Russia launched more missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Thursday, and its forces backed by troops withdrawn from the southern city of Kherson, which Kiev recaptured last week, launched attacks into eastern Ukraine.
NATO and Poland concluded that a missile that crashed in Poland on Tuesday, killing two people, was most likely misfired by Ukraine’s air defense system. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky disputed this view in a rare public disagreement with his Western allies.
As winter began to snow in Kiev, officials said they were working hard to restore power across the country after Russia carried out the heaviest bombing of civilian infrastructure in what Ukraine said earlier this week in nine months.
On Thursday morning, explosions were heard again in various parts of Ukraine, including the southern port city of Odessa, the capital Kyiv and the central city of Dnipro.
Local officials said two people were killed in an overnight missile strike in the southern region of Zaporhizhzhia, while an attack in the northeastern city of Kharkiv injured three others and one in Odessa.
“Missiles are currently flying over Kyiv,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said, as quoted by the Interfax Ukraine news agency. “Now they are bombing our gas production, they are bombing our companies in Dnipro and Yuzhmash (missile factory).”
State energy company Naftogaz confirmed that gas production facilities in eastern Ukraine were damaged or destroyed.
The United Nations Office of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA) has warned of a serious humanitarian crisis in Ukraine this winter.
“Millions of people face constant power outages, and the power outage also affects water pumping,” it said in a statement.
In a more positive development, Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry said an agreement has been reached to extend an agreement that allows food and fertilizer exports through a protected sea transit corridor from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports by 120 days.
First agreed in July, the Black Sea grain initiative has helped alleviate global food shortages, and UN Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed Thursday’s announcement.
source: Noticias
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.