Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Prime Minister of Yemen’s Houthi Government Killed in Israeli Strike

2 days ago

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Signs Law Redrawing Congressional Maps

3 days ago

US Air Force will Offer Military Funeral Honors to Slain Capitol Rioter

3 days ago

US Republican Senator Joni Ernst Will Not Run for Re-Election, CBS News Reports

3 days ago

Wall Street Falls as Dell, Nvidia Drive Tech Losses

3 days ago

US Denies Visas to Palestinian Officials Ahead of UN General Assembly

3 days ago

Minneapolis Children Revealed Courage, Absorbed Fear During Church Shooting

4 days ago

Ford Recalls Nearly 500,000 Vehicles Over Brake Fluid Leak

4 days ago

Fresno-Bound Passenger Says Delta Attendant Slapped Him, Seeks $20M

4 days ago
Russia Launches Another Major Missile Attack on Ukraine
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 3 years ago on
December 16, 2022

Share

Ukraine’s capital came under one of the biggest attacks of the war on Friday as Russia’s invading forces fired dozens of missiles across the country, triggering widespread emergency power outages, Ukrainian officials said.

Gunfire from air defense systems and thudding explosions combined with the wail of air-raid sirens as the barrage targeted critical infrastructure in cities including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih and Zaporhizhzhia. The head of the Ukrainian armed forces said they intercepted 60 of 76 missiles launched.

Russian strikes on electricity and water systems have occurred intermittently since mid-October, increasing the suffering of the population as winter approaches. But the Ukrainian military has reported increasing success in shooting down incoming rockets and explosive drones.

Friday’s attack took place after the United States this week agreed to give a Patriot missile battery to Ukraine to boost the country’s defense. Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned Thursday that the sophisticated system and any crews accompanying it would be a legitimate target for the Russian military.

The U.S. also pledged last month to send $53 million in energy-related equipment to help Ukraine withstand the attacks on its infrastructure. John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said Friday that the first tranche of that equipment and technical support had arrived in the country.

More than half of the Russian missiles fired Friday targeted Ukraine’s capital. The city administration said Kyiv withstood “one of the biggest rocket attacks” it has faced since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly 10 months ago. Ukrainian air-defense forces shot down 37 of about 40 missiles that entered the city’s airspace, and one person was injured, it said.

Ukraine’s air force said Russian forces had fired cruise missiles from the Admiral Makarov frigate in the Black Sea, while Kh-22 cruise missiles were fired from long-range Tu-22M3 bombers over the Sea of Azov, and tactical aircraft-fired guided missiles.

In Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown, a missile slammed into a four-story residential building and left a gaping hole in its upper floors. Three people were killed and at least 13 were taken to the hospital, said Igor Karelin, deputy head of the city’s emergency services.

Rescue teams with sniffer dogs searched through the debris for a missing mother and her 18-month-old child.

Also at Kryvyi Rih, nearly 600 miners were stuck underground because of the missile strikes and were being rescued, Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said on state TV. Vilkul said about 250 of them had been rescued and the operation was continuing.

He said “several energy infrastructure facilities were completely destroyed.”

State-owned grid operator Ukrenergo wrote on Facebook that priority in restoring power across Ukraine was being given to critical infrastructure, including hospitals, water supply facilities, heat supply facilities and sewage treatment plants.

Friday’s attack was “the ninth wave of missile strikes on energy facilities,” Ukrenergo said, and because of the repeated damage, “the restoration of power supply may take longer than before.”

Analysts have said Russian strikes targeting energy infrastructure are part of a strategy to try to freeze Ukrainians into submission after recent battlefield losses by Russian forces. Officials and experts say that has only strengthened the resolve of Ukrainians to face up to Russia’s invasion, while Moscow tries to buy time for a possible offensive in coming months after the current battlefield stalemate.

The southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia and its surrounding region were hit by 21 rockets early Friday, city council secretary Anatoly Kurtev said. Lights went out in some areas, but there were no initial reports of injuries.

Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov reported three strikes on critical infrastructure in that city, Ukraine’s second-largest, while Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported explosions in at least four districts.

