Russia bombards multiple Ukrainian cities including Kyiv, Odesa and Kharkiv

Russia unleashed a massive missile barrage across Ukraine on Thursday hitting residential buildings and killing at least five people in the largest scale such attack in three weeks, officials said.

The missiles targeted energy infrastructure in capital Kyiv, the Black Sea port of Odesa and Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, knocking out power to several areas, regional officials said.

Targets were also hit cities stretching from Zhytomyr, Vynnytsia and Rivne in the west to Dnipro and Poltava in central Ukraine. More explosions were reported in the northern city of Chernihiv and the western Lviv region, as well as in the cities of Dnipro, Lutsk and Rivne. Ukrainian media also report explosions in the western regions of Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil.

Four people were killed in the Lviv region after a missile struck a residential area, Lviv Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi said. Three buildings were destroyed by fire after the strike and rescue workers were combing through rubble looking for more possible victims.

Three Russian rockets launched against Ukraine from Russia’s Belgorod region are seen at dawn on Thursday in Kharkiv

Smoke rises after a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine March 9, 2023

A fifth person was killed and two others wounded in multiple strikes in the Dnipropetrovsk region that targeted its energy infrastructure and industrial facilities, Gov. Serhii Lysak said.

Air raid sirens wailed through the night across Ukraine, including the capital, Kyiv, where explosions occurred in two western areas of the city.

Defense systems were activated around the country, and it wasn’t clear how many missiles struck targets or were intercepted. 

The city’s administration said Kyiv was attacked with both missiles and exploding drones and that many were intercepted but that its energy infrastructure was hit. 

The capital’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said explosions were registered in the southwestern part of the city and rescue services were on their way. Ukraine’s military administration said 40 percent of Kyiv’s residents were left without power. 

He said two people were wounded in the Sviatoshynskyi district, on the west side of the city, and cars were ablaze there, the mayor added. 

Reuters correspondents stationed in Kyiv heard a fresh series of explosions around 7am local time (0500 GMT). The alarm in Kyiv was lifted just before 8am, with the air raid sirens falling silent after some seven hours.

The missile barrage struck as Russia pushed its advance in Ukraine’s eastern stronghold of Bakhmut, where a grinding fight between the two sides has gone on for six months and reduced the city to a smoldering wasteland.

It also came hours after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Kyiv for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky on extending an agreement that allows Ukraine to ship grain from its Black Sea ports and permits Russia to export food and fertilisers.

In eastern Ukraine, 15 missiles struck Kharkiv and the outlying northeastern region, hitting residential buildings, according to Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov.

He promised to reveal more details about the scale of the damage or any casualties in Ukraine’s second-largest city. ‘Objects of critical infrastructure is again in the crosshairs of the occupants,’ he said in a Telegram post.

‘The enemy made about 15 strikes on the city and region,’ he added. ‘Information on casualties is being clarified.’

According to Ukrainian news outlet Obozrevatel.ua, two people were injured by a missile strike in Kharkiv which landed near their house.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported on Telegram that there were ‘problems with electricity’ in some parts of the city.

The governor of Odesa region, Maksym Marchenko, said a mass missile attack had hit an energy facility in the port city, triggering power cuts.

‘As a result of a mass missile strike, an energy infrastructure site was hit in the region as well as residences,’ Marchenko said on Telegram. 

He said anti-aircraft units had downed some missiles and new attacks could follow.

‘Fortunately, there are no casualties. Electricity restrictions are in effect.’

Another strike was reported in the central city of Dnipro and in the western towns of Lutsk and Rivne, far from the front lines in the year-old war. 

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is occupied by Russian forces, lost power as a result of the missile attacks, according to nuclear state operator Energoatom.

It was the sixth time the plant was in a state of blackout since it was taken over by Russia months ago, forcing it to rely on 18 diesel generators that can run the station for 10 days, Energoatom said. 

Nuclear plants need constant power to run cooling systems and avoid a meltdown.

‘The countdown has begun,’ Energoatom said.

Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko condemned the missile strikes as ‘another barbaric massive attack on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine,’ saying in a Facebook post that facilities in Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions had been targeted.

Ukrainian Railways reported power outages in certain areas, with 15 trains delayed up to an hour.

Preventive emergency power cuts were applied in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Odesa regions, supplier DTEK said. 

Rescue workers extinguish fires in vehicles in Kyiv on Thursday morning after Russian missile strikes

Fire engines are seen at work in Kyiv on Thursday after a series of missiles landed

 Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, said his city was hit in the early hours of Thursday

Klitschko said 40% of consumers in Kyiv were without heating because of the emergency power cuts. Water supplies were uninterrupted, he said.

More explosions were reported in the northern city of Chernihiv and the western Lviv region, as well as in the cities of Dnipro, Lutsk and Rivne. Ukrainian media also report explosions in the western regions of Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil.

Russia has been hitting Ukraine with these massive missile attacks since last October. Initially, the barrages targeting the country’s energy infrastructure took place weekly, plunging the entire cities into darkness, but became more spread out in time, with commentators speculating that Moscow may be saving up ammunition.

The last massive barrage took place on February 16.