Russia bombs civilians...

Water shut off in Kyiv as Russia bombs several Ukrainian cities

Kyiv mayor urges residents to stay in underground shelters and prepare water supplies.

BY VERONIKA MELKOZEROVA AND NICOLAS CAMUT

Kyiv’s entire water system was shut off on Friday morning after major Russian strikes targeted the Ukrainian capital, the city’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

“Due to damage to the energy infrastructure, there are interruptions in water supply in all districts of the capital,” Kiltschko wrote on Telegram, advising residents to “prepare a supply” of water and “stay in shelters.”

Air raid sirens howled for more than four hours across Ukraine and local authorities in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad reported blasts and air defense repelling rockets as Russia fired more than 60 missiles. 

While subway traffic has been stopped in Kyiv, underground metro stations continue to work as shelters, Klitschko said.

“Internet connection, electricity for recharging gadgets, drinking water and sanitary facilities will be available at the underground stations,” Klitschko said, adding that locals should wear “winter clothes and have extra warm clothes.”

Several cities in eastern Ukraine were also struck on Friday.

An “infrastructure facility” was hit in Kharkiv in the northeast, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram, adding that the city was without electricity.

Two people died and “at least five injured, including two children” after a “Russian missile hit a residential building in Kryvyi Rih,” the region’s governor Valentyn Reznichenko said.

“Russia attacked Ukraine, using bombers TU-95 to launch X-55 and X-101 missiles. We also saw Kalibr cruise missiles launch from the Black Sea as well as S-300 rockets,” Yuriy Ihnat, Ukrainian air force spokesman, said in a TV statement. “Also Russian TU22 M3 bombers were shooting X-22 missiles. While SU-35 launched X-59s.” 

Russians used bombers from the Engels Air Field — which suffered a drone attack earlier this month — for the first time to launch the latest attack, Ihnat added.

At 12:29 p.m. local time (11:29 a.m. CET), air raid alerts had been lifted in most of the country, according to an alert map published on Twitter.

Russia has been increasingly shelling Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent weeks, prompting Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy to say it was using winter as a “weapon of mass destruction.”

Ukrainian energy producers, who had just managed to restore the energy system after an attack on December 5, reported emergency power outages all over the country again. 

Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko told a Ukrainian news website that Friday’s attack damaged nine energy production facilities and electric substations in several regions of the country. 

State energy transmission company Ukrenergo said in a statement that the new attack against the energy infrastructure of Ukraine mainly targeted energy networks and generation facilities in northern, southern, and central regions of Ukraine. As a result of the shelling, the shortage of electricity in the system has gotten worse and this time might take even longer to restore power.  

“Emergency power cuts all over the country as energy facilities were hit in several regions,” Deputy Head of Ukraine’s President’s Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko confirmed in a statement.

Although Ukrainian authorities do not announce the exact scale of damage caused by Russian strikes, Kyiv Air Defense shot down 37 of 40 Russian missiles launched at the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv authorities said in a statement.

Dnipropetrovsk region Governor Valentyn Reznichenko reported around 10 missiles were shot down over the Dnipro area.  Five cruise missiles were shot down over Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, an Odesa regional spokesman reported in his blog. Overall 11 missiles were destroyed in southern Ukrainian regions.