ISLAMABAD/KYIV: Russia launched a huge series of missile strikes across Ukraine early Thursday, killing at least nine civilians and causing Europe’s largest nuclear power plant to lose power.
It was the biggest volley of missile strikes for weeks, after a long period of comparative calm since Moscow started its campaign to attack Ukraine’s civil infrastructure in October.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said critical infrastructure and residential buildings in 10 regions had been hit.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, occupied by Russian forces, lost power due to the missile attacks, nuclear state operator Energoatom said.
The latest missile strikes also hit residential buildings and key infrastructure in the cities of Kharkiv and Odesa, Ukrainian officials say.
The port city’s governor Maksym Marchenko said a mass missile attack struck an energy facility in Odesa, triggering power cuts. He added that residential areas were also targetted, but no casualties were reported.
Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv’s regional administration, said “about 15” strikes had hit the city and region, targeting “critical infrastructure facilities” and a residential building.
The Kyiv Post reported that one of its journalists heard explosions in the Ukrainian capital amid air raid warnings.
Strikes were also reported in the eastern city of Dnipro and other regions.
Zelensky won’t meet Putin
President Volodymyr Zelensky, in an interview with CNN, defended his decision to keep Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut, warning that withdrawing from the key eastern city would risk Russian capture of other cities. The Ukrainian president also said he could not envisage meeting President Vladimir Putin as the Russian leader can’t be trusted.
Russia may shift to defence amid lack of firepower
Top US intelligence official has said Russia lacks the ammunition and troops to make major territorial gains in Ukraine this year and may try to drag out the war using a hold-and-defend strategy.
Avril D Haines, the director of national intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday that after setbacks on the battlefield, President Vladimir Putin now understands the problems his military faces and could adjust his strategy in the short term.
Russia might take Bakhmut: NATO chief
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Wednesday the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut might fall to Moscow in the coming days, following months of intense fighting.
His remarks came as Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, which has spearheaded the attack on Bakhmut, claimed to have taken the eastern bank of the industrial town, devastated in the most protracted battle since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
Wagner chief and Kremlin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin said on social media that his forces “have taken all of the eastern parts of Bakhmut”, a salt-mining town with a pre-war population of 80,000.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian official claimed that the Russian mercenary group Wagner had been forced to use more of its professional recruits in the embattled city to replace its depleting supply of enlisted prisoners, adding that the Ukrainian military sees an opportunity in that.
