Russia conducted a “massive” barrage of strikes on critical infrastructure in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities on Monday morning, Ukrainian authorities reported.
“Another batch of Russian missiles hits Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. Instead of fighting on the battlefield, Russia fights civilians,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
“Don’t justify these attacks by calling them a ‘response’. Russia does this because it still has the missiles and the will to kill Ukrainians.”
Part of the Ukrainian capital was cut off from power and water supplies due to the attacks, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Some 350,000 apartments were affected, according to him.
Ukrainian sources claim Moscow forces used drones and strategic bombers in Monday’s wave of strikes. Some 40 cruise missiles were spotted as well, according to domestic media reports. There was no immediate information on possible casualties.
Critical infrastructure objects were also hit in the Cherkasy region southeast of Kyiv, and explosions were reported in other regions, including Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia in the southeast and Lviv in western Ukraine.
In the Kirovohrad region of central Ukraine, the energy facility was hit, according to local authorities.
In Vinnytsia, a missile that was shot down landed on civilian buildings, resulting in damage but no casualties, according to regional governor Serhii Borzov.
In Kharkiv, two strikes hit critical infrastructure facilities, and the subway ceased operating. Some parts of Ukrainian railways were also cut off from power, the Ukrainian Railways reported.
‘Russia continues to fight with civilian facilities’
One of the missiles shot down by the Ukrainian air defence crashed across the border in Moldova.
The missile shattered windows in Naslavcea — a village in the Ocnita district known as the northernmost point of Moldova, situated between Ukraine’s Vinnytsia and Chernivtsi. However, there were no casualties, the Moldovan interior ministry said.
Chisinau authorities stated that the nearby dam on the Dniester river was the probable target.
The large-scale attack against Ukraine comes two days after the Kremlin accused Kyiv of a drone attack against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet off the coast of the annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Ukraine has denied the attack, saying that Russia mishandled its own weapons, but Moscow still announced halting its participation in an UN-brokered deal to allow safe passage of ships carrying grain from Ukraine.
Commenting on Monday’s attacks, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office Andriy Yermak said that Russian forces “continue to fight with civilian facilities”.
“We will persevere, and generations of Russians will pay a high price for their disgrace,” Yermak said.
It’s the second time this month that Russia unleashed a massive barrage of strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure.
On 10 October, a similar attack rocked the war-torn country following an explosion on the Kerch Bridge linking annexed Crimea to mainland Russia — an incident Moscow blamed on Kyiv.