“It was a difficult night,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram on Thursday. According to him, Russia fired a total of 81 missiles. There were strikes across the country and “unfortunately also injuries and deaths.”
The Russians had reverted to “their miserable tactics,” he wrote. “The occupiers can only terrorize the civilian population. That is all they are capable of.” But that will not help them win the war, Zelensky wrote.
Early on Thursday morning, several Ukrainian cities reported a new barrage of Russian missile strikes.
Eyewitness reports circulating on social media spoke of violent explosions in Kiev. In the capital, the southern district of Holosiiv was hit, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed on Telegram.
Some 15% of households in the city were currently without electricity, he said.
Russian missile strikes targeting the energy infrastructure also caused power cuts in the southern region of Odessa as well as in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, according to the local authorities.
“As a result of massive rocket attacks, a regional energy infrastructure object was hit and a residential building was damaged,” Odessa’s military governor Maksym Marchenko said on Telegram.
Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov spoke of 15 strikes in the region.
Remember – what exactly allows us to be united now, united for justice. Every person matters. That is, every person is important, every life is important.
Glory to all those who protect 🇺🇦 and the international order on the legal front! Glory to all who are now fighting for 🇺🇦! pic.twitter.com/MSEgYOpYNJ— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 5, 2023
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant has been cut off from the regular power grid following the strikes, according to the operators.
The Russian-occupied plant in the southern city of Enerhodar is now being supplied via emergency diesel generators, Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom said on Telegram on Thursday morning, adding that fuel supplies could last for only 10 days.
This is the sixth time since Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago that the nuclear power plant has had to go into emergency operation, according to the operator.
In a post on Facebook, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko spoke of a “barbaric, massive” Russian attack.
A spokesman for Russia’s nuclear power plant operator Rosenergoatom confirmed that the Zaporizhzhya plant had been disconnected from the regular power grid and accused Ukraine of cutting off the supply for no apparent reason, according to Russian news agency Interfax.
The Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, has been under Russian control for nearly a year.
