Russian forces fired dozens of missiles at Ukraine on Thursday in a blistering wave of strikes targeting energy infrastructure.
The Russian missiles killed one person and wounded two more in the capital, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said on social media.
The 55-year-old man was killed by fragments of a missile that was shot down by Ukrainian air defense systems, Kyiv city officials said.
Ukrainian energy operator DTEK said it was instituting emergency power cuts around Kyiv and also in the southern Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Russia has launched regular waves of aerial attacks targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since last October.
Ukrainian military spokesman Yuriy Ignat announced the fresh missile salvo, telling local media that several Russian Tu-95 bombers had launched the attack from the northern Murmansk region.
“We expect more than 30 missiles, which have already started to appear in various territories. Air defense systems are working,” Ignat said.
The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said Russia was engaging in “spoiling attacks across most of the frontline in Ukraine in order to disperse and distract Ukrainian forces.”
Those measures, it said, were in order to “set conditions to launch a decisive offensive operation” in the eastern Luhansk region.
