Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that more than 120 missiles had been fired at Ukraine, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Over 120 Russian missiles fired at Ukrainian cities: presidential aide
Podolyak wrote on Twitter: “120+ missiles over Ukraine launched by the "evil Russian world" to destroy critical infrastructure & kill civilians en masse. We’re waiting for further proposals from "peacekeepers" about "peaceful settlement", "security guarantees for RF" & undesirability of provocations.”
Meanwhile, the mayors of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv reported blasts in their cities as air raid sirens could be heard across the country, the Reuters news agency reported.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia was following an overnight assault by "kamikaze" drones by attacking Ukraine "from different directions" with air- and sea-based cruise missiles, with Ukraine’s air-defence systems called into action across the country.
40% of Kyiv without power: mayor
Following the attack, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on the Telegram social messaging app that 40 percent of the capital’s residents were without electricity.
Klitschko said, as quoted by Britain’s The Guardian newspaper: “40% of the capital’s consumers are without electricity after the missile attack. In connection with the necessary safety measures used by power workers during an air alert. Power engineers are currently working on restoring the power supply.”
He added: “The city supplies heat and water as usual. In addition to houses where there is no energy supply, on which the operation of boiler rooms depends.”
Earlier, Kyiv’s city military administration said on Telegram that "two private houses in Darnytskyi district were damaged by the fragments of downed missiles," adding that a business and a playground were also damaged and that the situation of the victims "is being clarified," according to Reuters.
Klitschko later said that 16 Russian missiles had been taken down over Kyiv by Ukraine’s air defences, the PAP news agency reported.
Three people were injured as a result of the attack on the capital, officials said.
90% of Lviv without power: mayor
Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, announced that 90 percent of the western Ukrainian city had been left without electricity due to a barrage of Russian missiles on Thursday morning, the Ukrainska Pravda website reported.
Sadovyi said: "Ninety percent of the city is without electricity. We are waiting for additional information from power engineers."
He added that trams and trolleybuses were not running in Lviv.
"There may be interruptions in the water supply," Sadovyi said, as cited by Ukrainska Pravda. "We are switching to diesel generator operation at critical infrastructure facilities."
Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of the northeastern city of Kharkiv, which was also hit by Russian missiles on Thursday morning, said officials were clarifying what had been struck and whether there were any casualties, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Railways said numerous train lines were delayed as a result of power blackouts, according to Reuters.
Emergency power outages
Emergency power cuts were announced in the Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy and Zhytomyr regions, aimed at minimising potential damage to the energy infrastructure, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
The Guardian cited Yuriy Ignat, a spokesman for the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as saying that the Russians used "about 13 planes and two ships."
Ignat said, as quoted by The Guardian: "There are planes that can launch Kh-22 missiles. The activity is high. If 13 planes and two ships are involved, then you can understand that there can be about 100 missiles.”
Thursday is day 309 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, Reuters, The Guardian, Ukrainska Pravda