A Russian missile strike killed two people in Kyiv as Moscow pounded Ukrainian energy facilities on Tuesday, causing explosions, fires and power outages.
Thick smoke rose into the sky after several loud blasts echoed through northern Kyiv, where there is a thermal power station, Reuters witnesses said.
Electricity supplies were interrupted to some parts of Kyiv because of “damage to a critical infrastructure object” but were later restored, power producer DTEK said.
The Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office said two people had been killed and another wounded in the attacks on the capital, and opened an investigation into a possible “violation of the laws and customs of war.”
“Ukraine is under fire by the (Russian) occupiers. They continue to do what they do best – terrorise and kill civilians,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
He said Russian air strikes had destroyed 30% of Ukraine’s power stations since Oct. 10 and that Moscow would be held to account for its actions.
Local officials said power facilities were targeted in Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine on Tuesday, and an attack on an energy facility in the southeastern city of Dnipro caused what regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko called “serious damage”.
An air strike left the northern city of Zhytomyr without water and electricity supplies, its mayor said, and a Russian missile struck an apartment building in the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv. Zelenskiy said a man was killed in the attack.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, has denied deliberately targeting civilians although it has repeatedly struck heavily populated cities across the country. It says it has been targeting military and energy infrastructure.
Five people were killed in a Russian attack on a residential building in Kyiv on Monday, Ukrainian officials said, a week after Russia launched its heaviest air strikes since the early days of the war.
By Reuters
