Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian forces have “destroyed” 30% of Ukrainian power plants in
Russian missiles crashed into infrastructure targets across Ukraine on Tuesday morning as Moscow stepped up what appeared to be a deliberate campaign to destroy electricity and water facilities before winter.
“Since October 10, 30% of Ukrainian power plants have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country,” Zelensky said on Twitter.
He added that “there is no more room for negotiations with the Putin regime (President Vladimir)”.
The mayor of Zhytomyr, a city of 263,000 people, said the attacks cut off the electricity and water supply.
According to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a Ukrainian presidential aide, two explosions shook an energy facility in the southeastern city of Dnipro, a city of nearly 1 million, causing severe damage.
In the port of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, a missile crashed into an apartment building killing at least one man, a Reuters witness said, and explosions and smoke could be seen rising in Kiev, the capital.
There have also been reports of electrical installations being targeted in the city of Kharkiv, a city with a pre-war population of 1.43 million near the Russian border.
Zelenskyy accused Russia of terrorizing and killing civilians with air strikes, which occurred the day after drone strikes in Kiev and other cities killed at least four people.
“Ukraine is under fire from the occupiers. They continue to do what they do best: terrorize and kill civilians,” Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“The terrorist state will not change anything for itself with such actions. It will only confirm its destructive and murderous essence, which it will surely be held accountable for.”
There was no immediate word on how many people had been killed in the strikes.
Earlier this month, Russia appointed General Sergei Suvorikin general commander of what Moscow calls its “special operation” in Ukraine.
He served in Syria and Chechnya, where Russian forces hammered cities with a scorched earth policy against his enemies.
Dubbed “General Armageddon” by the Russian media due to his alleged harshness, his appointment was followed by the largest wave of missile attacks on Ukraine since the invasion of Moscow on February 24.
Moscow denies targeting civilians
Russia carried out its latest attacks on Tuesday after the United States warned it would hold Moscow accountable for any war crimes.
Moscow denies targeting civilians. Its defense ministry said it is carrying out attacks on military targets and energy infrastructure across Ukraine using high-precision weapons.
In the port city of Mykolaiv, a Reuters witness said he heard three explosions in the early hours of Tuesday.
A missile had completely destroyed a wing of a building in the city center, leaving a huge crater, they said. A fire brigade team was seen pulling a man’s body out of the rubble.
“In Mykolaiv, the enemy destroyed a residential building with S-300 missiles. One person died. There was also a strike in the flower market, in the chestnut park. I wonder what the Russian terrorists were fighting in these areas. absolutely peaceful structures? ” Mr. Zelenskii said.
The Russian attacks followed the advance of Ukrainian forces east and south and arrived connecting mainland Russia to Crimea, the peninsula that Russia annexed to Ukraine in 2014.
US President Joe Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday that the White House “strongly condemns Russia’s missile attacks” and spoke of Putin’s “brutality”.
