Lights out as missiles rain down
Huge swathes of Ukraine and neighbouring Moldova have been plunged into darkness after Russia launched a new wave of missile attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure, leaving millions of people without heating and running water.
Kyiv, the capital, was hit by a major blackout, while the surrounding region lost power entirely as Russian missiles slammed into energy facilities. The Odesa region, on the Black Sea, and the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine, were left without power, as was Lviv, a city on the border with Poland. More than two thirds of Ukraine’s 24 regions reported blackouts.
Six people, including a 17-yearold girl, were killed nationwide as the Kremlin targeted Ukraine with almost 70 cruise missiles, officials said. More than 50 were shot down by the country’s air defences, said Valeriy Zaluzhniy, Ukraine’s top general.
Kyiv, which had a pre-war population of almost three million, was also without water supplies as a result of the attacks, the mayor’s office said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to speak about the assault at an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council last night. ‘‘The murder of civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure are acts of terror. Ukraine will continue to demand a decisive response from the world to these crimes,’’ he said ahead of the meeting.
Officials in Moldova reported a ‘‘massive’’ blackout that affected around half of country, including the capital, Chisinau. The former Soviet state, which shares its power grid with Ukraine, said it was summoning the Russian ambassador. President Sandu, the country’s prowestern leader, said: ‘‘Russia left Moldova in the dark.’’
The mayor of Lviv said his city of 700,000 people had been left without any power at all amid temperatures of 1C. ‘‘The entire city is without light,’’ Andriy Sadoviy said. He urged people to remain in bomb shelters. The power units of three Ukrainian nuclear power plants were also switched off as an emergency measure during the strikes, the country’s state-run nuclear energy company said.
Energoatom said the units had been turned off at the Rivne, Pivdennoukrainsk and Khmelnytskyi nuclear plants in southern and western Ukraine.
Relentless Russian missile strikes have destroyed about half of Ukraine’s energy system ahead of the looming winter, when temperatures can drop to minus 20C.
Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, has warned that the Ukrainian capital is set to face its ‘‘worst winter since the Second World War’’. The first snow fell in the city on November 17 after weeks of unseasonably warm weather. ‘‘We must prepare for the worst scenario,’’ the former world heavyweight boxing champion told the German newspaper Bild.
‘‘That would be if there were a widespread power failure and the temperatures were even colder. Then parts of the city would have to be evacuated, but we don’t want it to come to that.’’
Zelenskyy said more than 4000 ‘‘invincibility points’’ across Ukraine would provide basic facilities such as light, heat and internet free of charge, around the clock. The centres will be located in administrative buildings or schools.