Write Comment     |     E-Mail To a Friend     |     Facebook     |     Twitter     |     Print

Power outages reported in Ukrainian cities, Moldova

Authorities reported power outages in multiple cities of Ukraine, including parts of Kyiv, and in neighbouring Moldova after renewed strikes on Wednesday struck Ukrainian infrastructure facilities.

Multiple regions reported attacks in quick succession, suggesting a barrage of strikes. In several regions, authorities reported strikes on critical infrastructure. The Kyiv city administration said that three people were dead and three wounded in the capital after a Russian strike hit a two-storey building.

Russia has been pounding the power grid and other facilities with missiles and exploding drones for weeks, seemingly aiming to turn the cold and dark of winter into a weapon.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that “one of the capital’s infrastructure facilities has been hit” and there were “several more explosions in different districts” of the city. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the explosions were caused by air defense systems at work or Russian projectiles hitting targets. He said water supplies were knocked out in all of Kyiv.

There were power outages in parts of Kyiv, in the northern city of Kharkiv, the western city of Lviv and in the southern Odesa region. In Moldova, Infrastructure Minister Andrei Spinu said that “we have massive power outages across the country” following a similar outage on November 15.

Kharkiv’s mayor said that power was out in the city, Ukraine’s second largest, and all public transport had stopped running. Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy reports “two missile strikes on a power substation” in the region, and several districts of the region have been left without power. The entire Kyiv region is now without electricity, according to governor Oleksiy Kuleba.

State-owned grid operator Ukrenergo said Russia’s missile attack was continuing, but there were already emergency shutdowns in all regions. This is a necessary step to protect power grids from additional technological accidents and support the operation of the power system,” Ukrenergo said. The repair work will begin when air raid sirens cease.

The latest onslaught came hours after Ukrainian authorities said an overnight rocket attack destroyed a hospital maternity ward in southern Ukraine, killing a 2-day-old baby. Following the overnight strike in Vilniansk, close to the city of Zaporizhzhia, the baby’s mother and a doctor were pulled alive from the rubble.

The region’s governor said the rockets were Russian. The strike adds to the gruesome toll suffered by hospitals and other medical facilities — and their patients and staff — in the Russian invasion that will enter its tenth month this week.

They have been in the firing line from the outset, including a March 9 airstrike that destroyed a maternity hospital in the now-occupied port city of Mariupol. First lady Olena Zelenska wrote on Twitter that a 2-day-old boy died in the strike and expressed her condolences. “Horrible pain. We will never forget and never forgive,” she said.

Photos posted by the governor showed thick smoke rising above mounds of rubble, being combed by emergency workers against the backdrop of a dark night sky. The State Emergency Service said the two-story building was destroyed. Medical workers’ efforts have been complicated by the succession of Russian attacks in recent weeks on Ukraine’s infrastructure.

The situation is even worse in the southern city of Kherson, from which Russia retreated nearly two weeks ago after months of occupation — cutting power and water lines. Many doctors in the city are working in the dark, unable to use elevators to transport patients to surgery and operating with headlamps, cell phones and flashlights. In some hospitals, key equipment no longer works.

“Breathing machines don’t work, X-ray machines don’t work ... There is only one portable ultrasound machine and we carry it constantly,” said Volodymyr Malishchuk, the head of surgery at a children’s hospital in the city.

On Tuesday, after strikes on Kherson seriously wounded 13-year-old Artur Voblikov, a team of health staff carefully maneuvered the sedated boy up six flights of a narrow staircase to an operating room to amputate his left arm.