Russian airstrikes have targeted Ukraine’s energy facilities again as the first snow of the season fell in Kyiv, a harbinger of the hardship to come if Moscow’s missiles continue to take out power and gas plants as winter descends.
Separately, the United Nations announced the extension of a deal to ensure exports of grain and fertilisers from Ukraine that were disrupted by the war.
The deal was set to expire soon, renewing fears of a global food crisis if exports were blocked from one of the world’s largest grain producers.
Even as all sides agreed to extend the deal, air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine.
At least four people were killed and more than two dozen others wounded in the drone and missile strikes, including one that hit a residential building, authorities said.
The Kremlin’s forces have suffered a series of setbacks on the ground, the latest being the loss of the southern city of Kherson.
In the face of those defeats, Russia has increasingly resorted to aerial onslaughts aimed at energy infrastructure and other civilian targets in parts of Ukraine it doesn’t hold.
The latest salvo appeared to be on a lesser scale than the nationwide barrage of more than 100 missiles and drones that knocked out power to 10 million people earlier this week.
The strikes on Wednesday were described by Ukraine’s energy minister as the biggest barrage yet of the nearly 9-month-old invasion against the battered power grid.
The renewed bombings come as many Ukrainians are coping with the discomforts of regular blackouts and heating outages, as winter approaches. A light snow dusted the capital, where the temperature fell below freezing.
The city’s military administration said air defences shot down at least two cruise missiles and five Iranian-made exploding drones.
In eastern Ukraine, Russia “launched a massive attack on gas production infrastructure”, state energy company Naftogaz head Oleksiy Chernishov said in a statement. He provided no details.
And critical infrastructure was also hit in the northeastern region of Kharkiv, in the area of Izyum, wounding three workers, the regional administration said.
The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, called the strikes on energy targets “naïve tactics of cowardly losers” in a Telegram post.
“Ukraine has already withstood extremely difficult strikes by the enemy, which did not lead to results the Russian cowards hoped for,” Yermak wrote.
The war’s impact has been felt far beyond Ukraine, perhaps most significantly in global food markets.
Ukraine and Russia are among the world’s largest exporters of grain, and Russia is also a significant producer of fertiliser.
There were concerns in recent days about the fate of a UN- and Turkey-brokered deal meant to address disruptions to those exports that was set to expire Saturday (local time). UN Secretary-General António Guterres confirmed it had been extended for four months.
In addition to securing the safe passage of Ukrainian exports, Guterres said in a statement the United Nations is also “fully committed” to removing obstacles that have impeded the export of food and fertiliser from Russia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed the extension, and Zelensky called it a “key decision in the global fight against the food crisis”..
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