Russia begins mass airstrike in apparent move to destroy Ukraine’s power grid

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The second mass air attack in days has been launched by Russia across Ukraine, with a barrage of rockets fired at several regions across the country.

The aim of the mass attack, authorities said, appeared to be to destroy the Ukrainian power grid in the hope that damaging Ukraine away from the frontline would enable Russia to make gains on the battlefield.

Two people had died and a further five had been injured, including two children, after a rocket hit a residential building in the southern city of Kryvyi Rih, the head of Dnipro region, Valentyn Reznichenko, said on his Telegram. The injured were being treated in hospital. The building’s entrance was destroyed in the attack, he added.

In the capital, Kyiv, explosions were heard in the south-western district of Holosiivkyi, as well as the eastern districts of Dniprovskyi and Desnyanskyi, according to the city’s mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko.

At least one energy infrastructure facility appeared to have been hit in Kyiv. There were water disruptions in every district, according to Klitschko. The Ukrainian energy company DTEK said emergency power outages would be introduced in the city as result of the attack. Kyiv’s metro suspended all lines but the stations were still open as bomb shelters, Klitschko said. Mobile internet was out in several areas of the capital.

Power outages have been reported in Ukraine’s eastern and central regions of Kharkiv and Poltava, according to their authorities. The governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Syniehubov, confirmed energy infrastructure had been hit and Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne said there were power outages in the region. Syniehubov said there were no casulties. Neighbouring Polatava region was without electricity, according the mayor of the city of Poltava, Oleksandr Mamai.

There have been 15 hits in Zaporizhzhia region, according to its governor, Oleksandr Strukh, who said authorities were clarifying the extent of the damage and that emergency services were on the scene.

The sound of air defence could also heard in the regions of Dnipro, Ternopil, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi and Vinnytsia.

The spokesperson for Ukraine’s air forces, Yuriy Ignat, said Russia had launched a total of 60 rockets at Ukraine on Friday. He said that different types of missiles had been used: “They used everything they had, except for drones.” It is not yet clear how many Ukraine’s air defence forces were able to catch. The air raid alert has not ended.

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s air defence forces said they shot down all 13 of the Iranian-supplied drones that Russia launched at Kyiv city and Kyiv region. No casualties were reported, though a few buildings were damaged by the debris of downed drones.

Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, told the Guardian on Thursday that Ukraine was winning the air war, thanks to its air defence forces honing their skills and equipment over the past nine months. He said that efficiency of those forces had gone from 50% to 80% since the war began.