A Russian missile strike on a power plant killed three people in Kyiv on Tuesday as Moscow pounded Ukrainian energy facilities, causing explosions, fires and blackouts.
Thick smoke rose into the sky after several loud blasts echoed through northern Kyiv, where there is a thermal power station, Reuters witnesses said.
Electricity supplies were interrupted to some parts of Kyiv because of “damage to a critical infrastructure object” but were later restored, power producer DTEK said.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two infrastructure targets, which he did not identify, had suffered “significant damage”.
“As a result of today’s attack on the critical infrastructure of Kyiv, three people were killed. These are employees of one of the critical infrastructure facilities,” he said.
The Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office said it had opened an investigation into a possible “violation of the laws and customs of war.”
“Ukraine is under fire by the (Russian) occupiers. They continue to do what they do best – terrorise and kill civilians,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
He said Russian air strikes had destroyed 30 percent of Ukraine’s power stations since Oct 10 and that Moscow would be held to account for its actions.
Local officials said power facilities were targeted in Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine on Tuesday, and an attack on an energy facility in the southeastern city of Dnipro caused what regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko called “serious damage”.
An air strike left the northern city of Zhytomyr without water and electricity supplies, its mayor said, and a Russian missile struck an apartment building in the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv. Zelensky said a man was killed in the attack.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine on Feb 24, has denied deliberately targeting civilians although it has repeatedly struck heavily populated cities across the country. It says it has been targeting military and energy infrastructure.
Five people were killed in a Russian attack on a residential building in Kyiv on Monday, Ukrainian officials said, a week after Russia launched its heaviest air strikes since the early days of the war.
