Lights go out across Ukraine as Putin’s missiles rain down

Huge swathes of Ukraine are plunged into darkness as Russia launches a new wave of missile attacks on infrastructure, leaving millions without heating and water.

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-year-old 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 Zelensky was due to speak about the assault at an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council last night (Wednesday). “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 pro-western leader, said: “Russia left Moldova in the dark.”

Rescuers clear debris of the destroyed two-storey maternity building in the town of Vilnyansk, in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

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.”

Zelensky said more than 4,000 “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, he said in his evening address.

On the outskirts of the city of Kherson, from which Russian forces withdrew across the Dnipro river 12 days ago, an intense artillery battle continued yesterday (Wednesday). Russian forces which have retreated to the east, or the left, bank continued to engage with the Ukrainian armed forces.

Close relatives and friends attend the funeral of Ukrainian serviceman Sergii Myronov during a ceremony at the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Cathedral in Kyiv.

Explosions could be heard throughout the day, although there were no early reports of civilian casualties.

The military authorities in the city are pleading with the 100,000 citizens who remain to leave as soon as possible.

“The Kherson defence forces insist people should leave because the Russians will intensify the shelling,” said Captain Dmytro Pletenthuk, a military spokesman. “We’ve seen an artillery duel going on for the whole day. The Russians are on the left bank of the river with artillery and machine guns.

“Civilians cannot help the armed forces. They are just a burden on medical and logistical resources.”

Yesterday’s (Wednesday’s) missile attacks came soon after the European parliament voted to designate Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism”. Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, accused Russia of “celebrating” terrorist status with new “missile terror”.

The European parliament’s ruling followed the death of a newborn baby as Russian missiles hit a maternity ward in Vilniansk, a city in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. The child’s mother and a doctor were rescued from rubble."Grief fills our hearts. A baby who has just appeared in the world has been killed,” Oleksandr Starukh, the regional governor, said. Olena Zelenska, Ukraine’s first lady, said: “Horrible pain. We will never forget and never forgive.”

The two-floor maternity ward was hit by two Russian S-300 missiles, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said.

S-300s are designed as anti-aircraft missiles but Russia has reconfigured them to hit targets on the ground. “The enemy has once again decided to try to achieve with terror and murder what it wasn’t able to achieve for nine months and won’t be able to achieve,” Zelensky said. “Instead, it will only be held to account for all the evil it has brought.”

The Times