Ukraine struggled on Friday to keep water and electricity back to millions of people after Russia launched dozens of cruise missiles that damaged the country’s already crammed power grid.
Ukraine’s energy system is on the verge of collapse and millions of people have suffered emergency blackouts in recent weeks.
The World Health Organization has warned of “life-threatening” consequences and estimated that millions of people could leave their homes as a result.
“The power situation remains difficult in almost all regions,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday evening. “However, we are slowly moving away from blackouts — every hour we return power to new customers.”
More than 24 hours after the Russian attacks in Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said late Thursday that 60 percent of homes in the capital were still facing a state of emergency. However, city officials said water services had been fully restored.
But seven people were killed in shelling in Vyshgorod, on the outskirts of the city, said Oleksiy Kuleba, head of the Kyiv regional military administration.
A senior official there said Thursday that at least four people were killed in the latest attack in the southern city of Kherson, which was recently recaptured by Ukraine.
The latest attacks on the power grid come with the onset of winter and temperatures in the capital hovering just above freezing.
The western region of Khmelnytsky was the worst affected by the power outage with only 35 percent of its normal capacity, but according to Serhiy Hamali, the head of the regional administration, it was enough to connect vital infrastructure.
About 300,000 residents in the eastern Kharkiv region near the border with Russia were still without power on Thursday evening, but power had been restored to about 70 percent of consumers, said Oleh Sinyhubov of the regional military administration.
“We have restored the power supply,” said Igor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv city.
“Trust me, it was very difficult.”
Ukraine accused the Russian military of launching about 70 cruise missiles as well as drones, which killed 10 people and injured about 50.
But Russia’s Defense Ministry denied hitting any targets inside Kyiv, insisting that Ukrainian and foreign air defense systems had caused the damage.
Not a single target was hit inside the city of Kyiv, it said.
– ‘Scariest Day’ –
Moscow is targeting power facilities in an apparent attempt to force a surrender after a nine-month war that has seen its military fail most of its stated territorial objectives.
“The way they fight and target civilian infrastructure can cause nothing but fury,” said Oleksiy Yakovlenko, chief administrator of a hospital in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk.
Despite repeated blackouts, Yakovlenko said his resolve was unwavering.
“If they expect us to fall on our knees and crawl to them, it won’t happen,” Yakovlenko told AFP.
Russian soldiers have suffered defeat on the battlefield.
Ukraine’s recapture of Kherson meant withdrawal from the only regional capital captured by Russia, with Moscow’s troops destroying key infrastructure on the retreat.
The head of the Kherson military administration, Yaroslav Yanushevich, said on Thursday that at least four people had been killed in the Russian strikes.
“Russian aggressors opened fire from multiple rocket launchers on a residential area. A large building caught fire,” he said in a telegram.
Ukrainian prosecutors also said on Thursday that authorities had discovered a total of nine torture sites used by the Russians in Kherson, as well as “the bodies of 432 killed civilians”.
Wednesday’s attacks automatically disconnected three Ukrainian nuclear plants from the national grid and triggered blackouts in neighboring Moldova, where the energy network is linked to Ukraine.
The energy ministry said all three nuclear facilities had been reconnected as of Thursday morning.
Electricity was almost fully back online in former Soviet Moldova, where its pro-European President Maia Sandu called a special meeting of its Security Council.
– ‘shut down’ –
The Kremlin said that Ukraine was ultimately responsible for the consequences of the attacks and that Kyiv could end the attacks by accepting Russian demands.
Ukrainian spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “Ukraine has every chance to settle the situation in order to meet Russia’s demands and end all possible suffering of the civilian population as a result.”
Zelensky said that Ukraine’s military was “preparing to advance” in some areas.
“Almost every hour I receive reports of attacks by the occupiers on Kherson and other communities in the region,” he said.
“Such terror began immediately after the Russian army was forced to flee from the Kherson region. This is revenge for those who lost.”
The Ukrainian leader struck an optimistic note at the end of his nightly address.
“We’ve suffered nine months of full-scale war, and Russia hasn’t found a way to break us.”