By JOHN LEICESTER and JAMES LAPORTA
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy on Tuesday decried an obvious Russian missile strike that hit neighboring NATO member Poland as “a very significant escalation” of the warfare.
Zelenskyy’s feedback, delivered in a night handle to the nation, got here hours after a senior U.S. intelligence official informed The Associated Press that Russian missiles had crossed into Polish territory and killed two individuals. If confirmed, the strike would mark the primary time within the warfare that Russian weapons got here down on a NATO nation.
A second individual stated that obvious Russian missiles struck a website in Poland about 15 miles from the Ukrainian border.
It was not clear whether or not Zelenskyy had direct data of the strikes. The U.S. National Security Council stated it was checking into the reviews. A NATO official, talking on situation of anonymity, stated the alliance was additionally investigating.
Polish authorities spokesman Piotr Mueller confirmed that an explosion had killed two individuals and stated some army items have been placed on alert whereas officers sought particulars.
Polish media reported that the strike occurred in an space the place grain was drying in Przewodów, a village close to the border with Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry denied being behind “any strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish border” and stated in an announcement that images of purported harm “have nothing to do” with Russian weapons.
Earlier within the day, Russia pounded Ukraine’s vitality services Tuesday with its largest barrage of missiles but, putting targets throughout the nation and inflicting widespread blackouts.
The barrage additionally affected neighboring Moldova. It reported huge energy outages after the strikes knocked out a key energy line that provides the small nation, an official stated.
The missile strikes plunged a lot of Ukraine into darkness and drew defiance from Zelenskyy, who shook his fist and declared: “We will survive everything.”
In his nightly handle, the Ukrainian chief stated the reported strikes in Poland provided proof that “terror is not limited by our state borders.”
“We need to put the terrorist in its place. The longer Russia feels impunity, the more threats there will be for everyone within the reach of Russian missiles,” Zelenskyy stated.
Russia fired no less than 85 missiles, most of them aimed on the nation’s energy services, and blacked out many cities, he stated.
The Ukrainian vitality minister stated the assault was “the most massive” bombardment of energy services within the practically 9-month-old Russian invasion, putting each energy era and transmission programs.
The minister, Herman Haluschenko, described the missile strikes as “another attempt at terrorist revenge” after army and diplomatic setbacks for the Kremlin. He accused Russia of “trying to cause maximum damage to our energy system on the eve of winter.”
The aerial assault, which resulted in no less than one loss of life in a residential constructing within the capital, Kyiv, adopted days of euphoria in Ukraine sparked by one in every of its largest army successes — the retaking final week of the southern metropolis of Kherson.
The energy grid was already battered by earlier assaults that destroyed an estimated 40% of the nation’s vitality infrastructure. Zelenskyy stated the variety of Ukrainians with out energy had fallen from 10 million to 2 million by Tuesday night.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not commented on the retreat from Kherson since his troops pulled out within the face of a Ukrainian offensive. But the gorgeous scale of Tuesday’s strikes spoke volumes and hinted at anger within the Kremlin.
By putting targets within the late afternoon, not lengthy earlier than nightfall started to fall, the Russian army compelled rescue staff to labor at midnight and gave restore crews scant time to evaluate the harm by daylight.
More than a dozen areas — amongst them Lviv within the west, Kharkiv within the northeast and others in between — reported strikes or efforts by their air defenses to shoot missiles down. At least a dozen areas reported energy outages, affecting cities that collectively have thousands and thousands of individuals. Almost half of the Kyiv area misplaced energy, authorities stated.
Zelenskyy warned that extra strikes have been attainable and urged individuals to remain secure and search shelter.
“Most of the hits were recorded in the center and in the north of the country. In the capital, the situation is very difficult,” stated a senior official, Kyrylo Tymoshenko.
He stated a complete of 15 vitality targets have been broken and claimed that 70 missiles have been shot down. A Ukrainian Air Force spokesman stated Russia used X-101 and X-555 cruise missiles.
As metropolis after metropolis reported assaults, Tymoshenko urged Ukrainians to “hang in there.”
With its battlefield losses mounting, Russia has more and more resorted to concentrating on Ukraine’s energy grid, seemingly hoping to show the method of winter right into a weapon by leaving individuals within the chilly and darkish.
In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko stated authorities discovered a physique in one in every of three residential buildings that have been struck within the capital, the place emergency blackouts have been additionally introduced by energy supplier DTEK.
Video printed by a presidential aide confirmed a five-story, apparently residential constructing in Kyiv on fireplace, with flames licking via residences. Klitschko stated air protection items additionally shot down some missiles.
Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra took to a bomb shelter in Kyiv after assembly his Ukrainian counterpart and, from his place of security, described the bombardment as “an enormous motivation to keep standing shoulder-to-shoulder” with Ukraine.
“There can be only one answer, and that is: Keep going. Keep supporting Ukraine, keep delivering weapons, keep working on accountability, keep working on humanitarian aid,” he stated.
The strikes got here as authorities have been already working furiously to get Kherson again on its ft and starting to research alleged Russian abuses there and within the surrounding space.
The southern metropolis is with out energy and water, and the pinnacle of the U.N. human rights workplace’s monitoring mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, on Tuesday decried a “dire humanitarian situation” there.
Speaking from Kyiv, Bogner stated her groups need to journey to Kherson to attempt to confirm allegations of practically 80 circumstances of compelled disappearances and arbitrary detention.
The head of the National Police of Ukraine, Igor Klymenko, stated authorities are to begin investigating reviews from Kherson residents that Russian forces arrange no less than three alleged torture websites in now-liberated components of the broader Kherson area.
The retaking of Kherson dealt one other stinging blow to the Kremlin. Zelenskyy likened the recapture to the Allied landings in France on D-Day in World War II, saying each have been watershed occasions on the street to eventual victory.
But massive components of japanese and southern Ukraine stay beneath Russian management, and preventing continues.
In different developments, leaders of a lot of the world’s financial powers have been drawing nearer to approval of a declaration strongly denouncing Russia’s invasion.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden and Zelenskyy pressed fellow G20 leaders on the summit in Indonesia for a strong condemnation of Russia’s nuclear threats and meals embargoes. More dialogue and a attainable vote come Wednesday.
___
Associated Press writers Joanna Kozlowska in London; Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands; Hanna Arhirova in Kherson, Ukraine; Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia; Vanessa Gera and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland; Raf Casert and Lorne Cook in Brussels; and Nomaan Merchant in New York contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP’s protection of the warfare in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Source: www.bostonherald.com”