Several regions of Ukraine have reported interruptions to power and water supplies amid freezing temperatures after about 70 Russian missiles were fired at targets across the country.
The Ukrainian Air Force said the great majority of missiles were intercepted, but some appear to have reached their targets.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russia “tried to implement its criminal plan — to plunge Ukraine into darkness and cold. The enemy once again failed in its plan.”
“The country’s energy system is functioning and remains intact,” Shmyhal added.
But he said there were “hits to power facilities in Kyiv region, Vinnytsia region and Odesa region. In some regions, emergency shutdowns were forced to balance the system and avoid accidents. Rescuers are already working to eliminate the consequences of the attack.”
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that the missile attacks showed Ukraine still needed more air defenses.
“Russia has fired another barrage of missiles at our critical civilian infrastructure trying to deprive people of power, water, and heating amid freezing temperatures. The more war crimes Russia commits, the more weapons should be provided to Ukraine to end Russian terror sooner,” Kuleba tweeted.
Impacted areas: Odesa appears to have been among the worst affected regions. Maksym Marchenko, head of Odesa regional state administration, said energy infrastructure was damaged and there were also hits to civilian buildings, wounding two people.
“Currently, there is no electricity supply in Odesa city and most communities of Odesa district. All services are on the ground and have already started to restore power supply,” the official said.
One of Ukraine’s major electricity providers, DTEK, said there were “emergency blackouts” in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. These are in addition to scheduled power outages already in effect.
“We will resume the stabilization schedules as soon as the situation in the power system stabilizes,” DTEK said.
Oleksiy Kuleba, head of Kyiv region military administration, said on Ukrainian television that “one energy infrastructure facility was hit in the Kyiv region. The attack was extremely dynamic, there were many targets. We will be able to give a clearer analysis of what happened within the next two hours. I can say that we do not see any critical consequences.”
Kuleba added: “Emergency shutdowns continue in Kyiv region now. Currently, about 40% of subscribers are without power supply. This is an emergency shutdown. We are currently consulting on when we will be able to supply power to all consumers.”
The Ivano-Frankivsk region also reported power cuts as a result of Russian missile attacks Monday, with the head of the region’s state administration, Svitlana Onyshchuk, saying the regional power distribution company had reported that “due to massive shelling of the energy infrastructure facilities,” NPC Ukrenergo had reduced electricity capacity in the Prykarpattia area by one-third. Prykarpattia is located near the Carpathian mountains in western Ukraine.
