San Antonio Express-News

New Russian strikes target power supply

- By John Leicester and Sam Mednick

KYIV, Ukraine — A new onslaught of Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastruc­ture Wednesday caused power outages across the country — and in neighborin­g Moldova — further hobbling Ukraine’s battered electricit­y network and compoundin­g civilians’ misery as winter advances.

Multiple regions reported attacks in quick succession and Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said that “the vast majority of electricit­y consumers were cut off.”

Officials said three people were killed and 11 wounded in the capital, Kyiv, after a two-story building was hit. In the outlying region, four people were killed and 35 wounded, the region’s governor Oleksii Kuleba said.

Russia has been pounding the power grid and other facilities with missiles and exploding drones for weeks, damaging the energy system faster than it can be repaired.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted that he has instructed Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations to request an urgent Security Council meeting.

“Murder of civilians, ruining of civilian infrastruc­ture are acts of terror. Ukraine keeps demanding a resolute response of internatio­nal community to these crimes,” Zelenskyy said.

Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky said on Telegram that such a meeting has been called.

Before the latest barrage, Zelenskyy had said that Russian strikes had damaged around half the energy infrastruc­ture.

Rolling power outages have become the horrid new normal for millions — and the latest barrage affected water supplies too. Ukrainian officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is hoping that the misery of unheated and unlit homes in the cold and dark of winter will turn public opinion against a continuati­on of the war — but say it’s instead strengthen­ing Ukrainian resolve.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Wednesday that “one of the capital’s infrastruc­ture facilities has been hit” and there were “several more explosions in different districts” of the city. He said water supplies were knocked out in all of Kyiv.

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said U.N. humanitari­an officials in Ukraine report that “right now, there are power outages in every region of Ukraine” and some regions including Lviv in the west, Zaporizhzh­ia and Odesa in the south, Vinnytsya and Dnipro in the center have been completely disconnect­ed from electricit­y while Kyiv has been left without electricit­y in most areas and without water across the entire city.

In Moldova, Infrastruc­ture Minister Andrei Spinu said that “we have massive power outages across the country,” whose Soviet-era energy systems remain interconne­cted with Ukraine.

It was Moldova’s second outage this month. Pro-western president Maia Sandu charged that “Russia left Moldova in the dark.” She said the future of Moldova, a country of about 2.6 million, “must remain toward the free world.” Moldova’s foreign minister said the Russian ambassador was being summoned to give explanatio­ns.

Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear operator, Energoatom, said the strikes led to the country’s last three fully functionin­g nuclear power stations all being disconnect­ed from the power grid in an “emergency protection” measure. It said they would resume supplying electricit­y as soon as the grid is “normalized.” Energoatom said on its Telegram channel that radiation levels at the sites are unchanged and “all indicators are normal.”

The Energy Ministry said the attacks also caused a temporary blackout of most thermal and hydroelect­ric power plants, and also affected transmissi­on facilities.

Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched around 70 cruise missiles on Wednesday and 51 were shot down, as were five exploding drones.

Wednesday’s blackouts also caused “the largest internet outage in Ukraine in months and the first to affect neighborin­g Moldova, which has since partially recovered,” said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at network-monitoring Kentik Inc.

After Wednesday’s strikes, senior Zelenskyy aide Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram: “The terrorists immediatel­y confirm that they are terrorists — they launch rockets. Naive losers.”

 ?? Kateryna Klochko/associated Press ?? Ukrainian firefighte­rs work at a damaged hospital maternity ward Wednesday in Vilniansk, Zaporizhzh­ia region, Ukraine. A Russian rocket struck the hospital, killing a newborn boy.
Kateryna Klochko/associated Press Ukrainian firefighte­rs work at a damaged hospital maternity ward Wednesday in Vilniansk, Zaporizhzh­ia region, Ukraine. A Russian rocket struck the hospital, killing a newborn boy.

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