(Kyiv) Russia on Saturday fired missiles against key infrastructure in Kyiv and other regions of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials who also claim to keep control of the city of Soledar (east), which Moscow claims to have taken over end of a fierce battle.
“Today, the enemy again fired against energy installations,” said operator Ukrenergo, adding that it was working to “eliminate the consequences” of these strikes.
Several explosions sounded in the morning in Kyiv, AFP journalists found, with Ukrainian officials saying strikes had targeted key infrastructure in the capital.
“A missile attack on critical infrastructure” is underway in Kyiv, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram while the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko reported explosions in the Dniprovskiy district, calling on residents to “stay in the shelters”.
The municipality also reported a firing on an installation, “without major destruction or fire”. According to her, the fire appeared in a warehouse after the fall of fragments of a missile in the Golosiivsky district. According to Mr. Klitschko there were no injuries.
In the Kharkiv region (northeast), “the enemy launched a new missile attack on essential infrastructure,” said Governor Oleg Synegibov. Emergency power cuts could have in this city, the second in Ukraine, he added.
Attacks have also been reported further south, in the Zaporizhia region.
“The fighting continues” in Soledar
“The enemy is attacking the territory of Ukraine again,” also said the head of the Cherkasy region (center), Igor Taburets, adding to expect large-scale alerts in the middle of the day.
Since October and a series of setbacks in Ukraine, Moscow has been methodically bombarding the country’s vital infrastructure, forcing electricity companies to restore the network as quickly as possible as the winter gets harsher.
On the front, the small town of Soledar, in eastern Ukraine, at the center of a fierce battle and which Moscow claims to have taken, is still “under Ukrainian control”, assured Saturday the governor of the region of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko.
“Soledar is under the control of the Ukrainian authorities, our forces have control of it,” he said, adding “the fighting continues in the city and outside”.
This locality and the nearby town of Bakhmout currently remain the “hottest” points of the conflict, he said on television.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that the “liberation” of this city took place “on January 12 in the evening”.
The Russian army hailed the “courageous actions” of the fighters of the Wagner mercenary group, whose men led “the direct assault on the residential areas of Soledar”.
“More heavy equipment”
“It’s a difficult phase of the war,” said Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar on Friday, recognizing “a high-intensity (Russian) offensive”.
The fighting in and around Soledar has been raging for several months, but its intensity has increased sharply in recent days.
Its capture by Moscow forces would be a notable victory for Russia, after the series of failures on the ground by its troops in recent months.
To deal with the Russian army, Kyiv again called on its Western allies on Friday to provide it with more weapons and high-performance military equipment, such as heavy tanks and long-range missiles.
“To win this war, we need more military equipment, heavy equipment,” urged Andriï Iermak, the chief of staff of the Ukrainian presidency, on Telegram.
The UN Security Council met again to discuss the situation in Ukraine on Friday, nearly eleven months after the start of the Russian invasion.
“Ukraine, Russia, the world cannot afford for this war to continue,” said UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo, deploring to see “no sign of an end to fights”.