Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure on Wednesday led to massive power and water cuts, particularly in the capital kyiv, killing at least six people, causing the disconnection of three nuclear power plants and affecting neighboring Moldova.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia fired around 70 cruise missiles at the country, 51 of which were shot down, along with five suicide bombers. They targeted strategic infrastructure as winter temperatures set in in Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky lamented a “tragic result” while promising that the Ukrainians would “overcome everything”.
“Unable to win in a fair fight with the Ukrainian army, Russia is waging a cowardly war of terror against civilians”, denounced the head of diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba. “Russian terror will fail. Ukraine will win,” he added.
According to the head of the national police, Igor Klymenko, the Russian bombardments left at least six people dead and 36 injured.
In kyiv, “three people were killed. Among them is a 17-year-old girl,” said the mayor of the capital, Vitaly Klitschko, who said that “11 residents were injured” in these strikes.
He had announced earlier that an “infrastructure site” had been hit, and said that the water supply had been “suspended throughout Kyiv” because of the strikes.
An AFP reporter saw several ambulances and fire engines swarming around what looked like a smoking crater.
The regional governor, Oleksiï Kouleba, announced to him that “the whole region is without light”.
Disconnected nuclear power plants
Following the Russian strikes, three nuclear power plants were “disconnected” from the electricity grid, without causing any consequences on the level of radiation at this stage. The supply of that of Zaporijjia, occupied by the Russians, was stopped.
In Kramatorsk, in the East, Denys Vinnyk, 23, told AFP that he was “worried” about these cuts, as did Ksenia Tcherkachina, met in front of the restaurant where she works and who is in the dark: “Until ‘Now we can cope… But the supply of electricity and heating is unstable,” she said.
In Lviv, western Ukraine, two Russian missile strikes hit an electrical substation, causing power outages in two neighborhoods, according to Governor Maxim Kozytsky.
Another direct consequence of these Russian strikes, Moldova, already plagued by major energy problems caused by the war in Ukraine, was the victim of “massive power outages”, according to its Deputy Prime Minister, Andrei Spinu.
On the diplomatic front, the European Parliament on Wednesday described Russia as a “State promoter of terrorism”, in a vote carried out almost nine months to the day after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This vote was quickly “welcomed” by President Zelensky for whom “Russia must be isolated at all levels and held responsible in order to end its long-standing terrorist policy in Ukraine and around the world”.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said Wednesday’s strikes proved that Russia should “be recognized as a terrorist state around the world”.
The spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, for her part castigated the decision of the European Parliament, describing it as “idiot”.
Maternity affected
Elsewhere in Ukraine, a baby “born two days ago” was killed overnight in a Russian strike on a maternity hospital in Vilniansk, in the Zaporizhia region, relief workers told AFP.
“The enemy has once again decided to try to accomplish by terror and murder what it could not accomplish in nine months” of its invasion of Ukraine, reacted Mr. Zelensky.
Despite still violent fighting, particularly in the East, Moscow and kyiv continue to exchange prisoners of war.
“Another exchange took place today with kyiv according to the formula 35 for 35,” said Wednesday a senior leader of the Russian occupation authority, Denis Pushilin.
Among the released Ukrainian prisoners are “22 national guards, 8 border guards, 4 navy soldiers, a guy from the armed forces” and also a civilian “amputated” with a leg, specifies the chief of staff of the Ukrainian presidency , Andriï Iermak.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday that he would have “direct contact” with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “in the coming days”, in particular on Ukrainian civilian nuclear power, a source of concern.
The United States also announced $400 million in new military aid for Ukraine for additional weapons, ammunition and air defense equipment.
The UK has sent a first Sea King helicopter to Ukraine and plans to provide two more.