Ukraine war: Russia could launch more heavy strikes, Zelensky warns
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Watch: A mother from Kryvyi Rih recalls helping her child to do homework when their building was hit
By Hugo Bachega & Nathan Williams
in Kyiv and London
Russia has enough missiles to carry out yet more heavy strikes against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, following a wave of Russian attacks.
Engineers are continuing work to restore electricity after Friday’s massive strikes using 76 missiles.
The attacks have targeted civilian infrastructure, as temperatures drop below zero in many regions.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has been consulting his military commanders about the future of the war.
The Kremlin says Mr Putin spent the whole of Friday at the headquarters of Russia’s military operation.
Kyiv has accused Moscow of using winter as a weapon by targeting essential facilities as temperatures drop. But Russia’s president earlier this month vowed to continue to batter Ukraine’s infrastructure, saying criticism of Russia’s strikes would not interfere with its “combat missions”.
Parts of the Ukrainian capital remained without power and heating on Saturday, the city’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. But water supplies have now been fully restored in the city.
Power has been restored in the country’s second city of Kharkiv, authorities said, after it was left without electricity for hours following Friday’s wave of strikes that targeted energy stations across the country.
Local officials said as many as nine power facilities were hit as Russian forces fired 76 missiles and carried out drone attacks.
Kharkiv’s mayor said the city suffered “colossal” damage.
One resident, Anastaisa, told the BBC the strikes began on Friday morning.
“In a matter of minutes, the lights started blinking,” the mother of a two-month-old child said.
“Just 10 seconds later, we were out of power, everything just went still and that’s it.”
An intensive care nurse in Kharkiv, called Vlad, told the BBC that the staff at his hospital continued to work during the strikes on the city, because they were used to such attacks.
Defence Ministry adviser Yuriy Sak told the BBC on Friday that Russia’s frequent attacks meant that repairing the damage to electricity infrastructure was getting harder.
Elsewhere, in the city of Kryvyi Rih, four people have been confirmed killed after a residential building was hit -a 64-year-old woman, a 30-year-old couple and a one-year-old boy, whose body was found overnight. Another person died in Kherson, authorities said.
The alarm was raised across Ukraine on Friday and Commander-in-Chief General Valeriy Zaluzhny said air defences had intercepted 60 of the 76 missiles fired, most of them cruise missiles.
Kyiv city officials said about 40 missiles had been fired at the capital alone – one of the biggest barrages since Russia’s 24 February invasion.
Thirty-seven were brought down by air defences, the officials added.
“It’s very stressful, but now I’m used to this,” said 42-year-old Oksana, who lives in the capital. “I don’t want our children to live through this, to be in basements, shelters, I don’t want this for them.”
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