Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine’s power plants and other key infrastructure as the war enters its ninth month. As a result, large areas of Ukraine are already experiencing rolling blackouts.
“The Kremlin is taking revenge for military failures on peaceful people who are left without electricity and heating before winter,” said Kiev region governor Oleksii Kuleba.
Russia’s defense ministry said its forces carried out “long-range, high-precision air- and sea-based weapons strikes against Ukraine’s military command and energy systems.”
“The objectives of the strikes were achieved. All the designated targets were hit,” the ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, 12 grain ships left Ukrainian ports on Monday despite Russia’s threat to reimpose a blockade that threatened starvation around the world, Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry said. A ship was carrying 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 Denis Smykhal said Russian missiles and drones hit 10 Ukrainian regions and destroyed 18 sites, mostly energy facilities.
Hundreds of locations in seven Ukrainian regions were left without power, 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 morning attacks, National Police Chief Ihor Klimenko told national television.
Loud explosions were heard across the Ukrainian capital as residents prepared to go to work. Emergency services sent text messages warning of the threat of a missile attack and air raid sirens wailed for three hours during the morning commute.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 80 percent of consumers in the city of 3 million were left without water due to damage to an electrical installation. By Monday afternoon, workers had reduced the percentage to 40 percent and the number of apartments without power from 350,000 to 270,000. To reduce power consumption, Kyiv authorities extended the intervals between metro trains and replaced electric trolleys and trams with buses, Klitschko said. Metro service resumed Monday night.
Across Kyiv, hundreds turned out, often for more than an hour, to hand-pump water from wells to fill plastic bottles and cans.
“It’s affecting our lives, it’s really inconvenient,” said a 34-year-old resident, who agreed to give only his first name, Dennis, as he collected water. “But the truth is, it’s not a problem. The problem is that we have a war.”
Smoke rose from the left bank of the Dnieper River in Kyiv, either from a missile attack or from where Ukrainian forces shot it down.
Associated Press reporters saw soldiers inspecting a crater and debris from where one of the missiles fell on the outskirts of Kiev. The rockets flew fast and low and sounded like bombs exploding, witnesses said.
“It was scary, actually,” said Oleksandr Ryabtsev, 28, who was on his way to work. “I looked up and there he was flying. You were watching this cruise missile, I didn’t even go to work. I went home.”
Prime Minister Shmyhal said that in the regions of Kyiv, Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv, emergency power outages have begun. “Today, as in previous weeks, it is important that Ukrainians consume energy with care and reduce the load on the grid,” the official said.
In the eastern city of Kharkiv, two strikes hit critical infrastructure, authorities said, and the metro stopped operating.
Important infrastructure sites were also affected in the Cherkasy region southeast of Kyiv. An energy facility was hit in the Kirovohrad region of central Ukraine, according to local authorities. In Vinnytsia, debris from a downed missile fell on civilian buildings, causing damage but no casualties, according to regional governor Serhii Borzov.
Power was cut in parts of Ukraine’s railway network, Ukrainian Railways reported.
The attacks come two days after Russia accused Ukraine of a drone strike against the Russian Black Sea fleet off the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula. Ukraine denied the attack, saying Russia mishandled its own weapons, but Moscow still announced it was retaliating by ending its participation in a UN-brokered deal with Turkey to allow safe passage of grain-carrying ships from Ukraine.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar urged his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, in a phone call on Monday to “reconsider” the suspension of Moscow’s participation in the grain deal, which allowed the export of more than 9 million tons of grain from Ukraine. According to a statement, Akar hailed the agreement as an example of how problems can be resolved through “cooperation and dialogue” and argued that it was a “purely humanitarian activity” that should be kept separate from the conflict.
Monday’s strikes were the third time this month that Russia has launched massive attacks on Ukrainian 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 Moldovan border town, causing damage but no casualties.
Moldova’s interior ministry released photos showing a thick cloud of smoke rising over the northern town of Naslavcea, on the border with Ukraine, as well as broken windows of houses.
In another development, Russia’s defense ministry said on Monday it had completed a partial mobilization of troops, apparently fulfilling a promise to end the call-up of 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 barrage against Ukrainian infrastructure this month, not the second.
