Getty ImagesOvernight Russian missile and drone strikes have caused power cuts in large parts of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
Nine people were injured while residents in eastern districts were plunged into darkness and faced disruption to water supplies, the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Meanwhile, a seven-year-old child was killed in a separate Russian drone strike in the Zaporizhzhia area in the country’s south-east, according to the Ukrainian regional head.
Moscow has escalated attacks on energy facilities over recent weeks, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for “real steps” from allies to apply pressure to Russia.
“What’s needed is not window dressing but decisive action – from the United States, Europe and the G7 – in delivering air defence systems and enforcing sanctions,” he wrote in a post on X.
He said that 450 drones and more than 30 missiles targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, describing such attacks as “cynical and calculated” and against “everything that sustains normal life” as temperatures become colder.
Ukraine’s Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said Russia was “inflicting a massive strike” and repair crews were working to restore power.
A wave of strikes hit energy infrastructure and apartment buildings in Kyiv.
Five out of the nine people injured in the strikes on the capital have been taken to hospital, Klitschko said.
Images of firefighters putting out blazes at a 10-storey building have been released by Ukraine’s state emergency services.
ReutersIvan Fedorov, Zaporizhzhia’s regional head, said the city came under intense attacks overnight. A seven-year-old child died and three other people were injured.
The attacks follow nights of air raids in the region, parts of which Russia currently controls.
All of Ukraine is on alert for hypersonic Kinzhal missile strikes, which are more difficult to detect.
Zelensky told reporters on Thursday that Russia was intentionally trying to demolish the country’s energy grid, with attacks already disrupting gas facilities.
He said energy workers and authorities were bracing for further attacks.
