Russia admits ‘state of war’ amid massive strikes on Kyiv
Russia admitted two years into its invasion of Ukraine on Friday that it was “in a state of war,” as it launched a massive wave of missile and drone attacks on its neighbour’s territory.
Russia fired almost 90 missiles and more than 60 Iraniandesigned kamikaze drones, damaging dozens of energy facilities including power stations, in what Ukrainian officials said was an attempt to cripple the country’s electricity and heating supply.
Russia said the wave of strikes was retaliation for a series of Ukrainian attacks on its border regions in recent weeks.
At least five people were killed and more than 20 injured, according to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry and local officials.
“We are in a state of war,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in an interview to a Kremlin newspaper, blished on Friday.
The admission marks an escalation in official language used to describe the conflict, which the Kremlin initially referred to as a “special military operation”.
Loss of power
propu
Meanwhile, Kharkiv mayor said on Friday that a Russian missile attack has “completely” cut off the electricity and heat supply to Ukraine’s second largest city.
“The city is completely without power and as a result the water and heating supply are not working,” Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov said in a video on his social media.
It has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure throughout the war, now in its third year, in strikes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called “energy terrorism”.
Ukraine’s staterun power grid, Ukrenergo, said the attack on the energy network was the “largest on record.”