KIEV Russian strikes hit targets across Ukraine early morning today, March 9, including the capital Kyiv, the Black Sea port of Odesa, and the second-largest city Kharkiv, knocking out power to several areas. The attacks struck a wide arc of targets, including cities stretching from Zhytomyr, Vynnytsia, and Rivne in the west to Dnipro and Poltava in central Ukraine. The head of the regional military administration Maksym Kozytskyi said four people including two men and two women have died in the missile strikes on the western region of Lviv. The debris is still being sorted out. There may be other people under them.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said explosions were reported in the southwestern part of the city and rescue services were on their way. Two people were injured. He said, after the missile attack, due to emergency power outages, 40 per cent of the capital’s consumers are currently without heating. The water supply works normally. The power company Enerhoatom said in a statement today that the last line of communication between the occupied Zaporizhzhia NPP and the Ukrainian power system has been cut off. Fuel for operation remains for 10 days.
In August last year, fires caused by shelling cut the last remaining power line to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, temporarily disconnecting it from Ukraine’s National Grid for the first time in nearly 40 years of operation. Then, it took two weeks for power to be restored to the plant. Meanwhile, Zelenskiy says he won’t meet with Putin until Russia leaves Ukraine.