Russia hit Kyiv with a major drone and missile attack that left parts of the capital without power and disrupted water supply as Moscow targets energy infrastructure ahead of winter.
Power was out in several city districts and at least 12 civilians have been injured, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram on Friday.
He added that firefighters extinguished a blaze in a multistorey building in the city centre that was hit by drone debris. The attack also caused interruptions to central water supply to people’s homes, Mr Klitschko said.
The power loss mainly affected the east of the city and a central district while the blackout disrupted operations of the city’s subway, Kyiv city administration said on Telegram. Trains were unable to operate on a line running from downtown to the left bank of the River Dnipro.
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Russia has significantly increased its attacks on Ukraine’s power infrastructure as the winter season approaches. This has made disruptions to electricity a regular problem in regions bordering Russia, but it has been a while since the capital suffered a blackout similar to that experienced in the winter season of 2022-2023.
In a post on Facebook, energy minister Svitlana Grynchuk talked of a “massive blow” to energy infrastructure. “Energy workers are taking all necessary measures to minimise the negative consequences,” she said.
Ukraine’s central regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia were also hit in the attack, the country’s air defence said on Telegram.
The strike damaged some local gas infrastructure in Zaporizhzhia region in the country’s south, prompting the local branch of the state-owned company Naftogaz to call on residents to reduce consumption to stabilise pressure in the system and allow for repair works.
Ukraine’s gas infrastructure – able to meet domestic demand before the Russian full-scale invasion – has come under increasingly intensive missile and drone strikes since the beginning of this year.
Russian strikes in recent days have wiped out more than half of Ukraine’s domestic natural gas production, which is key for heating.
If the attacks continue, Ukraine expects it would need to buy roughly 4.4 billion cubic metres of gas by the end of March, at a cost of nearly €2 billion, according sources.
That is the equivalent of nearly 20 per cent of Ukraine’s annual consumption. – Bloomberg
