KYIV: A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s power grid caused war to spread to neighboring countries on Tuesday, hitting NATO member Poland and cutting power to much of Moldova.
The attacks plunged much of Ukraine into darkness and drew defiance from President Volodymr Zelenskyy, who swung his fist and declared: “We will survive anything.”
This was Russia’s largest strike, according to a US official, and several rockets flew to Poland, where two people were killed. It marked the first time in the war that Russian weapons fell on a NATO country.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Mueller did not immediately confirm the information from a senior US intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation.
A second person confirmed that apparently Russian missiles hit a location in Poland about 15 miles from the Ukrainian border.
But Mueller said top leaders were holding an emergency meeting due to a “crisis situation”.
Polish media reported two people were killed on Tuesday afternoon after a bullet hit a grain drying area in Przewodow, a Polish village near the border with Ukraine.
Neighboring Moldova was also affected. An official said they had reported widespread power outages after strikes cut the main power line supplying the small country.
Zelenskyy said Russia had fired at least 85 missiles, most of which targeted the country’s energy facilities and knocked out power in many cities.
“We are working, we will restore everything. We will survive through everything,” the president announced. His energy minister said the attack was the “largest-scale” bombardment of energy facilities in Russia’s nearly nine-month invasion, hitting both transmission and power generation systems.
Minister Herman Haluschenko described the missile strikes as “another attempt to avenge terrorists” following the Kremlin’s military and diplomatic failures. He accused Russia of “trying to do maximum damage to our energy system on the eve of winter”.
The airstrike, which left at least one person dead in a residential building in the capital Kyiv, comes after days of euphoria in Ukraine caused by one of the country’s biggest military successes – retaking the city of Kherson in last week.
The power grid has been devastated by previous attacks that destroyed about 40% of the country’s energy infrastructure.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not commented on the withdrawal from Kherson since his troops withdrew in the face of a Ukrainian attack. But the staggering scale of Tuesday’s strikes speaks volumes and hints at anger in the Kremlin.
By striking the targets late in the afternoon, shortly before dusk began to fall, the Russian military forced rescuers to work in the dark and gave repair crews little time to recover. damage assessment under daylight.
More than a dozen regions – among them Lviv to the west, Kharkiv to the northeast and others in between – reported attacks or attempts by their air defenses to shoot down the missile. . At least dozens of areas have reported power outages, affecting cities of millions. Authorities said nearly half of the Kiev region was without power. Railways of Ukraine announced train delays across the country.
Zelenskyy warned that more strikes could happen and urged people to stay safe and seek shelter.
“Most of the attacks are recorded in the center and north of the country. In the capital, the situation is very difficult,” said senior official Kyrylo Tymoshenko.
He said a total of 15 energy targets had been damaged and claimed that 70 missiles had been shot down. A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia used X-101 and X-555 cruise missiles.
As city after city reported attacks, Tymoshenko urged the Ukrainian people to “hold on”.
With battlefield losses on the rise, Russia increasingly targets Ukraine’s power grid, seemingly hoping to turn the approaching winter into a weapon by leaving its people in darkness and cold.
In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said authorities had found a body in one of three residential buildings attacked in the capital, where electricity supplier DTEK also reported an emergency power outage.
Video released by a presidential aide showed a five-story residential building in Kiev on fire, flames engulfing apartments. Klitschko said air defense units also shot down several missiles.
Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra arrived at a bomb shelter in Kyiv after meeting his Ukrainian counterpart and from safety, describing the bombardment as “a great impetus to continue to stand shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine.
“There can only be one answer, which is: Keep going. Keep supporting Ukraine, keep supplying weapons, keep doing accountability, keep providing humanitarian assistance,” he said.
Ukraine has experienced a period of relative calm since the previous wave of drone and missile attacks a few weeks ago.
The strikes come as authorities are doing their best to get Kherson back on his feet and begin investigating allegations of Russian abuse there and the surrounding area.
The southern city has no electricity or water, and the head of the UN human rights office’s monitoring mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, on Tuesday criticized a “catastrophic humanitarian situation” there.
Speaking from Kyiv, Bogner said her teams are looking to go to Kherson to try to verify allegations of nearly 80 cases of forced disappearances and arbitrary detention.
The head of Ukraine’s National Police, Igor Klymenko, said authorities will begin investigating reports from Kherson residents that Russian forces have set up at least three alleged torture sites in the regions. the now liberated area of the wider Kherson area and that “our people could have been detained and tortured there.”
The recapture of Kherson dealt another blow to the Kremlin. Zelenskyy likens the recapture to the Allied landings in France on D-Day in World War IIsays that both are landmark events on the road to ultimate victory.
However, much of eastern and southern Ukraine remains under Russian control and fighting continues.
Zelenskyy warns of more grim news ahead.
“Everywhere, when we liberated our land, we saw one thing – Russia left behind torture chambers and mass burials. … How many mass graves in the territory remain. under Russian control?” Zelenskyy asked.
