Missile rain, Zaporijjia power plant cut off… what we know about the new Russian offensive in Ukraine
It’s a short story massive strike salvo which hits Ukraine on Thursday. Russian forces hit all the countries, local authorities announced on Thursday, the day after European negotiations on the delivery of shells to kyiv. Ukrainian Air Defense Forces shot down 34 of 48 cruise missiles and four of eight “Shahed” drones fired overnight, the Air Force reported.
President Volodymyr Zelensky reported on Telegram that strikes had been recorded in ten regions of the country: “Kiev, Kirovohrad, Dnipro, Odessa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhytomyr and Vinnytsia”, he said. , referring to “81 missiles” fired in total.
Kharkiv and Odessa first affected
Both towns were struck in the dead of night, around 3 a.m. In Kharkiv, “the enemy carried out about 15 strikes on the city and the region”, said on Telegram the governor of the region, Oleh Syniehoubov. “A building in the Kharkiv region was hit,” he explained, before giving an initial assessment: “Two elderly women were slightly injured. A 71-year-old woman was hospitalized and a 74-year-old woman was treated at the scene. »
Mayor of Kharkiv Ihor Terekhov has explained that the city’s “energy infrastructure” had also been targeted. “There is no more electricity in the whole city,” he said on television. “Electric transport does not work. There is no heating and water supply, due to the lack of voltage in the electrical network. »
In the south of the country, the governor of the Odessa region, Maksym Marchenko, for his part reported that “missiles hit the regional energy infrastructure and damaged residential buildings”. The attack caused no casualties, according to the governor, but “electricity supply restrictions” were put in place. “Air defense units shot down six missiles and one drone,” he added on Telegram.
Worrying situation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant
The Zaporijjia nuclear power plant, occupied by the Russian army in southern Ukraine, was cut off from the Ukrainian electricity network after a strike, said the Ukrainian nuclear operator, warning of the risk of an accident.
“The last line of communication between the occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and the Ukrainian power grid has been cut off due to Russian rocket attacks”, said in a press release Enerhoatom. “Currently, the plant (…) has switched to black out for the sixth time since the occupation, the reactors of units 5 and 6 were put (shutdown) cold. »
The operator specifies that 18 emergency diesel generators have been switched on to ensure the minimum power supply to the plant. “They have enough fuel for ten days. The countdown has begun”, emphasizes Enerhoatom. “If it is not possible to renew the power plant’s external power supply, an accident with radioactive consequences for the whole world could occur”, warns the operator.
Five dead near Lviv, three in Kherson
The night strikes killed at least five people in Zolotchiv, a town in the west of the country, 70 km from Lviv. The victims are “three men and two women”, reported on Telegram regional governor Maksym Kozytsky.
They were victims of a strike that fell on their home. A few minutes later, the governor posted aerial images of the area on his account, which show the extent of the damage.
In Kherson, a missile fell on a bus stop, according to the chief of staff of the presidency Andriy Yermakresulting in the death of three people.
Further east, in Dnipro Oblast, regional governor Serhiy Lysak reported one dead and two injured in Chervonohrihorivka, near Nikopol. “A 34-year-old man died, another 28-year-old girl and a 19-year-old boy were injured,” he said.
In his message posted on Telegram following the strikes in the region, he mentions numerous damaged buildings in several cities, and strikes recorded in Nikopol, Kryvorizk, Dnipro and Pavlohrad.
At least three injured in kyiv
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klistchko also reported explosions in the capital. Air defenses were at work to contain the attacks, authorities said. “Explosions in the Holosiivskyi district of the capital. All the services are on site, ”said Vitali Klitschko on his account Telegram.
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“Another explosion in the capital. Sviatochyne district. Help is on the spot. Cars are on fire in the courtyard of a residential building,” he posted on Telegram. According Kyiv policethree people were injured.
The military administration of the capital reports that currently 40% of the inhabitants are deprived of heating following emergency power cuts. The water supply is less affected, but the flow could be reduced in some buildings, notes the local authority.
