Russian missile strike kills at least one in Kiev, cripples power infrastructure

Russia hit Ukraine with missiles during the morning rush hour on Thursday, killing at least one person in Kiev and damaging critical infrastructure in the Black Sea region of Odesa, officials said.

Crowds took shelter in the capital’s metro stations during a nationwide air alert before Russia unleashed the latest in a series of air strikes on the power grid since October that have caused major disruptions through the winter.

The missile strikes follow an overnight drone strike, a day after Ukraine secured supplies of main battle tanks from Germany and the United States to bolster its troops – a move that has infuriated Russian officials.

Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said six Tu-95 warplanes had taken off from the Arctic region of Murmansk in northern Russia and had launched long-range missiles.

He said he expected a volley of more than 30 missiles and that air defense forces were trying to shoot them down.

Kiev authorities said their air defenses had shot down all of the more than 15 Russian missiles fired at the capital, but the threat persisted and residents should not leave their shelters.

Minutes later, loud explosions rocked two Kiev districts. City officials said a 55-year-old man was killed and two others injured when non-residential buildings in the south of the city were hit.

Impacts were also reported in central Vynnitsia and elsewhere.

“There is already information about the damage to two critical power infrastructure facilities in the Odesa region,” the Odesa District Military Administration wrote on Telegram, adding that there were no casualties in these attacks.

At the start of the attack, a Reuters reporter heard the sound of a missile flying at low altitude, about 30 km from Kiev.

Iryna, an accountant in her fifties, was sitting on a bench among the crowd sheltering at Universitet metro station and said she was worried about her husband.

“He was planning to go to the post office in the morning and now he doesn’t answer his phone,” she said.

DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private power producer, said it was conducting emergency power shutdowns in Kiev, the surrounding region and also in the Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions due to the danger of missile strikes.

Other power producers said they were conducting emergency power cuts in other parts of Ukraine.

Overnight, the military said its anti-aircraft defenses shot down all 24 drones sent by Russia.

Fifteen of the drones were shot down in the capital Kiev, where there were no reports of damage.