Outbreaks of Russian strikes swept across Ukraine on Friday morning, causing water outages in the capital Kyiv and fresh power cuts in several cities across the country.
“Due to the damage to the energy infrastructure, there are interruptions in the water supply in all areas of the capital,” Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
“Don’t leave the shelters! The attack on the capital is still ongoing!” he asked residents of Kyiv by telegram.
The morning Russian strikes also resulted in the subway being shut down so the stations could serve as emergency shelters.
According to Klitschko, several explosions were reported, including at least one explosion “in the Golosiïvskiï district,” which includes the southern part of the city center and southern Kyiv.
The administration of Boutcha, where Russian soldiers are accused of committing atrocities during their occupation of this Kyiv suburb, announced that “anti-aircraft forces shot down an enemy missile” near the site, without giving further details.
The mayors of Kharkiv (northeast) and Poltava (middle-east) announced that their cities were without power after the morning bombings.
“Kharkiv has no electricity,” complained the mayor of the second largest Ukrainian city, Igor Terekhov, on Telegram.
His counterpart from Poltava, Oleksandre Mamaï, asked the population to “switch off all electronic devices”. “The airstrike is still ongoing,” he added, urging civilians to “stay calm.”
An adviser to the Ukrainian Presidency, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, finally stated on Telegram that “a residential building” in the town of Kryvyi Rig (south) was “affected”.
“There is damage. There may be people under the rubble,” he added, noting that “emergency services are on site.”
However, Mr. Tymoshenko did not say whether it was a Russian missile that hit the building or the debris from the anti-aircraft defenses.
“Without electricity (…) the heating system no longer works” in the city of Kremenchuk, in the center of the country, its mayor, Valéri Maletskiï, stated on Telegram.
As a result of these strikes, “electric trains” operating in the Kharkiv, Kivograd, Donetsk and Dnepropetrovsk regions will “run with reserve locomotives,” Ukrainian Railways announced.
Several strikes have also targeted the Zaporizhia region, according to its governor, Oleksandre Staroukh.