by Tom Balmforth and Olena Harmash
KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine was the target of massive Russian strikes on Friday, causing “colossal” damage to energy infrastructure, including in Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, Kyiv said.
Three people were killed and at least 13 others injured, including four children, in a strike against an apartment building in Kryvyi Rih, the birthplace of Volodimir Zelensky in central Ukraine. Another died in a bombardment in Kherson, in the south, Ukrainian authorities reported.
In total, some 76 Russian missile launches were recorded by Kyiv.
Representatives of the Russian administration in eastern Ukraine reported 12 dead in Ukrainian bombings.
The city of Kharkiv (East), which has more than a million inhabitants, was completely deprived of electricity, as was the locality of Poltava, in central Ukraine, said the energy supplier Oblenergo and the mayor of Poltava, Oleksandr Mamai.
In the northeast of the country, in Sumy, the attacks caused power cuts, the region’s governor said, and in the south, several officials said that critical infrastructure in the Odessa region, on the Black Sea, had been affected.
The head of the Ukrainian army said that 60 of the 76 Russian missiles had been shot down.
“What we already see is that damage has been done to about nine (electricity) generation facilities,” Energy Minister German Galushchenko said.
Separately, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuri Ihnat reported the presence of Russian combat aircraft in Ukrainian airspace.
“Massive shelling, explosions. The goal of the Russian Federation is for Ukrainians to be constantly under pressure, to descend into bomb shelters almost every day, to feel discomfort due to power outages or water interruptions,” Economy Minister Yulia Sviridenko wrote on social media.
Moscow has launched regular missile attacks against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since October, causing repeated water and electricity cuts.
The Kremlin considers these strikes legitimate on the military level, Kyiv denounces war crimes against the civilian population.
Kirilo Tymoshenko, deputy chief of staff for the Ukrainian presidency, said load shedding was being carried out urgently on the national electricity grid.
According to a pro-Russian local official, eight people were killed and 23 others injured on Friday by Ukrainian shelling in the Russian-controlled part of the Luhansk region.
The shelling hit the village of Lanrativka, a small town near the border with Russia, the region’s pro-Russian administrator said on Telegram.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify this information.
(French version Jean-Stéphane Brosse and Augustin Turpin, edited by Blandine Hénault and Sophie Louet)