing it to depend on 18 diesel mills that may run the station for 10 days, Energoatom stated. Nuclear vegetation want fixed energy to run cooling methods and keep away from a meltdown.
“The countdown has begun,” Energoatom stated.
Air raid sirens wailed by way of the evening throughout Ukraine, together with the capital, Kyiv, the place explosions occurred in two western areas of town. Defense methods had been activated across the nation.
Overall, Russia launched 81 missiles and eight exploding Shahed drones, in line with Ukraine’s Chief Commander of the Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Thirty-four cruise missiles had been intercepted, as had been 4 drones, he stated.
Viktor Bukhta, a 57-year-old resident of a broken residential constructing in Kyiv’s Sviatoshynski district, the place officers stated three individuals had been wounded and condo home windows had been shattered, stated a missile landed close by at about 6.45 a.m..
“We went into the yard. People were injured, they helped, first aid kits were handed out from the cars,” he informed The Associated Press. “Then the cars caught fire. We tried to extinguish them with car fire extinguishers. And I got a little burnt.”
Kyiv’s metropolis administration stated the capital was attacked with each missiles and exploding drones. Many had been intercepted however its power infrastructure was hit.
Smoke may very well be seen rising from a facility in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district and police had cordoned off all roads resulting in it.
The alarm in Kyiv was lifted simply earlier than 8 a.m., with the air raid sirens falling silent after some seven hours.
Private electrical energy operator DTEK reported that three of its energy stations had been hit. There had been no casualties, however the firm stated gear was severely broken.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis, was left with out working water and heating after 15 missiles hit the area, mayor Ihor Terekhov informed the Ukrainian public broadcaster.
Terekhov added that electrical energy shortages additionally disrupted cell communications and public transport within the metropolis, as all trams and trolleybuses floor to a halt.
Five individuals had been killed within the Lviv area after a missile struck a residential space, Lviv Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi stated. Three buildings had been destroyed by hearth, and rescue employees had been combing by way of rubble on the lookout for extra attainable victims, he stated.
A sixth particular person was killed and two others wounded in a number of strikes within the Dnipropetrovsk area that focused its power infrastructure and industrial services, Gov. Serhii Lysak stated.
In the south, Odesa Gov. Maksym Marchenko stated residential buildings had been hit and several other energy traces had been broken in strikes on his area. He stated six missiles and one drone had been shot down.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko condemned the missile strikes as “another barbaric massive attack on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine,” saying in a Facebook put up that services in Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr areas had been focused.
Ukrainian Railways reported energy outages in sure areas, with 15 trains delayed.
Preventive emergency energy cuts had been utilized in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Odesa areas, provider DTEK stated. Klitschko stated 40% of shoppers in Kyiv had been with out heating due to the emergency energy cuts. Water provides had been uninterrupted, he stated.
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Follow AP’s protection of the struggle in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Source: www.bostonherald.com”