Kyiv, Ukraine CNN —
Russia launched a missile barrage on Ukrainian cities on Monday as it stepped up its attacks on infrastructure facilities across the country.
Explosions and air raid sirens were heard in Kyiv early Monday and 80 percent of residents were left without water, with many also without electricity, following power outages caused by Russian strikes, he said the mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitschko, on Telegram.
One of the strikes affected an energy facility supplying 350,000 apartments in the capital, Klitschko said, adding that emergency services were trying to restore power and “stabilize the situation as quickly as possible.”
Attacks on critical infrastructure were also reported in the central regions of Cherkasy and Kirovohrad, the eastern region of Kharkiv and the southern region of Zaphorizhzhia.
The wave of strikes comes after Russia accused Ukraine of attacking the Crimean city of Sevastopol over the weekend. Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014 and has controlled the territory ever since.
Klitschko urged residents of the capital to stock up on water from shops and pumping stations after an attack on a nearby electricity facility.
“Currently, due to the damage to the energy installation near Kyiv, 80% of the capital’s consumers are left without water supply,” he told Telegram. “Just in case, we ask you to try water from the nearest pumps and points of sale. Specialists are doing everything possible to return water to the apartments of Kyiv residents.”
He later said supplies would be returned to the capital’s east bank and part of the west bank within hours. He added that power in the Desnianskyi district had been “partially restored”.
Water supplies in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, were also affected after an infrastructure facility was hit, while most metro services were halted, it said. say Mayor Ihor Terekhov on Telegram.
“The blow fell on a critical infrastructure facility, causing the metro and ground electric transport to be de-energized,” he said. “So far, we have managed to get the Kholodnohirsko-Zavodska (metro) line up and running and replaced trolleybuses and trams with buses.”
Terekhov said that engineers “were doing everything possible to resume water supply to the homes of Kharkiv residents as soon as possible.”
Two missiles hit Kharkiv on Monday morning, the mayor had previously said on Telegram.
And in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, a missile hit an industrial company, Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said on Telegram.
“During the morning missile attack, two missiles were shot down (thanks to the Air Defense Forces) and a cruise missile hit an industrial company,” he said. No casualties have been reported.
Monday’s strikes affected 10 regions and damaged 18 facilities, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Telegram.
“Their target was not military installations, but civilian critical infrastructure,” Shmyhal said. “Missiles and drones hit 10 regions, where 18 facilities were damaged, most of them energy-related.”
He said “hundreds of settlements in seven regions” had lost power and that engineers were “working at full capacity” to repair the damage.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia had fired more than 50 cruise missiles into Ukraine on Monday and said it had intercepted 44 of them.
“At 7:00 a.m. on October 31, the Russian occupiers launched several waves of missile attacks against critical infrastructure facilities in Ukraine,” the Armed Forces Air Command said of Ukraine
“More than 50 X-101/X-555 cruise missiles have been launched from the aircraft carrying Tu-95/Tu-160 strategic aviation missiles in the northern Caspian Sea and the Volgodonsk region (region of Rostov) 44 cruise missiles were destroyed by the Ukrainian military, the air force statement added.
At least 10 Russian missiles were shot down over Kyiv early Monday, regional police chief Andrii Nebytov said on Telegram.
“Kyiv region police are now uncovering remnants of downed rockets belonging to the occupiers in various areas of the region,” he said. “Air defense forces shot down at least 10 enemy missiles.”
Oleksii Kuleba, head of the Kyiv region military administration, said the attacks “hit critical infrastructure targets” and two people had been wounded, one seriously.
Moscow defended the attacks. Russia’s defense ministry told Telegram on Monday that it had targeted Ukraine’s “military power and command systems.”
“The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continued attacks with long-range and high-precision air and sea weapons against the military command and energy systems of Ukraine,” he said. “All allocated objects have been hit.”
In recent weeks, Russia has launched a series of attacks against Ukraine’s electricity and heating infrastructure.
Even before Monday’s strikes, the situation was dire. On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said some four million Ukrainians had power cuts following attacks on energy infrastructure that day.
The assault on the infrastructure is part of a larger plan by President Vladimir Putin, Melinda Haring, deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, told CNN last week.
“Putin’s game plan is obvious: He wants this winter to be the coldest and darkest in Ukraine’s history,” he said.
“He will continue to hit infrastructure networks to remove energy and heat from Ukraine. His kamikaze drone attacks are aimed at breaking the will of the Ukrainian people and causing panic.”
Monday’s attacks come after Russia suspended its participation in a UN-brokered grain deal seen as key to tackling global food shortages. Moscow announced on Saturday that it would leave the deal, blaming Ukraine for a drone strike in Crimea. Kyiv accused Russia of inventing “fictitious terrorist attacks” and using the deal as “blackmail”.