The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Russia launches missiles, drones at cities across Ukraine
Russia launched a massive barrage of missiles and drones that hit residential buildings and critical infrastructure across Ukraine on Thursday, killing six people and leaving hundreds of thousands without heat or electricity.
The largest such attack in three weeks also put Europe’s largest nuclear plant at risk by knocking it off the power grid for hours before it was reconnected. Nuclear plants need constant power to run cooling systems and avoid a meltdown, and the latest threat to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant once again raised the specter of a nuclear catastrophe.
Air raid sirens wailed through the night as attacks targeted a wide swath of the country, including in western Ukraine, far from the front lines. The Russian Defense Ministry said the strikes were in retaliation for a recent incursion into the Bryansk region of western Russia by what Moscow claimed were Ukrainian saboteurs. Ukraine denied the claim.
The Kremlin’s forces started targeting Ukraine’s power supply last October in an apparent attempt to demoralize civilians. The attacks later became less frequent, with
analysts speculating Russia may have been running low on ammunition.
Overall, Russia launched 81 missiles and eight exploding drones Thursday, according to Ukraine’s chief commander of the armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Thirty-four missiles were intercepted, as were four drones, he said. Among the weapons were six hypersonic Kinzhal cruise missiles, which are among the most sophisticated weapons in the Russian arsenal, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said. Ukraine says it doesn’t have air defenses that can intercept them.
Nearly half of households in Kyiv were without heat, as were many in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, where the water also was cut on a day the low was expected to be around freezing.
The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said he was “astonished by the complacency” of members of the organization he leads, the International Atomic Energy Agency, in relation to the dangers faced by the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Agency Director-general Rafael Mariano Grossi told its board of directors Thursday, according to a statement, that “if we allow this to continue time after time, then one day our luck will run out.”