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Associated Press writers Joanna Kozlowska in London, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Mike Corder in The Hague, Hanna Arhirova in Kherson and Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this story.
The attacks plunged much of Ukraine into darkness and drew defiance from President Volodymr Zelenskyy, who swung his fist and declared: “We will survive anything.”
This was Russia’s largest strike, according to a US official, and several rockets flew to Poland, where two people were killed. It marked the first time in the war that Russian weapons fell on a NATO country.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Mueller did not immediately confirm the information from a senior US intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation.
A second person confirmed that apparently Russian missiles hit a location in Poland about 15 miles from the Ukrainian border.
But Mueller said top leaders were holding an emergency meeting due to a “crisis situation”.
Polish media reported two people were killed on Tuesday afternoon after a bullet hit a grain drying area in Przewodow, a Polish village near the border with Ukraine.
Neighboring Moldova was also affected. An official said they had reported widespread power outages after strikes cut the main power line supplying the small country.
Zelenskyy said Russia had fired at least 85 missiles, most of which targeted the country’s energy facilities and knocked out power in many cities.
“We are working, we will restore everything. We will survive through everything,” the president announced. His energy minister said the attack was the “largest-scale” bombardment of energy facilities in Russia’s nearly nine-month invasion, hitting both transmission and power generation systems.
Minister Herman Haluschenko described the missile strikes as “another attempt to avenge terrorists” following the Kremlin’s military and diplomatic failures. He accused Russia of “trying to do maximum damage to our energy system on the eve of winter”.
The airstrike, which left at least one person dead in a residential building in the capital Kyiv, comes after days of euphoria in Ukraine caused by one of the country’s biggest military successes – retaking the city of Kherson in last week.
The power grid has been devastated by previous attacks that destroyed about 40% of the country’s energy infrastructure.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not commented on the withdrawal from Kherson since his troops withdrew in the face of a Ukrainian attack. But the staggering scale of Tuesday’s strikes speaks volumes and hints at anger in the Kremlin.
By striking the targets late in the afternoon, shortly before dusk began to fall, the Russian military forced rescuers to work in the dark and gave repair crews little time to recover. damage assessment under daylight.
More than a dozen regions – among them Lviv to the west, Kharkiv to the northeast and others in between – reported attacks or attempts by their air defenses to shoot down the missile. . At least dozens of areas have reported power outages, affecting cities of millions. Authorities said nearly half of the Kiev region was without power. Railways of Ukraine announced train delays across the country.
Zelenskyy warned that more strikes could happen and urged people to stay safe and seek shelter.
“Most of the attacks are recorded in the center and north of the country. In the capital, the situation is very difficult,” said senior official Kyrylo Tymoshenko.
He said a total of 15 energy targets had been damaged and claimed that 70 missiles had been shot down. A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia used X-101 and X-555 cruise missiles.
As city after city reported attacks, Tymoshenko urged the Ukrainian people to “hold on”.
With battlefield losses on the rise, Russia increasingly targets Ukraine’s power grid, seemingly hoping to turn the approaching winter into a weapon by leaving its people in darkness and cold.
In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said authorities had found a body in one of three residential buildings attacked in the capital, where electricity supplier DTEK also reported an emergency power outage.
Video released by a presidential aide showed a five-story residential building in Kiev on fire, flames engulfing apartments. Klitschko said air defense units also shot down several missiles.
Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra arrived at a bomb shelter in Kyiv after meeting his Ukrainian counterpart and from safety, describing the bombardment as “a great impetus to continue to stand shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine.
“There can only be one answer, which is: Keep going. Keep supporting Ukraine, keep supplying weapons, keep doing accountability, keep providing humanitarian assistance,” he said.
Ukraine has experienced a period of relative calm since the previous wave of drone and missile attacks a few weeks ago.
The strikes come as authorities are doing their best to get Kherson back on his feet and begin investigating allegations of Russian abuse there and the surrounding area.
The southern city has no electricity or water, and the head of the UN human rights office’s monitoring mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, on Tuesday criticized a “catastrophic humanitarian situation” there.
Speaking from Kyiv, Bogner said her teams are looking to go to Kherson to try to verify allegations of nearly 80 cases of forced disappearances and arbitrary detention.
The head of Ukraine’s National Police, Igor Klymenko, said authorities will begin investigating reports from Kherson residents that Russian forces have set up at least three alleged torture sites in the regions. the now liberated area of the wider Kherson area and that “our people could have been detained and tortured there.”
The recapture of Kherson dealt another blow to the Kremlin. Zelenskyy likens the recapture to the Allied landings in France on D-Day in World War IIsays that both are landmark events on the road to ultimate victory.
However, much of eastern and southern Ukraine remains under Russian control and fighting continues.
Zelenskyy warns of more grim news ahead.
“Everywhere, when we liberated our land, we saw one thing – Russia left behind torture chambers and mass burials. … How many mass graves in the territory remain. under Russian control?” Zelenskyy asked.
___
Associated Press writers Joanna Kozlowska in London, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Mike Corder in The Hague, Hanna Arhirova in Kherson and Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this story.
