Russia hits key infrastructure with missiles across Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine —  Russian missiles hit Ukraine on Thursday in the biggest wave of strikes in weeks, damaging power stations and other critical infrastructure during freezing weather.

Russia fired 69 missiles at energy facilities, and Ukrainian forces shot down 54, Ukrainian military chief Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny said. Local officials said attacks killed at least two people around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The strikes also wounded at least seven people across the country, although the toll of the attacks was growing as officials assessed the day’s events.

Russia dispatched explosive drones to selected regions overnight before broadening the barrage with air and sea-based missiles, the Ukrainian air force said. Air raid sirens rang out across the country, and the military activated air defense systems in Kyiv, the regional administration said.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said the attack damaged 18 residential buildings and 10 pieces of critical infrastructure in 10 regions.

Russia has attacked Ukrainian power and water supplies almost weekly since October while its ground forces struggle to hold ground and advance. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko warned of power outages in the capital, asking people to stockpile water and charge their electronic devices.

In the southeastern Kyiv district of Bortnychi, an explosion flattened at least one house and broke the doors, roofs and windows of several others nearby.

Yana Denysenko went through broken glass in her grandparent’s home to collect personal items. Though she does not live there, she came immediately after the explosion and found her wounded mother, sister and 14-year-old niece in ambulances.

Denysenko hugged her tearful grandmother Anhelina, who was at work when the explosion happened.

“I’m scared to see all this. How many mothers are crying?” Anhelina said. “I want my children to recover.”

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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the attacks “senseless barbarism.”

“There can be no ‘neutrality’ in the face of such mass war crimes. Pretending to be ‘neutral’ equals taking Russia’s side,” Kuleba tweeted.

After more than 10 months of fighting, Russia and Ukraine are locked in a grinding battle of attrition. The Ukrainian military has reclaimed swaths of Russian-occupied territory in the country’s northeast and south, and continues to resist persistent Russian attempts to seize all of the industrial Donbas region.

At the same time, Moscow has methodically targeted power facilities and other key infrastructure in a bid to weaken the country’s resolve and force it to negotiate on Russian terms. The time between strikes has increased in recent weeks, though, leading some commentators to theorize Russia is trying to ration its missile supply.

The Ukrainian military reported success in shooting down Russian missiles and explosive drones after earlier attacks, but many cities have gone without heat, internet service and electricity for hours or days at a time.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal said numerous energy facilities were damaged during what he said was the 10th such large-scale attack on his country.

“Russia is trying to deprive Ukrainians of light before the New Year,” Shmyhal wrote in a Telegram post. He said that emergency blackouts may be necessary “in some areas.”

About 90% of Lviv was without electricity, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi wrote on Telegram. Trams and trolley buses were not working, and residents might experience water interruptions, he said.

Most of the southern city of Odesa and nearby areas were left without power, Odesa regional Gov. Maksym Marchenko said in a video statement Thursday evening. Ukrainian air defense systems shot down 21 Russian missiles, he said, but some hit infrastructure.

Meanwhile, a Telegram channel affiliated with the presidential news service of Belarus said a Ukrainian S-300 air defense missile landed in Belarusian territory early Thursday. It said that the missile could have veered off course accidentally and that there were no casualties.

The Belarusian Defense Ministry said later that the missile was downed by the Belarusian air defense over the western Brest region and fell into a field, according to a statement carried by the state Belta news agency.

Belarus, Russia’s close ally, served as a staging ground for Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to express “strong protest,” it said, demanding that Ukraine “conduct a thorough investigation” and “hold those responsible to account.”

In response, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said Kyiv was “ready to conduct an objective investigation” of the incident and to invite “authoritative experts” from abroad to participate in it, with a caveat that these experts should come from countries that do not support Russia.

This month, the United States agreed to give a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine to boost the country’s defense. The U.S. and other allies also pledged to provide energy-related equipment to help Ukraine withstand the attacks on its infrastructure.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Russia was aiming to “destroy critical infrastructure and kill civilians en masse.”

Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said Monday that his nation wants a peace summit within two months at the United Nations with Secretary-General António Guterres as mediator. He said that Russia must face a war crimes tribunal before his country directly talks with Moscow but that other nations should feel free to engage with the Russians.

Commenting on the summit proposal Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed it as “delirious” and “hollow,” describing the proposal as a “publicity stunt by Washington that tries to cast the Kyiv regime as a peacemaker.”

Russian officials have said any peace plan can proceed only from Kyiv’s recognition of Russia’s sovereignty over the regions it illegally annexed from Ukraine in September.

A 10-point peace plan Zelensky presented last month at a Group of 20 summit in Bali includes the full restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, the release of all prisoners, a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression and security guarantees for Ukraine.