Russia’s first rocket attack on Ukrainian cities in weeks was received vigorously but with dismay because it targeted civilians as Ukrainian forces defending Bakhmut in the east continued to block Russia’s efforts to make progress.

Thursday’s pre-dawn shelling killed at least nine civilians and cut power to several cities, but there was relief that a catastrophic accident at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant was averted as power was restored after a temporary blackout from the Ukrainian grid.

Kiev said its air defenses shot down several drones and missiles during the wave of attacks, but said Russian forces also launched six Kinzhal hypersonic cruise missiles, which they have no way of stopping.

Moscow confirmed that it used Kinzhal (Kinzhal) hypersonic missiles in Thursday’s attack.

Massive strikes against targets far from the front line were the first such wave since mid-February, breaking a lull in airstrikes against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure that Russia began five months ago.

“Only civilians can be terrorized”

“The occupiers can only terrorize civilians. That’s all they can do,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. But that won’t help them. They will not shy away from responsibility for everything they have done.”

Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians. The Russian Defense Ministry said it launched a “massive retaliation” for last week’s cross-border raid and said it hit all of Moscow’s intended targets, destroying drone bases, disrupting railroads and destroying arms manufacturing and repair facilities.

Rockets killed civilians in Lvov in the west and Dnieper in the center of the country, while Russian artillery also killed at least three people in Kharkiv in the northeast.

Moscow claims that such strikes are aimed at reducing the combat capability of Kyiv. Ukraine says the airstrikes have no military purpose and are aimed at harming and intimidating civilians, which is a war crime.

In Kyiv, a woman stood outside her damaged apartment with a small child in her arms, expressing her anger at Russia after the attack.

“How can they do it? How is this possible; These are not people,” Lyudmila, 58, said after a night of sirens blaring for seven hours.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleg Zhdanov said Russian intelligence’s failure to identify military targets led to “Plan B – disappointing the population.”

“That’s why they hit the energy infrastructure, the weakest spot, electricity, heating, water,” Zhdanov said on YouTube.

“And they don’t seem to be able to change their strategy with the idea that whether they succeed or not, sooner or later the world will say, ‘Enough is enough, we’re giving up.’ But that won’t happen.”

supersonic missiles

The White House said the shelling was “catastrophic” and Washington will continue to provide Kyiv with air defense capabilities.

However, Russia is believed to have several dozen Kinzhals that fly far beyond the speed of sound and are designed to carry nuclear warheads with a range of more than 2,000 km. In his speeches, Russian President Vladimir Putin regularly touts the Kinzhals as a weapon. to which Kiev-backed NATO has no answer.

Missile strikes briefly cut power to the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, shutting it off the grid and forcing it to use emergency diesel fuel to prevent an accident. It was later reconnected to the Ukrainian power grid, Ukrenergo reports.

The plant, which has been owned by Russia since the start of the war, is close to the front line, and both sides have previously warned of the possibility of destruction. In Moscow they say that the plant is safe.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the UN, Rafael Grossi, called for the creation of a buffer zone around nuclear power plants.

“Every time it’s like playing dice. And if we allow this to continue, then one day luck will not be on our side,” Grossi told the IAEA’s highest body, which includes representatives from 35 countries.

Battle for Ukraine near Bakhmut

There have been clear changes on the battlefield this week as Ukraine decided to fight in Bakhmut, the city that bore the brunt of the Russian winter offensive and where some of the bloodiest battles of the war took place.

Moscow says Bakhmut is important to the security of the surrounding Donbas, the main target of the Russian invasion. The West says the ruined city is of little value, and Russian troops are sacrificing their lives to give Putin his only victory since hundreds of thousands of reservists were sent into battle late last year.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, commander of Wagner’s private Russian army that led the fighting in Bakhmut, said Wednesday that his troops control the entire city east of the river that runs through it.

At a briefing on the situation there, Ukrainian military analyst Zhdanov said that the defenders prevented Russian attempts to completely surround Bakhmut from the west, and the front line on the southern flank was held for several days, while the enemy made some progress in the villages in the north. .

Source: Reuters.