Russia again launched strikes Thursday against several cities in Ukraine, including the capital kyiv, bombings that coincide with the first snowfall in a country plagued by power cuts caused by Russia.
The repetition of Russian strikes since October on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure regularly deprives millions of Ukrainians of power and water.
The Kremlin said Thursday that the suffering of civilians in Ukraine was “the consequence” of kyiv’s refusal to negotiate with Moscow.
“This is the consequence of the Ukrainian side’s lack of will to resolve the issue, to start negotiations, its refusal to seek common ground,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry told reporters. Peskov.
The country had already been hit by massive strikes on Tuesday, which come after another humiliating Russian retreat.
Russia, under pressure from a Ukrainian counter-offensive, abandoned the north of the Kherson region (south) on November 11, although it claims annexation.
Thursday’s new strikes come as kyiv experienced its first snowfall that blanketed cars parked in the streets in the morning. The regional governor, Oleksiï Kouleba, had warned the day before that the coming week would be “difficult”, with temperatures which could drop “to -10°C”.
In the capital region, two Russian cruise missiles and Iranian-made “Shahed” kamikaze drones were shot down by the Ukrainian defense, the city’s military administration said.
An AFP journalist saw one of these missiles fly over a residential area in the east of the capital.
In Dnipro (center-east), 14 people including a 15-year-old girl were injured in a bombardment, regional governor Valentin Reznitchenko said on Telegram.
“All are hospitalized in the city,” he added.
Two infrastructure sites were hit in this Russian strike, according to the presidency.
In the Odessa region (south), the Russians hit an infrastructure site injuring three people, the regional administration said.
“worsening of the situation”
The national electricity operator Ukrenergo announced the extension of power cuts for the day due to the “worsening of the situation”.
“Due to a sharp cooling, electricity consumption has increased in the regions of Ukraine” which has “further complicated the already difficult situation in the electricity system”, leading to “wider restrictions” in the consumption of electricity. energy across the country, Ukrenergo lamented on Facebook.
“This is a necessary step to preserve the stability of the energy system after the sixth targeted Russian missile attack against energy facilities,” the group said in reference to Tuesday’s massive Russian strikes.
For its part, the private Ukrainian operator DTEK spoke of “unprecedented destruction” suffered by Ukraine’s energy system, which “requires emergency shutdowns” imposed, in order to “prevent complex and large-scale accidents on networks”.
Moreover, after the fall of a missile on Poland on Tuesday, killing two people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared Thursday “not to know what happened”, after having nevertheless affirmed the day before that the projectile was “Russian”.
“I don’t know what happened. We don’t know for sure. The world does not know. But I’m sure it was a Russian missile, I’m sure we fired from air defense systems,” he said, quoted in a statement from the Ukrainian presidency.
On the diplomatic and economic level, the agreement allowing Ukrainian grain exports from Ukrainian ports has been renewed for the four winter months, alleviating concerns about a possible global food crisis.