ROn Monday, at the beginning of the new week, ussland again fired rockets at numerous cities in Ukraine. There was an air alert across the country, and the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense was active, according to the local authorities. According to Ukrainian sources, the attacks with more than 50 cruise missiles and rockets were aimed at seven areas, including Kharkiv, Zaporizhia and Kirovohrad. It was said that some important infrastructure had been hit. 44 of the projectiles were intercepted. The information could not be independently verified.
In the capital, large parts of the water supply failed. Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported in a message on Telegram that 80 percent of the consumption points were affected. Experts tried to repair the damage as quickly as possible. Klitschko promised that water would flow again in the districts east of the Dnipro River in the early afternoon. This will only be possible in some parts on the west bank with the center of the megacity.
Klitschko advised the people of Kyiv to stock up on drinking water at public pumps if necessary. The city government published a map of these fountains. The failure of the water system was related to damage to the power supply. Klitschko wrote that 350,000 households were also without electricity. For the area around the capital, Governor Oleksiy Kuleba announced that the population should prepare for long power outages. Ukrainian Railways announced that the power outage was affecting local traffic and causing train delays.
As in previous weeks, the Russian attacks took place during the morning rush hour at the beginning of the week. Recently there had been dead and injured again and again. Nothing was initially known about new victims on Monday. The authorities called on citizens to get to safety in bunkers and other rooms. In the big cities, many people spent the morning hours in subway stations.
Russia had declared that it was particularly targeting the neighboring country’s energy infrastructure. Ukraine speaks of “energy terror” with the aim of plunging people into darkness, cold and fear and thus driving them to flee to the EU.
Russia is continuing its attacks on civilian infrastructure, the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, said in his blog on the Telegram news channel. “We’ll hold on. And that shame will cost whole generations of Russians dearly,” he announced. At the same time, he called for more weapons and new sanctions against Russia from the West.
Grain shipments continue
Meanwhile, the United Nations, Turkey and Ukraine delegations at the Grains Agreement Coordination Center agreed to allow grain exports from Ukraine to continue through the Black Sea, despite Russia’s cancellation of safe passage for the freighters. As the coordination center in Istanbul announced on Monday night, the Russian delegation had been informed of the result.
On Monday, twelve ships are to sail through the defined sea corridor from Ukraine towards Istanbul. The AFP news agency reported in the morning that the first two ships had already left Ukrainian ports. According to the coordination center, four ships should also go in the opposite direction. It is unclear how Russia will react to this continued shipping traffic.
