Kyiv, Ukraine — A massive bombardment by Russian cruise missiles and drones early Monday hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities, cutting off water and power supplies in apparent retaliation for what Moscow said a Ukrainian attack on its Black Sea. float
Russia has stepped up its attacks on power plants and other key infrastructure in Ukraine as the war enters its ninth month. As a result, large parts of Ukraine are already experiencing power outages.
“The Kremlin is taking revenge for the military failures of peaceful people who are left without electricity and heat before winter,” said the governor of the Kyiv region, Oleksii Kuleba.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces carried out “long-range and high-precision air and sea weapons strikes against Ukraine’s military command and energy systems.”
“The objectives of the strikes have been achieved. All designated targets have been achieved,” the ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, 12 ships with grain left Ukrainian ports on Monday despite Russian threats to reimpose a blockade that threatened global starvation, Ukraine’s Infrastructure Ministry said. A ship transported Ukrainian wheat to Ethiopia, where a severe drought is affecting millions of people.
Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 44 of more than 50 cruise missiles fired by Russia.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russian missiles and drones hit 10 regions of Ukraine and damaged 18 sites, mostly energy facilities.
Hundreds of towns in seven Ukrainian regions were left without electricity, he said in a Facebook post, adding that “the consequences could have been much worse” if Ukrainian forces had not shot down most of the Russian missiles.
Thirteen people were injured as a result of the early morning attacks, National Police Chief Ihor Klymenko told national television.
Loud explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital as residents prepared to go to work. Emergency services sent a text message warning about the threat of a missile attack, and air raid sirens wailed for three hours during the morning commute.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 80% of consumers in the city of 3 million were left without water due to damage to an electrical installation. By Monday evening, workers had reduced the percentage to 40% and the number of apartments without power from 350,000 to 270,000. To reduce energy consumption, Kyiv authorities extended the intervals between subway trains and replaced electric trolleybuses and trams with buses, Klitschko said. Metro service resumed on Monday night.
Across Kyiv, hundreds lined up, often for more than an hour, to pump water by hand from wells and fill plastic bottles and cans.
“It has an influence on our lives, it’s really uncomfortable,” said a 34-year-old resident, who agreed to give only his first name, Denis, as he collected water. “But the truth is that it is not a problem. The problem is that we have a war.”
Smoke was rising from the left bank of the Dnieper River in Kyiv, either from a missile strike or where Ukrainian forces shot it down.
Associated Press reporters saw soldiers inspecting a crater and debris from where one of the missiles landed on the outskirts of Kyiv. The missiles flew fast and low and sounded like exploding bombs, witnesses said.
“It was actually scary,” said Oleksandr Ryabtsev, 28, who was on his way to work. “I looked up and I was flying over there. You could see this cruise missile, I didn’t even go to work. I went home.”
Prime Minister Shmyhal said emergency shutdowns are underway in Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions. “Today, as in previous weeks, it is important for Ukrainians to consume energy carefully and reduce the load on the grid,” the official said.
In the eastern city of Kharkiv, two strikes affected critical infrastructure facilities, officials said, and the metro stopped operating.
Critical infrastructure sites were also affected in the Cherkasy region, southeast of Kyiv. In the Kirovohrad region in central Ukraine, an energy facility was affected, according to local authorities. In Vinnytsia, debris from a downed missile landed on civilian buildings, causing damage but no casualties, according to regional governor Serhii Borzov.
Electricity was cut in parts of Ukraine’s train network, Ukrainian Railways reported.
The attacks come two days after Russia accused Ukraine of a drone strike against Russia’s Black Sea fleet in the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula. Ukraine has denied the attack, saying Russia mishandled its own weapons, but Moscow still announced it was retaliating by suspending its participation in a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey to allow the safe passage of ships carrying grain from Ukraine.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar urged his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu in a phone call Monday to “reconsider” Moscow’s suspension of its participation in the grain deal, which has allowed exports of more than 9 million tons of Ukrainian grain. According to a statement, Akar praised the agreement as an example of how problems can be solved through “cooperation and dialogue” and argued that it was a “completely humanitarian activity” that should be kept separate from the conflict
Monday’s strikes were the third time this month that Russia has unleashed massive attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure. On October 10, a similar attack rocked the war-torn country after an explosion on the Kerch bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia, an incident Moscow blamed on Kyiv.
One of the Russian missiles shot down by Ukraine landed in a town on the border with Moldova, causing damage but no casualties.
Moldova’s interior ministry has released photographs showing a thick plume of smoke rising over the northern town of Naslavcea, on the border with Ukraine, as well as broken windows.
In another development, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Monday that it had completed a partial mobilization of troops, ostensibly fulfilling a promise to end the call-up with 300,000 men. Some human rights lawyers, however, warned that only Putin can end the call by signing a decree.
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Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey; Karel Janicek in Prague; and Sabina Niksic in Sarajevo, Bosnia, contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to show that Monday’s strikes were the third major Russian bombing of Ukrainian infrastructure this month, not the second.