KYIV: A Russian missile strike has “completely” cut off the electricity and heat supply to Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, its mayor Igor Terekhov said on Friday.
Ukraine said earlier Moscow had launched the largest aerial attack on it in months, hitting energy facilities across the country and killing at least 5 people, according to western media.
Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov said in a video on his social media that the city is completely without power and as a result the heating and water supply are not working.
He said that utilities and power engineers need time to cope with the challenges created by this hostile shelling. I ask everyone to stay calm and remain patient.
Other areas across the country also reported blackouts, including about 200,000 in the western Khmelnytsky region and nearly 260,000 in the southern region of Odesa.
Russia’s air attacks
Moscow said earlier it had launched a series of “massive” air attacks against Ukraine as retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on its border regions over recent weeks.
Russia has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure throughout the war, now in its third year, in attacks Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called “energy terrorism”
