KYIV: Ukraine was working Saturday to restore electricity to hospitals, heating systems and other critical infrastructure in major cities after Russia\u2019s latest wave of attacks on the power grid prompted accusations of \u201cwar crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The volley of missiles unleashed Friday pitched multiple cities into darkness, cutting water and heat and forcing people to endure below-freezing temperatures.<\/p>\n
In the capital, where the mayor said only a third of residents had heat or water, people wrapped in winter coats crammed into underground metro stations after air raid sirens rang out in the morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI woke up, I saw a rocket in the sky,\u201d Kyiv resident 25-year-old Lada Korovai said. \u201cI saw it and understood that I have to go to the tube.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s national energy provider imposed emergency blackouts, saying its system had lost more than half its capacity after strikes targeted \u201cbackbone networks and generation facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ukrenergo warned the extent of the damage in the north, south and center of the country meant it could take longer to restore supplies than after previous attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cPriority will be given to critical infrastructure: hospitals, water supply facilities, heat supply facilities, sewage treatment plants,\u201d Ukrenergo said in a statement Friday.<\/p>\n
By evening, second city Kharkiv had restored power to just over half its residents, while hoping to have a fully operational grid by midnight.<\/p>\n
After a series of embarrassing battlefield defeats, Russia since October has pursued an aerial onslaught against what Moscow says are military-linked facilities.<\/p>\n
But France and the European Union said the suffering inflicted on freezing civilians constitutes war crimes, with the bloc\u2019s foreign policy chief calling the bombings \u201cbarbaric.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese cruel, inhumane attacks aim to increase human suffering and deprive Ukrainian people,\u201d Josep Borrell said.<\/p>\n
Russia fired 74 missiles \u2014 mainly cruise missiles \u2014 on Friday, 60 of which were shot down by anti-aircraft defenses, according to the Ukrainian army.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes left the capital Kyiv and 14 regions affected by power and water cuts.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll their targets today are civilian, and these are mainly energy and heat supply facilities,\u201d he said in his nightly address.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably, as a result of this war, the meaning of the word \u2018terror\u2019 for most people in the world will be associated primarily with such crazy actions of Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the central city of Kryvyi Rig, where Zelensky was born, the airstrikes hit a residential building.<\/p>\n
\u201cA 64 year old woman and a young couple died. Their little son still remains under the rubble of the house,\u201d regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said, adding that 13 others had been wounded.<\/p>\n
Oleksandr Starukh, head of the frontline Zaporizhzhia region, home to Europe\u2019s largest nuclear power plant, said his territory had been targeted by more than a dozen Russian missiles.<\/p>\n
Kyiv, meanwhile, withstood one of the biggest missile attacks since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Regional officials said their air defense forces had shot down 37 out of 40 missiles.<\/p>\n
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said only 40 percent of residents had electricity and that the metro had stopped running so people could take shelter underground.<\/p>\n
With about half of Ukraine\u2019s energy grid damaged, the national operator warned Friday of emergency blackouts.<\/p>\n
In Ukrainian-held Bakhmut \u2014 an eastern city at the epicenter of the war \u2014 some residents received wood stoves distributed by volunteers, journalists said.<\/p>\n
Oleksandra, 85, braved the cold to collect medication at a pharmacy in the Donetsk region city.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll survive winter. I\u2019ll just walk more to get warm,\u201d the old woman said.<\/p>\n
In the south, fresh Russian shelling in Kherson, recently recaptured by Ukraine, killed one person and wounded three more.<\/p>\n
Kherson has been subjected to persistent Russian shelling since Moscow\u2019s forces retreated in November, and power was cut in the city earlier this week.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Russian attacks killed 14 people, deputy head of the president\u2019s office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said.<\/p>\n
In the Russian-controlled region of Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, Moscow-installed officials said shelling from Kyiv\u2019s forces had killed eight and wounded 23.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe enemy is conducting barbaric shelling of cities and districts of the republic,\u201d Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-installed leader of Lugansk, said on social media.<\/p>\n
Moscow has said the strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure are a response to an explosion on the Kerch bridge connecting the Russian mainland to the Crimean peninsula.<\/p>\n
The Kremlin has said it holds Kyiv ultimately responsible for the humanitarian impact for refusing Russian negotiation terms.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian defense officials said this week that their forces had shot down more than a dozen Iranian-made attack drones launched at Kyiv, a sign that Western-supplied systems are having an impact.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian military leaders have warned Moscow is preparing for a major winter offensive, including a fresh attempt to take Kyiv.<\/p>\n
Aiming to push Moscow to the negotiating table, the EU on Friday imposed further sanctions, adding restrictions on the export of drone engines to Russia or countries like Iran looking to supply Moscow with weapons.<\/p>\n
But NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said that Russia was readying for a protracted war.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see that they are mobilizing more forces, that they are willing to suffer also a lot of casualties, that they are trying to get access to more weapons and ammunition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV: Ukraine was working Saturday to restore electricity to hospitals, heating systems and other critical infrastructure in major cities after Russia\u2019s latest wave of attacks on the power grid prompted accusations of \u201cwar crimes.\u201d The volley of missiles unleashed Friday pitched multiple cities into darkness, cutting water and heat and forcing people to endure below-freezing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301818,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-301808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n