Author: Max Hender
Jan 24 (Reuters) – Russia launched another massive attack on Ukraine’s energy systems early on Saturday, with explosions in Kiev throughout the night knocking out power to 1.2 million homes across the country.
Nearly 6,000 buildings in the capital were without heat on Saturday morning, with temperatures hovering around -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit). After previous attacks, many residents’ apartments were already freezing due to disruptions to the city’s central heating system.
Moscow carried out the attacks, with no sign of compromise on Friday as U.S.-brokered trilateral talks between Russia and Ukraine continued into a second day in the United Arab Emirates.
Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one person was killed and four injured in the capital, three of whom were being treated in hospital, while 19 people were injured in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, including a child.
Russia, which has hammered Ukraine’s power grid since launching a full-scale invasion of the country in 2022, is carrying out its most intense bombing of energy facilities this winter, leaving people across Ukraine with only a few hours of electricity a day and some without heat or water.
Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said more than 800,000 people in the capital and another 400,000 in northern Chernihiv were without power after the latest attack.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia deployed 375 drones and 21 missiles in the night attack, including two rarely deployed Tsirkon ballistic missiles.
The skies over Kiev were often lit up with orange flashes and a loud roar echoed around the city’s tall buildings as air defense systems fired at missiles and drones landing in the capital.
Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kiev’s military administration, reported attacks in at least four districts. The damaged building contained a medical facility.
Before Saturday, Kyiv had been hit by two large nighttime attacks since the New Year, knocking out power and heat to hundreds of residential buildings.
Emergency crews were still working to restore service to residents damaged by the attack, and Klitschko said many of the buildings that lost heat on Saturday had only recently been restored.
In the city of Kharkiv, 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Russian border and closer to the eastern front, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said 25 drones struck multiple areas.
Terekhov wrote on Telegram that the drones struck a dormitory for displaced persons and two medical facilities, including a maternity hospital.
(Reporting by Max Hunder and Ron Popeski; Editing by Chris Reese, Tom Hogue and Mark Heinrich)
