One million Ukrainians without power after ‘massive’ Russian airstrikes

Ukraine’s energy infrastructure came under a “massive” Russian attack on Thursday, according to Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko, leaving at least 1 million people across the country without power.

Explosions were reported in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, Lutsk, and several other cities in central and western Ukraine in an attack that lasted nearly 10 hours.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported that of the 91 Russian missiles fired at the country, it had shot down 75, as well as 35 of 97 Russian drones.

The airstrikes forced Ukraine’s national grid operator Ukrenergo to “urgently introduce emergency power cuts”, Galushchenko added, as temperatures dropped to around zero degrees Celsius.

“They stockpiled missiles to strike Ukrainian infrastructure, to wage war on civilians during the cold winter,” the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, said in a Telegram post, adding that Russia had been “helped by their crazy allies, including North Korea”.

Earlier this month senior UN official Rosemary DiCarlo warned that Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure may make this winter the “harshest since the start of the war”.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky alleged on Thursday that Russia had used cluster munitions as part of its overnight airstrikes, describing their use as a “very vile escalation of Russian terrorist tactics”.

“In several regions, Kalibr strikes with cluster munitions were recorded, specifically on civilian infrastructure. These cluster parts make it much more difficult for our rescuers and energy workers to eliminate the consequences of the impact,” Zelensky said.

Cluster munitions present an immediate threat to civilians during conflict as they scatter large numbers of submunitions over a wide area. Though the weapons are banned under the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, neither Russia nor Ukraine are signatories to the treaty.