- Ukraine speaks of nine dead in Russian rocket attacks
- Moscow uses Kinzhal hypersonic missiles
- Kyiv Says 10 Regions Affected, US Calls Attacks ‘Devastating’
KIEV, Ukraine, March 10 (Portal) – Russia’s first missile attack on Ukrainian cities in weeks was met with defiance and disgust at targeting civilians, while Ukrainian forces defending the eastern city of Bakhmut continued to thwart Russian breakthrough attempts.
Thursday’s dawn barrage killed at least nine civilians and cut power in several cities, but there was relief that the risk of a catastrophic meltdown at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant was averted when power was restored after a temporary disconnection from Ukraine’s power grid.
Ukraine said its air defenses shot down many drones and missiles during the attack wave, but said Russian forces also fired six Kinzhal hypersonic cruise missiles that they were unable to stop.
Moscow confirmed it had used hypersonic Kinzhal missiles — Russian for dagger — in Thursday’s attack.
The mass attacks on targets far from the front lines were the first such wave since mid-February and broke a lull in the air campaign against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure that Russia launched five months ago.
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“The occupiers can only terrorize civilians. That’s all they can do,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “But it won’t help them. They won’t avoid responsibility for everything they’ve done.”
Russia has repeatedly denied attacking civilians. Its Defense Department said it carried out a “massive retaliatory strike” last week in payback for a cross-border raid, claiming it hit all intended targets, destroying drone bases, disrupting railroads and damaging facilities that manufacture and repair weapons.
The rockets killed villagers in the western Lviv region and closer to the front lines in the central Dnipro region, while Russian artillery also killed at least three people in the northeastern city of Kharkiv.
Moscow says such hits are intended to reduce Ukraine’s combat capability. Kiev says the airstrikes have no military purpose and aim to harm and intimidate civilians, a war crime.
In Kiev, a woman holding an infant stood outside her destroyed apartment as she vented her anger at Russia after the attack.
“How can they do that? How is that possible? They are not human,” said Liudmyla, 58, after a night of seven hours of air sirens wailing.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said that the failure of Russian intelligence to identify military targets led to a “Plan B – demoralizing the population”.
“That’s why they hit the energy infrastructure, the weakest point, electricity, heating, water,” Zhdanov said in a YouTube presentation.
“And they don’t seem able to change their strategy with the idea that, whether they make hits or not, sooner or later people will say, ‘Enough, we give up.’ But that’s not going to happen.”
HYPERSONIC MISSILES
The White House said the barrage was “devastating” to behold and Washington will continue to provide Ukraine with air defense capabilities.
However, Russia is thought to have a few dozen Kinzhals, flying many times the speed of sound and built to carry nuclear warheads with ranges in excess of 2,000 km (1,200 miles). In his speeches, President Vladimir Putin regularly touts the Kinzhal as a weapon to which the transatlantic NATO alliance behind Kiev has no answer.
The rocket attacks briefly cut power to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, disconnecting it from the grid and forcing it to run on diesel backup power to prevent a meltdown. It was later reconnected to Ukraine’s power grid, operator Ukrenergo said.
The work that Russia has held since its conquest earlier in the war is close to the front lines, and both sides have warned of a potential disaster in the past. Moscow said it was safe.
UN nuclear watchdog Rafael Grossi passionately pleaded for a protection zone around the facility.
“Every time we roll the dice. And if we allow this to continue, our luck will run out one day,” Grossi told the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors.
UKRAINE KEEPS FIGHTING AT BAHMUT
On the battlefield, the week has obviously changed as Ukraine decided to continue fighting in Bakhmut, a city that has borne the brunt of a Russian winter offensive in the war’s bloodiest fighting.
Moscow says Bakhmut is an important step in securing the surrounding Donbass region, a key war objective. The West says the destroyed city is of little value and Russian forces sacrificed lives to give Putin his only victory since sending hundreds of thousands of reservists into battle late last year.
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Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of Russia’s Wagner private army that has spearheaded the fighting in Bakhmut, said Wednesday his forces controlled the entire city east of a river.
Giving an overview of the situation there, Ukrainian military analyst Zhdanov said the defenders thwarted Russian attempts to completely encircle Bakhmut from the west and that the front line on the southern side held for several days while the enemy made some advances in the villages North.
Moscow, which claims to have annexed a fifth of Ukraine, said it launched its “military special operation” a year ago to combat a security threat. Kiev and the West call it an unprovoked war to subdue an independent state.
Reporting by Portal bureaus; Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Stephen Coates
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