Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, was without power for hours after the latest wave of Russian attacks hit energy stations across the country.
Russian forces fired 76 missiles and drone strikes on Friday, damaging nine power plants, local officials said.
Kharkiv’s mayor said the city had suffered “tremendous” damage. By evening, 55% of residents had power restored.
Anastasia, a resident, told JEE News that the attacks began on Friday morning.
“Within minutes the lights started flashing,” said the mother of the two-month-old. “Just 10 seconds later, we’re out of power, everything goes still and that’s it.
“Right now, there is no water either because the pumping stations cannot work when the city has no electricity, so technically, what we have now is a city without electricity and water supply.”
In the evening, the head of Kharkiv’s regional administration, Oleg Senigobov, said electricity supplies had been restored to 55 percent of the city’s residents and 85 percent of those in the northeastern region. He added that the energy department employees were working till midnight to restore full power.
However, Ukraine’s power grid operator, Ukrainergo, warned that the scale of the damage could mean it would take longer to restore supplies.
The energy system has lost more than half of its capacity due to the latest attacks, the body said in a statement, adding that “key infrastructure – hospitals, water supply facilities, heat supply facilities, sewage treatment Plants” will be preferred.
Yuri Sak, an adviser to the Ministry of Defense, told JEE News that emergency services were working to restore power supplies, but the situation was “still difficult”. Repeated attacks by Russia mean that the damage is increasingly difficult to repair.
Elsewhere, three people were killed and 13 injured when a residential building collapsed in Krivi Rhea and a third in Kherson. The city’s metro stopped in the capital city of Kyiv.
Alarm bells were sounded across Ukraine on Friday and commander-in-chief General Valery Zlozny said air defenses had intercepted 60 of the 76 missiles fired, most of them cruise missiles.
Officials in the city of Kyiv said about 40 missiles were fired at the capital alone, one of the largest barrages since Russia invaded on February 24. Officials added that thirty-seven were shot down by air defenses.
“It’s very stressful, but now I’m used to it,” said Oksana, 42, who lives in the capital. “I don’t want our kids to go through that, living in basements, living in shelters, I don’t want that for them.”
Ukraine has accused Russia of “weaponizing winter” by attacking essential facilities, as temperatures remain below freezing in much of the country.
The Russian attacks also cut off power in the northeastern Sumy region bordering Russia and the main cities of Poltava and Kremenchak.
Fifteen rockets were reportedly fired at Zaporizhzhia in the south, while Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said several areas of the capital were affected. He said the damage to power infrastructure had affected water supply, while city metro lines were not operational at the time.
Since the wave of attacks began on October 10, Russia has launched more than 1,000 missiles and Iranian-made drones, although most of them have been intercepted by air defenses. The largest barrage in mid-November involved more than 100 missiles and drones.
UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk warned on Thursday that further attacks on power installations “could lead to a further serious deterioration of the humanitarian situation and further displacement”.
Prime Minister Denis Schmeichel called the latest wave of attacks “another attempt at genocide against the Ukrainian people.”
In some areas, electricity is available for only a few hours a day.
“I’m angry,” said Yelizavita, 21. “They [Russia] are destroying our lives. We are used to it now. The most important thing is that Russia is not here.”
And Anastasia said life is getting harder with the onset of winter.
“When it’s daytime it’s still fine, it’s tolerable and I can handle the situation, but when it’s dark outside, that’s when my problems start because I obviously “They need to be watched, to measure the baby’s formula and also to take care of the baby. They are stressful,” she said.
“And of course, just the effect that we’re out of power creates a lot of stress and a lot of tension. So we just survive the night and it gets a little better when the day breaks, but we’re Can’t compare. Our typical day.”
The attacks came as the European Union announced a ninth wave of sanctions against Russian officials and businesses. About 200 individuals and entities were blacklisted for asset freezes and visa bans.
Among those sanctioned was Larisa Falkovskaya – head of the Russian State Department’s policy for the protection of children’s rights – who was accused of “illegal transportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and their adoption by Russian families”. .
Several Russian regional governors were sanctioned on similar charges. The EU says the officials have been involved in the forced deportation and adoption of more than 2,000 Ukrainian children since the war began.
Ukrainian authorities say the deportation is tantamount to a war crime under Article 49 of the Geneva Convention.
Meanwhile, Russian-backed proxy officials in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region accused Ukrainian forces of shelling a town and a village in the Luhansk region overnight. The details of the casualties could not be confirmed.
