KYIV: The latest in a sustained Russian campaign of massive drone and missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure brought power outages and restrictions in all the country’s regions Thursday, officials said, with the Ukrainian prime minister describing Moscow’s tactic as “systematic energy terror.”
The strikes, which were the latest in Russia’s almost daily attacks on the Ukrainian power grid as bitter winter temperatures approach, killed at least six people, including a 7-year-old girl, according to authorities. Children between 2 and 16 years of age were among the 18 injured.
Russian launched more than 650 drones and more than 50 missiles of various types in the attack, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Ukrainian cities use centralized public infrastructure to run water, sewage and heating systems, and blackouts stop them from working. Months of attacks have aimed to erode Ukrainian morale as well as disrupt weapons manufacturing and other war-related activity almost four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
“Russia continues its systematic energy terror — striking at the lives, dignity, and warmth of Ukrainians on the eve of winter. Its goal is to plunge Ukraine into darkness; ours is to keep the light on,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
“To stop this terror, Ukraine needs more air defense systems, tougher sanctions, and maximum pressure on (Russia),” she added, referring to fruitless US-led diplomatic efforts to make Russia enter negotiations for a peace settlement.
Two men and a woman were killed and another person was injured in a strike on the eastern Ukraine city of Sloviansk, police said.
Russian forces hit the city, which is just 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the front line, with rockets, Vadym Lyakh, the head of the city’s military administration, said.
Strikes in the southern Zaporizhzhia region injured 17 people, including a 2-year-old girl, regional authorities said. Rescuers pulled a man from the rubble of a building, but he did not survive, according to Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhzhia regional administration. A second person was also killed in Zaporizhzhia.
A 7-year-old girl died in hospital from her injuries in Ukraine’s central-west Vinnytsia region, regional governor Nataliia Zobolotna said.
Two energy infrastructure facilities were damaged in the western Lviv region, near the border with Poland, local authorities said.
The Polish military said that it scrambled Polish and allied NATO aircraft as a preventive measure due to the Russian attack on Ukrainian territory. The Polish regional airports in Radom and Lublin were closed to ensure the military freedom of operation, the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency said.