Extract from ABC News
A punishing new barrage of Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure has caused power outages across large parts of the country, piling more damage onto Ukraine's already battered power network as it enters winter.
Key points:
- Loud explosions and air defence missiles have been heard in the capital
- One person has been killed and 20 wounded in strikes targeting Kyiv
- A newborn baby has been killed in an air strike on a maternity hospital
Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched around 70 cruise missiles on Wednesday and 51 were shot down, as were five exploding drones.
Multiple regions reported attacks in quick succession and Ukraine's Energy Ministry said that "the vast majority of electricity consumers were cut off."
An air raid alert was issued across all of Ukraine and Ukrainian media carried reports of air defence systems in action in several parts of the country.
Officials in Kyiv said three people were killed and nine wounded in the capital after a Russian strike hit a two-storey building.
The entire Kyiv region was without electricity according to Oleksii Kuleba, head of the regional military administration.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Wednesday that "one of the capital's infrastructure facilities has been hit" and there were "several more explosions in different districts" of the city.
He said water supplies were knocked out in all of Kyiv.
In other parts of the country, power was out in the wider Kyiv region, in the northern city of Kharkiv, the western city of Lviv, and in all or part of the Chernihiv, Kirovohrad, Odesa and Khmelnytskyi regions.
"(Missiles) Hit one of the capital's infrastructure facilities. Stay in shelters! The air alert continues," Mr Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine's state-owned nuclear operator, Energoatom, said the strikes led to the country's last three fully functioning nuclear power stations all being disconnected from the power grid in an "emergency protection" measure.
It said they would resume supplying electricity as soon as the grid is "normalised."
Energoatom said on its Telegram channel that radiation levels at the sites are unchanged and "all indicators are normal."
The Energy Ministry said the attacks also caused a temporary blackout of most thermal and hydroelectric power plants, and transmission facilities also were affected.
Power workers were working to restore supply, "but given the extent of the damage, we will need time," it said on Facebook.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine would rebuild infrastructure damaged in the strikes on Wednesday and praised the spirit of his people.
"We'll renew everything and get through all of this because we are an unbreakable people," he said in a brief video address posted to the Telegram messaging app.
Neighbouring Moldova also reported massive power outages across the country following Russia's strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
The country's pro-Western president, Maia Sandu, said in a statement that "Russia left Moldova in the dark."
Russian attacks have knocked out power for long periods for up to 10 million Ukrainian consumers at a time.
Ukraine's national power grid operator said on Wednesday more blackouts would be necessary across the country.
Newborn baby killed in attack on maternity hospital
Ukrainian officials said a newborn baby had been killed in a Russian missile attack that hit a maternity hospital in the city of Vilniansk in south-eastern Ukraine earlier on Wednesday.
The state emergency service said that at the time of the attack a woman with a newborn baby and a doctor had been in a maternity ward in a two-storey building that was destroyed.
The doctor and the mother were rescued but the baby died, it said on Telegram, under photos of rescue workers sifting through the rubble, with white smoke rising into the night sky.
Video footage posted by the state emergency service showed a man who appeared to be a doctor being given water as rescuers tried to clear the rubble around him.
"Grief fills our hearts — a baby who had just appeared in the world has been killed," Oleksandr Starukh, governor of the Zaporizhzhia region which includes Vilniansk, wrote on Telegram.
Reuters was unable immediately to verify the report independently. Russia did not immediately comment on the incident.
Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential office, condemned the attack in a Telegram post.
Referring to Russian forces who invaded Ukraine in February as "terrorists", he said Russia would be held responsible for "every Ukrainian life".
Reuters/AP
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