Ukraine hit by water, power cuts after Russian missile strikes

Ukraine suffered sweeping blackouts and water supplies were cut to large parts of Kyiv on Monday after another wave of Russian missile strikes on key infrastructure.

The Ukrainian army's commander in chief, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said on Telegram that Russia had launched 55 cruise missiles and dozens of other munitions at "civilian targets" across the country, days after Russia blamed Ukraine for drone attacks on its fleet in the Black Sea.

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Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich early Tuesday called the bombardment "one of the most massive shellings of our territory by the army of the Russian Federation".

But he noted on the same platform that thanks to improved air defences, "the destruction is not as critical as it could be".

Though the army said many of the missiles had been shot down, Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said the strikes had still caused power cuts in "hundreds" of areas across seven Ukrainian regions.

City lighting turned off at twilight in Kyiv downtown, Ukraine, on Monday. AP

Several blasts were heard in the capital Kyiv.

The city's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said later on Monday that 40 percent of consumers had been left without water, while 270,000 homes had no electricity.

In the west of Kyiv, an AFP journalist saw more than 100 people with empty plastic bottles and containers waiting to collect water from a park fountain.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter: "Instead of fighting on the battlefield, Russia fights civilians."

Ukraine's battered energy infrastructure would be repaired with equipment from 12 countries, Kuleba said in a separate statement.

The Russian army confirmed it had carried out cruise missile strikes and said they had all reached their intended targets.

In Moldova, the government said a Russian missile shot down by Ukrainian air defences fell on the village of Naslavcea in the north of the country, but without causing any injuries.

Agence France-Presse