Russia renews major missile attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure

Russia unleashed a massive missile barrage on Thursday targeting infrastructure across cities in Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said early Thursday. Air raid sirens sounded across the country, including the capital, Kyiv. The wave of attacks is the first of its kind in three weeks. Ukrainian officials said that at least five people had been killed in the wave of attacks, four of which were killed in the western Lviv region and one in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, "Two people were injured" in the Svyatoshynsky district of the capital following the strikes. Officials added that 40% of households were without heating as electricity infrastructure had been hit. The governor of the northeastern Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, said there had been more than 15 strikes on Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv. "Objects of critical infrastructure are again in the crosshairs," Syniehubov said in a Telegram post. In the southern Odesa region, Governor Maksym Marchenk said energy facilities and residential buildings had been hit in strikes. "Fortunately, there were no casualties," he said but added that "power supply restrictions" were in place.

The attacks were reported to have struck a wide arc of other targets. Explosions were also reported in the cities of Chernihiv, Dnieper, Lutsk, and Rivne, as well as the western Lviv region. Moscow has been launching massive missile attacks against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, in particular targeting energy infrastructure and often plunging whole cities into darkness, since last October. The barrages were initially weekly but eventually became more intermittent, leading to speculation that Moscow may be saving up ordnance. The last major wave was on February 16.

In the wake of Russia's wave of airstrikes, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant — the largest in Europe — has been left without power, Ukraine's nuclear energy operator Energoatom said. "The last line of communication between the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the Ukrainian power system was cut off as a result of rocket attacks," they wrote in a statement. The plant is now running on diesel generators, with enough fuel for 10 days. The fifth and sixth reactors have also been shut down, Energeoatom said. "The countdown has begun. If it is impossible to renew the external power supply of the station during this time, an accident with radiation consequences for the whole world may occur," the operator said. Zaporizhzhia is occupied by Russian forces and Thursday marks the sixth time since the occupation began that the facility has lost power. Previous incidents have triggered a site inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Russia's own nuclear energy operator Rosenergoatom confirmed that power had been cut, but said that it was Ukraine that had cut the power.