Russia launched more missile strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Thursday and its forces pressed attacks in eastern Ukraine, reinforced by troops pulled from Kherson city in the south which Kyiv recaptured last week.
NATO and Poland concluded that a missile that crashed in Poland on Tuesday, killing two people, was probably a stray fired by Ukraine’s air defences. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy contested this view in a rare public disagreement with his Western allies.
As the winter’s first snow fell in Kyiv, authorities said they were working hard to restore power nationwide after Russia earlier this week unleashed what Ukraine said was the heaviest bombardment of civilian infrastructure of the nine-month war.
Explosions were heard again on Thursday morning in several parts of Ukraine, including the southern port of Odesa, the capital Kyiv and the central city of Dnipro.
Local officials said two people were killed in a missile attack overnight on the southern region of Zaporhizhzhia, three were wounded in an attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv and three were hurt in Odesa.
“Missiles are flying over Kyiv right now,” Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal as saying at a conference. “Now they are bombing our gas production, they are bombing our enterprises in Dnipro and Yuzhmash (missile factory).”
State energy company Naftogaz confirmed that gas production facilities in eastern Ukraine had been damaged or destroyed.
The United Nations’ humanitarian office (OCHA) warned of a serious humanitarian crisis in Ukraine this winter.
“Millions are facing constant power cuts, and the lack of energy is also affecting water pumping,” it said in a statement.
