Russian missile attacks have been reported across Ukraine, with emergency power outages affecting more than one million people amid freezing temperatures
\n Moscow
\nPresident Vladimir Putin has said 100 drones and 90 missiles were launched at Ukraine over the past two days \u201cin response to strikes deep\u201d inside Russia as he threatened to hit Kyiv with a new missile.
\nPutin was addressing a meeting of a security alliance of former Soviet countries in Kazakhstan\u2019s capital, Astana, on Thursday after Ukraine said Russian missiles targeted its power infrastructure.
\nHe also addressed Russia\u2019s use of the Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile last week on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
\nPutin told the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit that Russia has begun serial production of the nuclear-capable weapon, and the Ministry of Defence was currently selecting more targets in Ukraine for strikes with the new missile.
\nThose targets could include \u201cdecision-making centres\u201d in Kyiv in response to Ukrainian long-range strikes on Russian territory with Western weapons, he added.
\nIn the event of a massive use of the Oreshnik, the force of the strike \u201cwill be comparable to nuclear weapons\u201d, he threatened.
\nUkraine\u2019s Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Thursday that the country\u2019s power infrastructure came \u201cunder massive enemy attack\u201d prompting the national power grid\u2019s operator to introduce emergency power cuts amid freezing temperatures.
\nPresident Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack a \u201cdespicable escalation\u201d, accusing Russia of using cluster munitions.
\n\u201cIn several regions, strikes with cluster munitions were recorded, and they targeted civilian infrastructure,\u201d he said in a post on Telegram. \u201cThis is a very despicable escalation of Russian terrorist tactics.\u201d
\nHe said Ukraine needed more Western air defence systems \u201cnow\u201d to protect against the Russian strikes.
\n\u201cThis is especially important in winter when we have to protect our infrastructure from targeted Russian attacks,\u201d Zelenskyy added.
\nCluster munitions have killed or wounded more than 1,000 people in Ukraine since Russia launched its all-out war in February 2022, the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) said in its annual report in September.
\nThey also pose a long-term risk since many fail to explode on impact, effectively acting as landmines that can explode years later, the CMC noted.
\nRussia and Ukraine are not among the 112 states that are party to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the use, transfer, production and storage of cluster bombs.
\nReporting from Kharkiv, Al Jazeera\u2019s Assed Baig said the attack seems to be Russia\u2019s \u201clargest in recent months\u201d.
\n\u201cThe Ukrainian air defences have been in action to intercept some of those missiles, but there are reports of residential buildings being hit in Kharkiv as well as debris falling in areas of the capital, Kyiv,\u201d he said.
\nUkraine\u2019s air force said Russia fired 91 missiles and 97 attack drones, adding that 79 of the missiles and 35 of the drones were intercepted.
\nAt least some of the weapons hit their targets, Ukrainian officials said.
\n\u201cPower facilities in several regions were damaged,\u201d the Ukrenergo national power grid electricity operator said, adding that it had introduced emergency blackouts across the country.
\nAuthorities in the Lviv and Kyiv regions said critical infrastructure sites had been hit.
\nThere have been power outages in Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro and Donetsk regions, according to Ukrenergo, as temperatures across the country dropped to about 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit).
\nThe CEO of the Yasno energy supplier, Serhii Kovalenko, subsequently said there were emergency blackouts all over the country because of the attacks.
\nMore than a million customers in Ukraine\u2019s west, hundreds of kilometres from the front lines, were without power.
\n\u201cAs of now, 523,000 subscribers in Lviv region are without electricity,\u201d chief of the western region, Maksym Kozytskyi, said on social media.
\nRegional officials said at least 280,000 others were cut off in the western Rivne region and another 215,000 in the northwestern Volyn region, which also borders Poland, a European Union and NATO member.
\n\u201cPower engineers are working to ensure backup power supply schemes where possible. They have already started restoration work where the security situation allows,\u201d the Ministry of Energy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russian missile attacks have been reported across Ukraine, with emergency power outages affecting more than one million people amid freezing temperatures Moscow President Vladimir Putin has said 100 drones and 90 missiles were launched at Ukraine over the past two days \u201cin response to strikes deep\u201d inside Russia as he threatened to hit Kyiv with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-446350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n