Kyiv: Russia fired more than 70 missiles at Ukraine on Friday in one of its biggest attacks since the start of the war, knocking out power in the second-biggest city and forcing Kyiv to implement emergency blackouts nationwide, Ukrainian officials said.
Three people were killed when an apartment block was hit in central Kryvyi Rih and another died in shelling in Kherson in the south, they said. Russian-installed officials in occupied eastern Ukraine said 12 people had died by Ukrainian shelling.
In an evening video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia still had enough missiles for several more massive strikes and he again urged western allies to supply Kyiv with more and better air defence systems.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine was strong enough to bounce back. “Whatever the rocket worshippers from Moscow are counting on, it still won’t change the balance of power in this war,” he said.
Kyiv warned late on Thursday that Moscow plans a new all-out offensive early next year, around a year after its Feb. 24 invasion, which has destroyed huge areas of Ukraine but brought little of it under Moscow’s control.
Russia has rained missiles on Ukrainian energy infrastructure almost weekly since early October after a series of battlefield defeats, but Friday’s attack appeared to have caused more damage than many others.
“What we already see is damage to about nine (power) generating facilities,” Energy Minister German Galushchenko said, adding that investigations were continuing.
Russia flew warplanes near Ukraine to try to distract its air defences, Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said.
“Massive shelling, explosions. The goal of the Russian Federation is for Ukrainians to be constantly under pressure, to go down into bomb shelters almost every day, to feel discomfort due to power outages or water interruptions,” Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on social media, vowing Ukraine would endure.
Ukraine’s army chief said 60 of 76 Russian missiles were shot down.
Moscow says the attacks are aimed at disabling Ukraine’s military, Kyiv calls them a war crime.
The governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region that includes Kryvyi Rih, President Volodomyr Zelenskiy’s home town, said a missile had hit an apartment block there.
“Two people were killed. At least five were wounded, including two children,” Valentyn Reznichenko posted.
A third person died in a fire after shelling in Kherson, authorities said, and Kharkiv in the east was also badly hit.
