Facing reverses on the frontline, Russian forces are intensifying strategic strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, with a renewed bombardment of Kyiv (Kiev) cutting off power and water in the capital.
Vitali Klitschko, the former heavyweight boxing champion who serves as the capital city’s mayor, said an energy facility powering “about 350,000 apartments in Kyiv” had been rocked by five explosions in the early hours of Monday morning.
“As a result of strikes on critical infrastructure facilities, part of the capital was cut off. There is no water supply in some areas,” said Klitschko — indeed, he reported that somewhere in the region of 80 per cent of Kyiv residents are now without water, asked people “to stock up on water from the nearest pumps and points of sale” as best they can.
Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, slammed the Russian strikes, saying that “[i]nstead of fighting on the battlefield, Russia fights civilians” in a statement published on social media.
The Ukrainian military claimed that Russia, which has reportedly used warship-launched cruise missiles and Iranian-made drones in strikes over recent weeks, had in this instance used strategic bombers to launch “more than 50 X-101/X-555 cruise missiles” against Ukrainian targets.
These were based not only in Kyiv, but also Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia, somewhat towards the southern front of the war, and the western city of Lviv.
Ukraine further claimed to have downed at least 44 of these missiles, although as with most claims made by either side in the conflict this is impossible to independently verify.
In one of its own daily updates on the course of the war shared on Telegram, the Russian defence ministry described the bombardment as “strikes by high-precision long-range air- and sea-based armament [sic] at the military control and energy systems of Ukraine”, and claimed that “[a]ll the assigned targets have been neutralised.”
The strikes follow an apparent aerial and unmanned drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in the vicinity of Sevastopol, Crimea, which was branded a “terrorist attack” by the Kremlin and caused it to terminate the UN- and Turkey-brokered “grain corridor” allowing Ukrainian ships to export agricultural produce from their remaining ports.
Russia alleged the drone attack had been directed by Britain’s Royal Navy.
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