New wave of Russian attacks knocks out power across much of Ukraine

A new round of Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure knocked out power across the country and neighboring Moldova on Wednesday, further weakening Ukraine’s battered power network and exacerbating civilian suffering as winter looms.

Attacks were reported in quick succession across multiple regions, with Ukraine’s energy ministry saying “the vast majority of electricity consumers were cut off”.

In the capital Kyiv, a two-story building was hit, killing three people and injuring nine, officials said. Four people were killed and 34 were injured in remote areas, the region’s governor, Oleksii Kuleba, said.

For weeks, Russia has been bombarding power grids and other facilities with missiles and detonating drones, damaging energy systems faster than they can be repaired.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted after Wednesday’s airstrike that he had instructed Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations to call for an emergency Security Council meeting.

“The murder of civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure are terrorist acts. Ukraine has always demanded a firm response from the international community to these crimes,” Zelensky said.

Russia’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, said in a cable that such a meeting had been called for at 4pm local time or 9pm GMT.

Before the latest shelling, Zelensky had said that Russian attacks had damaged about half of the energy infrastructure.

Rolling blackouts have become the dire new normal for millions – and the most recent dams have also affected water supplies.

Ukrainian officials believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin hoped that the misery caused by unheated and unlit homes during cold and dark winters would turn public opinion against continuing the war — but said it would instead Strengthen Ukrainian resolve.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Wednesday that “an infrastructure in the capital was attacked” and that there were “multiple explosions in different parts” of the city. He said the water supply was cut off throughout Kyiv.

Oleksii Kolpachov, a Kyiv resident, told The Associated Press he heard the explosion as he was leaving the subway on an escalator.

“Then the electricity suddenly went away. When I got out of the subway, there was a cloud of smoke,” Kolpacev said.

U.N. humanitarian officials in Ukraine reported that “every region in Ukraine is currently without power,” including Lviv in the west, Zaporozhye and Odessa in the south, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said. Some areas, including Vinnytsia and Dnipro in central China, lost power. There was a complete power outage, while most of Kyiv was without power and the city was without water.

In Moldova, Infrastructure Minister Andrei Spinu said, “We have massive blackouts across the country” whose Soviet-era energy system is still connected to Ukraine.

This is the second power outage in Moldova this month. Pro-Western President Mayasandu accused “Russia of leaving Moldova in the dark”.

The future of Moldova, a country of about 2.6 million people, “must continue towards the free world,” she said.

The Moldovan foreign minister said the Russian ambassador was being summoned for an explanation.

Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear operator Energoatom said the attack had disconnected all three of the country’s last fully functional nuclear power plants from the grid in “emergency protection” measures.

It said they would restore power once the grid “normalized”.

Energoatom said on its Telegram channel that there was no change in radiation levels at the sites and that “all indicators are normal”.

The energy ministry said the attack also caused a temporary blackout at most thermal and hydroelectric power plants, and transmission facilities were also affected.

Crews are working to restore supplies, “but given the extent of the damage, we will need time,” it said on Facebook.

Russia fired about 70 cruise missiles on Wednesday, 51 of which were shot down, and five drones exploded, the Ukrainian air force said.

Doug Madory, director of internet analytics at network monitoring firm Kentik Inc., said Wednesday’s outage also caused “the biggest internet outage in Ukraine in months, first affecting neighboring Moldova, which has been partially recover”.