Blackouts sweep Ukraine after latest deadly Russian missile salvo

At least six people were killed and dozens injured in a wave of Russian missile attacks on Ukraine that knocked out power and water supplies to millions of people across the country and caused blackouts in half of neighbouring Moldova.

At least three Ukrainian nuclear power stations also shut down on Wednesday when electricity supply from the national grid was disrupted, as Russia launched another salvo of long-range rockets at Ukraine’s already war-scarred critical infrastructure.

“Three people were killed as a result of today’s rocket attack on the capital. Among them is a 17-year-old girl. Eleven residents of the capital were injured,” said Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko. Ukraine’s police service said the missile attack killed at least six people and injured 36 nationwide.

Cities and regions including Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Chernihiv reported blackouts across all or part of their territory, which halted or severely disrupted supplies of heat, light and water as temperatures hovered around freezing across much of the country.

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“Today’s missile attack led to the temporary outages at all nuclear power plants and most thermal and hydroelectric power plants. Electricity transmission facilities were also affected. As a result, the vast majority of electricity consumers across the country were cut off,” Ukraine’s energy ministry said in a statement.

State energy firm Ukrenergo said “emergency shutdowns are occurring in all regions… Repair crews, together with units of the state emergency service, will start repairing damage as soon as the air-raid alert ends. However, due to frost and freezing rain in some regions, emergency repair work … may take longer than usual.”

Ukraine’s air force said its defence systems shot down 51 of 70 missiles fired by Russia on Wednesday, and five explosive “kamikaze” drones.

[ More than 400 children killed in war to date, Ukraine says ]

The attack further weakened a Ukrainian electricity network that has suffered severe damage in successive waves of missile strikes by Russia, which the European Parliament voted on Wednesday to designate as a “state sponsor of terrorism” – a symbolic move that does not trigger additional sanctions or other measures against Moscow.

“The terrorists immediately confirm that they are terrorists – they launch rockets. Naive losers. The energy terror continues. We will hold on. They will not break us,” Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wrote on Twitter.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken announced clearance to send $400 million (€386 million) in new military aid to Ukraine, including “artillery ammunition, precision fires, air defence missiles, and tactical vehicles”.

“We will continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes, so it can continue to defend itself and be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table when the time comes,” he said.

The missile attack on Ukraine also disrupted energy flows to neighbouring Moldova, where deputy prime minister Andrei Spinu said engineers were “working to reconnect more than 50 per cent of the country to electricity”.

Moldovan foreign minister Nicu Popescu tweeted: “Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have left Moldova in the dark, again. Massive blackouts across the country… I instructed that Russia’s ambassador be summoned for explanations.”

In the early hours of Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles had killed a newborn baby in a maternity hospital in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region and two people in the eastern Kharkiv province.

Ukraine’s SBU security service said that during searches of Orthodox Church monasteries on Tuesday it had found possible Russian propaganda material, bundles of cash in various currencies worth tens of thousands of euro and “dubious Russian citizens”.

“Over 50 people underwent in-depth counterintelligence interviews, including with the use of a polygraph. Among them were not only Ukrainian citizens but also foreigners, in particular Russian citizens who were on the territory of the church facilities,” the agency said.