Outages struck Kyiv and the surrounding region, as well as Lviv, Dnipro, Odesa and Kharkiv. Half of Moldova, whose grid is tied to Ukraine’s, also lost power, NYT reported.
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Russia pounded Ukraine’s energy facilities on Wednesday, as missiles rocked Kyiv and other cities, plunging large areas of the nation into darkness, shutting down water systems and cutting off power in half the neighboring country of Moldova.
The attack was the widest since Nov. 15, when 100 missiles and drones rained down, and among the most devastating of the entire war.
The blasts sent plumes of smoke into the skies as Ukrainian air defense systems worked to shoot down incoming rockets that Moscow has been aiming at energy installations for weeks in an effort to break Ukrainians’ will by depriving them of light and heat in the winter months.
“We have confirmation of hits on critical infrastructure facilities in several regions,” the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said in a statement.
From Lviv in the west to Dnipro and Odesa in the south and Kharkiv in the northeast, officials reported interruptions in electricity, water and other key services during the latest wave of assaults by Russia aimed at disabling Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and leaving its people in the cold and darkness. Winter weather has already set in, with subfreezing temperatures and snow across much of the country.
“The weather we have been preparing for and dreading is now upon the people of Ukraine,” Rosemary A. DiCarlo, a United Nations under secretary general, told the Security Council Wednesday at an emergency meeting called by Ukraine.
The day’s barrage killed at least 10 people and injured dozens, government officials said, while Ukraine’s air defenses shot down 51 of 70 Russian cruise missiles and five drones.
“This is the Russian formula of terror,” President Volodymyr Zelensky told the U.N. Security Council by video link. He added, “This is an obvious crime against humanity.”
He decried once again the council’s structure, which gives Russia and four other member nations veto power.
“In your midst you have representatives of a state that does not offer anything but terror, instability and disinformation,” Mr. Zelensky told the Security Council. “This is a dead end, when the instigator of this war, when the party responsible for this terror, is blocking any attempt on behalf of the security council to exercise its mandate.”