Kyiv, Ukraine — A massive barrage of Russian cruise missile and drone strikes hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities early Monday, knocking out water and electricity supplies in apparent retaliation for an alleged Ukrainian attack on the Black Sea Fleet.
Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s power plants and other vital infrastructure as the war enters its ninth month. As a result, power outages are already occurring in large parts of Ukraine.
“The Kremlin is taking revenge for military failures on peaceful people who are left without electricity and heating before winter,” said the governor of the Kyiv region Oleksii Kuleba.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces had “conducted strikes with long-range, high-precision air and sea weapons against Ukraine’s military command and power systems.”
“The goals of the strikes have been achieved. All designated targets were hit,” the ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, 12 ships carrying grain left Ukrainian ports on Monday despite a Russian threat to reintroduce a blockade that threatened hunger around the world, Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry said. A ship brought Ukrainian wheat to Ethiopia, where a severe drought is affecting millions of people.
Ukraine’s Air Force said it shot down 44 cruise missiles out of more than 50 launched by Russia.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russian missiles and drones hit 10 Ukrainian regions and damaged 18 sites, mainly energy assets.
Hundreds of towns in seven Ukrainian regions were left without power, he said in a Facebook post, adding that “the consequences could have been much worse” if Ukrainian forces hadn’t shot down most of the Russian missiles.
Thirteen people were injured in the morning’s attacks, National Police chief Ihor Klymenko said on national television.
Loud explosions could be heard across the Ukrainian capital as residents prepared to go to work. Emergency services sent SMS warnings of an impending missile attack, and air raid sirens blared for three hours during the morning commute.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 80% of consumers in the city of 3 million were left without water because of damage to a power plant. By Monday evening, workers had reduced the percentage to 40% and the number of homes without power from 350,000 to 270,000. In order to reduce electricity consumption, the Kiev authorities increased the intervals between subways and replaced electric trolleybuses and trams with buses, Klitschko said. Subway operations resumed on Monday evening.
Across Kyiv, hundreds queued, often for more than an hour, to pump water by hand from wells to fill plastic bottles and cans.
“It’s affecting our lives, it’s really inconvenient,” said a 34-year-old resident, who agreed to give only his first name, Denis, as he collected water. “But the truth is, it’s not a problem. The problem is we have a war.”
Smoke billowed from the left bank of the Dnieper in Kyiv, either from a missile attack or where Ukrainian forces shot it down.
Associated Press reporters saw soldiers inspecting a crater and debris from where one of the missiles had landed on the outskirts of Kyiv. The rockets flew fast and low and sounded like bombs exploding, according to witnesses.
“It was really scary,” said Oleksandr Ryabtsev, 28, who was on his way to work. “I lifted my head and it flew there. You could see this cruise missile, I didn’t even go to work. I went home.”
Prime Minister Shmyhal said emergency power cuts were underway in Kyiv, Zaporizhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions. “Today, just like in the past few weeks, it is important that Ukrainians use energy consciously and reduce the load on the grid,” the official said.
In the eastern city of Kharkiv, authorities said two strikes hit critical infrastructure and the metro stopped operating.
Critical infrastructure sites were also hit in the Cherkassy region south-east of Kyiv. According to local authorities, an energy plant was hit in the Kirovohrad region in central Ukraine. Remnants of a launched missile landed on civilian buildings in Vinnytsia, causing damage but no casualties, according to regional governor Serhii Borzov.
Parts of Ukraine’s train network were cut off from electricity, Ukraine Railways reported.
The attacks come two days after Russia accused Ukraine of a drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet off Russia’s annexed Crimea peninsula. Ukraine has denied the attack, saying Russia mishandled its own weapons, but Moscow nonetheless said it would retaliate by halting its involvement in a UN-Turkey-brokered deal to allow ships to pass safely to allow to transport grain from Ukraine.
Turkey’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar urged his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu in a phone call Monday to “reconsider” Moscow’s suspension of its participation in the grain deal that has enabled more than 9 million tons of grain to be exported from Ukraine. According to a statement, Akar hailed the deal as an example of how problems can be solved through “cooperation and dialogue” and argued it was a “completely humanitarian activity” that should be kept separate from the conflict.
Monday’s strikes marked the third time this month that Russia unleashed massive attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure. On October 10, a similar attack rocked the war-torn country after an explosion on the Kerch Bridge, which connects Crimea to mainland Russia – an incident Moscow blamed on Kyiv.
One of the Russian missiles launched by Ukraine landed on a Moldovan border town, causing damage but no casualties.
Moldova’s Interior Ministry released photos showing a thick plume of smoke rising over the northern town of Naslavcea on the border with Ukraine, and broken house windows.
In a further development, the Russian Defense Ministry on Monday reported the completion of a partial mobilization of troops, allegedly fulfilling a promise to end conscription at 300,000 men. However, some human rights lawyers warned that only Putin could end the call by signing a decree.
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Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey; Karel Janicek in Prague; and Sabina Niksic in Sarajevo, Bosnia, contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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This story has been corrected to show that Monday’s strikes were the third major Russian barrage against Ukrainian infrastructure this month, not the second.