Russian drone and missile strikes wounded at least 20 people in Kyiv, damaged residential buildings and caused blackouts across swathes of Ukraine early Friday, authorities said. A child was also killed in separate attacks in the southeast of the country.
In the heart of the Ukrainian capital, rescue crews pulled more than 20 people out of a 17-storey apartment building as flames engulfed the sixth and seventh floors. Five people were hospitalized, while others received first aid at the scene, authorities said.
“Everyone was sleeping and suddenly there was such a sharp sound; it was clear that something was flying. I managed to pull the blanket over my head and then the strike hit — it blew out the windows and the glass flew almost all the way to the door,” 61-year-old resident Tetiana Lemishevska told The Associated Press.
“The fire was on the sixth or seventh floor at first, and the flames went up quickly and spread to other floors. So all the people who could left the building without knowing how it would end,” she said.
Ukraine’s air force said Friday that the latest Russian barrage included 465 strike and decoy drones, as well as 32 missiles of various types. Air defences intercepted or jammed 405 drones and 15 missiles, it said.
In the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, residential areas and energy sites were pounded with attack drones, missiles and guided bombs, killing a seven-year-old boy and wounding his parents and others, military administration officials said. A hydroelectric plant in the area was taken offline as a precaution, they said.
Police officers work at the site of a Russian drone strike in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region on Friday. (Reuters)Poland offers help to Ukraine
The Russian strikes targeted civilian and energy infrastructure as Ukraine prepared for falling winter temperatures, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media.
Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko also described the attack as “one of the largest concentrated strikes” against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
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Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo, reported power outages in Kyiv and the wider region, as well as in the Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Cherkasy regions.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that Friday’s attack knocked out power on both sides of the city, divided by the Dnipro River, while Ukraine’s biggest electricity operator, DTEK, said that repair work was already underway on multiple damaged thermal plants.
The energy sector has been a key battleground since Russia launched its all-out invasion of neighbouring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Each year, Russia has tried to cripple the Ukrainian power grid before the bitter winter season, apparently hoping to erode public morale. Ukraine’s winter temperatures run from late October through March, with January and February the coldest months.
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‘We didn’t sleep all night,’ Kyiv resident says after Russian attacks
Kyiv resident Yevgeniya Charchiyan described her fear and shock on Friday after her building was damaged as Russia launched yet another attack on Ukraine’s infrastructure.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, visiting Lviv in western Ukraine, said Poland was discussing how to support its eastern neighbour in terms of generation and extra electricity supplies.
“This is another escalation, because we know why it’s being carried out. It’s meant to intimidate people ahead of winter,” he said.
Russia has also accused Ukraine of targeting energy facilities. On Thursday, the governor of Russia’s Volograd region said a Ukraine drone attack had caused fires at energy facilities there, without elaborating.