In a massive Russian attack with missiles and drones, five people were injured in Kyiv overnight into Saturday, including a 14-year-old child. Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced this on Saturday morning, as the “Welt” reports. The supply of electricity, water and district heating in the city of three million is massively disrupted, and the situation with the power supply is “extremely difficult”, according to Klitschko.
According to the mayor, the attacks targeted, among other things, energy facilities in the outskirts of the capital and in the neighbouring Zhytomyr region. The North Bridge over the Dnipro was damaged and temporarily closed; a video published by Klitschko showed damage to the roadway and guardrails, and power lines for trolleybuses had also been torn down. Repair work had begun, the “Welt” reports. Since the Dnipro divides the city, outages of important bridges significantly affect traffic between the two halves of the city.
The governor of the Kyiv region, Tymur Tkachenko, stated on Telegram that damage had been reported in five districts of the region, Ukrinform reports. In Bucha district and Obukhiv district, one energy facility was damaged in each, and in Boryspil district an infrastructure facility. In Brovary district, an administrative building, eleven vehicles, a petrol station building, a car dealership and two vehicle service centres as well as production and storage halls, two companies and ten private houses were damaged. In Bila Tserkva district, four private houses were damaged, whose windows were destroyed by the blast wave. Emergency services were continuing to work at the sites, it was said.
In the regional capital Chernihiv north of Kyiv, according to Ukrainian reports, there was a complete power outage, the “Welt” reports. In the central Ukrainian Zhytomyr region, too, energy infrastructure was damaged according to the regional governor and the Russian Ministry of Defence, France 24 reports.
According to the military, Ukrainian air defence intercepted four ballistic missiles and 149 of 172 Russian combat drones overnight, the “Welt” writes. The Russian Ministry of Defence stated that it had carried out a massive strike against targets in Ukraine’s military-industrial sector as well as against energy and transport infrastructure in and around Kyiv. According to Russian reports, a factory for the Ukrainian cruise missile Flamingo, the Trypillia power plant south of Kyiv and a substation in the Zhytomyr region were also attacked.
France 24 correspondent Emmanuelle Chaze reports that people have “about two to three hours of electricity per day, no heating and a daily water outage”. President Volodymyr Zelensky had already warned on Friday of new Russian attacks on energy facilities and other infrastructure. Intelligence information had indicated impending attacks “against the energy sector, against our bridges over the Dnipro and against civilian infrastructure”, he said according to the “Welt”, and again called for interceptor missiles for the Patriot air defence system.
Ukraine, for its part, attacked targets in Russia. According to the Russian regional administration, the oil refinery in Saratov on the Volga was attacked; videos on social networks showed fires on the refinery grounds, the “Welt” reports. According to reports, an arms factory in Oryol southwest of Moscow was also hit. The attacks come a few days before new talks on a possible end to the war: trilateral talks between representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the USA are planned for Tuesday and Wednesday in Abu Dhabi, in which representatives of the European Union are not to take part.
