Russia rains missiles on Ukraine's infrastructure, says Kyiv kills civilians

[December 16, 2022]  By Pavel Polityuk and Tom Balmforth

KYIV (Reuters) -Russia fired dozens of missiles at infrastructure in Ukraine on Friday, forcing emergency power shutdowns across the country amid freezing temperatures and killing and wounding people in their homes in the south, Ukrainian officials said.

Russian-installed officials in occupied eastern Ukraine also reported civilian casualties from Ukrainian shelling in two places.

The latest Russian assault followed warnings from Ukrainian officials that Moscow plans a new all-out offensive early next year, a year after it launched an invasion that has destroyed much of Ukraine but brought little of it under Russian control.

As many as 60 Russian missiles had been spotted heading for Ukraine, Vitaly Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine, said early on Friday, while Oleksiy Kuleba, governor of the Kyiv region, said Russia was "massively attacking".

Russia has rained missiles on Ukrainian energy infrastructure almost weekly since early October after a series of battlefield defeats. Moscow says it is part of its plan to disable Ukraine's military, Kyiv says it is a war crime.

"A Russian missile hit a residential building in Kryvyi Rih," regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Facebook. "The stairwell was destroyed. Two people were killed. At least five were wounded, including two children. All are in hospital."
 

Russian troops are now bogged down trying to hold on to territory in the south and east, around a fifth of Ukraine. Fighting along the front line is brutal, with many soldiers on both sides thought to be killed or wounded although neither side issues detailed reports of military casualties.

Russian-installed officials said the latest Ukrainian shelling had killed civilians in two places.

Eight people were killed and 23 wounded in the village of Lantrativka, a small settlement close to the border with Russia in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of Ukraine, the Russian-installed administrator of the region said on Friday.

People shelter inside a metro station during massive Russia's missile attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine December 16, 2022. REUTERS/Pavlo Podufalov

Leonid Pasechnik called the attack "barbaric".

He said Ukraine was targeting residential neighbourhoods, schools and shopping districts in an attempt to "kill as many people as possible". He did not provide evidence and there was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

The head of a separatist, self-styled "people's militia" in Luhansk said a civilian had also been killed by Ukrainian shelling in the town of Svatove, around 70 km (40 miles) further south, on Friday morning.

Reuters was unable to immediately verify the latest battlefield accounts but recorded at least three explosions in the snow-covered capital Kyiv, with smoke billowing over part of the city. It was not clear if any missiles had got through air defences.

SUCCESSIVE STRIKES

Ukraine has managed to repair much of its power infrastructure to restore electricity and water supplies but each successive attack makes that task harder.

A senior Ukrainian presidential official said emergency power shutdowns were being introduced across the country.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office, did not elaborate, but officials said earlier power had been knocked out in the eastern city of Kharkiv, home to more than a million people, and the smaller central city of Poltava.

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