Russia strikes cities across Ukraine with cruise missiles

Russia carried out its second big attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure this month on Thursday, with national and local officials reporting blasts and emergency power cuts across the country effecting hundreds of thousands of people.

“Energy infrastructure is once again targeted by the enemy’s massive strike,” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook.

Ukraine’s national grid operator Ukrenergo introduced emergency power cuts amid the attack, Galushchenko said.

Ukraine’s top private power company DTEK said the power cuts impacted the capital as well as Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.

Russia previously staged 10 massive attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure, which hobbled the system and spurred fears of long power cuts ahead of the winter months.

During the Thursday missile attack on the western Rivne region, governor Oleksandr Koval said 280,000 consumers experienced power cuts. He also reported interruptions in water supply without elaborating on damage.

The mayor of the western town of Lutsk reported power cuts after several strikes, adding that the services were working to connect water and heating infrastructure to alternative power sources.

Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said a missile strike on the city damaged a business facility and windows in an apartment building.

The missile attack on the northeastern Sumy region targeted infrastructure, regional authorities said.

Debris in Kyiv fell on the territory of a business and dealt minor damage to several buildings and a truck, the Kyiv city military administration said.