Ukrainian officials say at least 11 people were killed and scores injured, with swathes of country left without power
\nKYIV
\nRussia rained cruise missiles on busy Ukrainian cities on Monday in what the United States called \u201chorrific strikes\u201d, killing civilians and knocking out power and heat with its most widespread air attacks since the start of the war.
\nMissiles tore into intersections, parks and tourist sites in the capital Kyiv and explosions were reported in Lviv, Ternopil and Zhytomyr in western Ukraine, Dnipro and Kremenchuk in the centre, Zaporizhzhia in the south and Kharkiv in the east.
\nUkrainian officials said at least 11 people were killed and scores injured, with swathes of the country left without power.
\nThousands of residents raced to bomb shelters as air raid sirens rang out through the day. The barrage of dozens of cruise missiles fired from air, land and sea was the biggest wave of air strikes to hit locations away from the front line, at least since the initial volleys on the war\u2019s first day, Feb. 24.
\nPresident Vladimir Putin said he had ordered \u201cmassive\u201d long range strikes after an attack on the bridge linking Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula over the weekend, and threatened more strikes in future if Ukraine hits Russian territory.
\n\u201cTo leave such acts without a response is simply impossible,\u201d he said, alleging other, unspecified attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.
\nUkrainian military intelligence said the Russian attacks were ordered in early October. \u201cThe objects of critical civil infrastructure and the central areas of densely populated Ukrainian cities were identified as targets,\u201d it said.
\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said they were deliberately timed to kill people, as well as to knock out Ukraine\u2019s power grid. His prime minister said 11 major infrastructure targets were hit in eight regions, leaving swaths of the country with no electricity, water or heat.
\n\u201cThey are trying to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth,\u201d Zelenskiy said.
\nThe body of a man in jeans lay in a street at a major Kyiv intersection, surrounded by flaming cars. In a park, a soldier cut through the clothes of a woman who lay in the grass to try to treat her wounds. Two other women were bleeding nearby.
\nBattlefield setbacks
\n\u201cThese attacks killed and injured civilians and destroyed targets with no military purpose. They once again demonstrate the utter brutality of Mr. Putin\u2019s illegal war on the Ukrainian people,\u201d US President Joe Biden said in a statement.
\nThe Kremlin was humiliated two days ago when a blast damaged the bridge it built after seizing Crimea in 2014. Ukraine, which views the bridge as a military target sustaining Russia\u2019s war effort, celebrated the blast without officially claiming responsibility.
\nWith troops suffering weeks of setbacks on the battlefield, Russian authorities have been facing the first sustained public criticism at home of the war, with commentators on state television demanding ever tougher measures.
\nBen Hodges, a former commander of US army forces in Europe, said the scale of the strikes suggested Russia\u2019s plan to escalate may have been drawn up before the bridge was attacked.
\nOn Saturday, Russia\u2019s Defence Ministry named General Sergei Surovikin, decorated over the conflict in Syria, as commander of Russian forces in Ukraine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ukrainian officials say at least 11 people were killed and scores injured, with swathes of country left without power KYIV Russia rained cruise missiles on busy Ukrainian cities on Monday in what the United States called \u201chorrific strikes\u201d, killing civilians and knocking out power and heat with its most widespread air attacks since the start […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-288718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n