Kyiv, Ukraine CNN —
Ukraine experienced a deadly nationwide Russian rocket fire on Thursday that targeted energy facilities in Kiev and other cities, just hours before President Volodymyr Zelensky was scheduled to meet U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House.
Five people died in the southern Kherson region, while a nine-year-old girl was among seven injured in the latest attack on Kiev. According to Mayor Vitalii Klitschko, the child and an 18-year-old woman were hospitalized after debris from an infrastructure facility fell onto a residential building.
Officials called it “a terrible night for the city of Kherson” in which at least three people were killed and six injured, and noted that Russian shelling of residential areas also damaged homes and cars. Two people were injured in the city of Kharkiv, where Russia launched six attacks in the early hours of the morning, according to local officials. And at least ten people were injured in nighttime rocket attacks on the city of Cherkassy in central Ukraine.
According to state power utility Ukrenergo, the attacks marked the first time in six months that Russia had launched attacks on Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure, just as the country is preparing for colder seasons that require higher energy consumption for heating. Last year, Russia began a series of violent attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in October.
Ukrenergo said the overnight rocket attacks caused damage to energy facilities in western and central regions and caused power outages in several areas.
Ukrainian air defenses shot down 36 of 43 missiles fired by Russia on Thursday, the Ukrainian army chief said. However, airstrike warnings remain in place in parts of the country as some Ukrainian officials warn that the missile threat continues.
According to the head of the city’s military administration, the attacks came as the capital Kiev passed the 1,000-hour mark for air strikes since the start of the Russian invasion.
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“It’s a restless morning,” Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Thursday as he urged Ukrainians to respect security rules.
The air raid alert, which often sounds on loudspeakers throughout the city and on residents’ cellphones, has become so commonplace that government officials have had to urge residents to continue using bomb shelters.
“Don’t neglect the air raid alerts,” the head of the Kyiv city military administration, Serhii Popko, said on Thursday, stressing that a year and a half of continuous alerts had ravaged the capital. “We got through it and will get through a lot more together.”
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Smoke rises over Kiev on September 21, 2023, after Russia launched another round of attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images
Firefighters extinguished a fire after a night-time rocket attack in Kiev.
The latest round of missile attacks comes after a contentious United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, where Zelensky argued that eliminating Russia’s veto was “the first necessary step.”
“It is impossible to stop the war because all efforts are rejected by the aggressor,” Zelensky said during a speech at the UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday.
While allies have already imposed sanctions on Russia since the start of the war, Ukraine’s president called for the imposition of preventative sanctions on countries involved in conflict.
“Anyone who wants to start a war should, before making a fatal mistake, see what exactly he will lose if the war were to start,” Zelensky said.
On Thursday, Zelensky will travel to meet with Biden, who wants to hear a “battlefield perspective,” the White House said.
Ukraine’s president is asking for additional aid for his war-torn country and the U.S. Congress remains divided over how to proceed. Biden will also reaffirm U.S. support “that we will stay with them as long as necessary,” said John Kirby, National Security Council strategic communications coordinator.