“The attack on the capital continues,” Klitschko wrote on social media. Subway services in Kyiv were suspended, he said, as residents sought shelter in its tunnels.

At the site of one attempted strike in Kyiv, military commanders told The Associated Press that the city’s territorial defense mobile group had shot down a cruise missile with a machine gun. It wasn’t immediately clear whether other Ukrainian fire may have contributed to downing the rocket.

“Almost impossible to hit a missile with a machine gun, but it was done,” said a commander who goes only by the call sign “Hera” for security reasons.

Ukrzaliznytsia, the national railway operator, said power was out in a number of stations in the eastern and central Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions. But trains continued to run after electric power was switched to backup, steam-engine power.

In neighboring Moldova, the state-owned energy company reported disruptions to its electricity network as a result of Russia’s strikes on Ukraine, and warned of a “high risk” of power outages.

Moldova — whose Soviet-era systems remain interconnected with Ukraine’s — has already suffered two massive blackouts in recent months as Russia attacked Ukraine’s energy grid.

The previous such round of massive Russian air strikes across Ukraine took place on Dec. 5.

“Grateful for the work of Ukraine’s air defense amid more escalatory Russian attacks this morning on civilian infrastructure in Kyiv and around the country,” the U.S. ambassador in Kyiv, Bridget Brink, wrote on Twitter.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Garnet Fire Grows to 18,748 Acres in Sierra National Forest

DON'T MISS

US Judge Blocks Deportations of Unaccompanied Migrant Children to Guatemala

DON'T MISS

Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet

DON'T MISS

Thousands in Australia March Against Immigration, Government Condemns Rally

DON'T MISS

Trump Says He Will Order Voter ID Requirement for Every Vote

DON'T MISS

Greta Thunberg Joins Flotilla Heading for Gaza With Aid

DON'T MISS

Chicago Mayor Says Police Will Not Aid Federal Troops or Agents

DON'T MISS

Post-War Gaza Plan Sees Relocation of Population, ‘Digital Token’ for Palestinian Land: Washington Post

DON'T MISS

Labor Day Quiz: Do You Know What a Knocker-Upper Is?

DON'T MISS

Bulldogs Check All the Boxes in Runaway Win Over Georgia Southern

UP NEXT

Thousands in Australia March Against Immigration, Government Condemns Rally

UP NEXT

Greta Thunberg Joins Flotilla Heading for Gaza With Aid

UP NEXT

Post-War Gaza Plan Sees Relocation of Population, ‘Digital Token’ for Palestinian Land: Washington Post

UP NEXT

Evacuation of Gaza City Would Be Unsafe and Unfeasible, Says Head of Red Cross

UP NEXT

Prime Minister of Yemen’s Houthi Government Killed in Israeli Strike

UP NEXT

Egypt Rounds up Teenaged TikTokkers in Crackdown on Social Media

UP NEXT

Turkey Bars Israeli Ships from Its Ports and Restricts Airspace

UP NEXT

UK, France, Germany Urge Iran to Agree to Deal to Delay UN Sanctions

UP NEXT

Israeli Military Says Local Tactical Pause Will Not Apply to Gaza City

UP NEXT

US Denies Visas to Palestinian Officials Ahead of UN General Assembly

Thousands in Australia March Against Immigration, Government Condemns Rally

17 hours ago

Trump Says He Will Order Voter ID Requirement for Every Vote

17 hours ago

Greta Thunberg Joins Flotilla Heading for Gaza With Aid

17 hours ago

Chicago Mayor Says Police Will Not Aid Federal Troops or Agents

17 hours ago

Post-War Gaza Plan Sees Relocation of Population, ‘Digital Token’ for Palestinian Land: Washington Post

17 hours ago

Labor Day Quiz: Do You Know What a Knocker-Upper Is?

17 hours ago

Bulldogs Check All the Boxes in Runaway Win Over Georgia Southern

1 day ago

Judge Blocks Pillar of Trump’s Mass Deportation Campaign

2 days ago

Classic Cars Will Still Need a Smog Test in California After Lawmakers Reject Jay Leno Bill

2 days ago

Visalia Driver Arrested for DUI After Multiple Crashes and Pedestrian Injured

2 days ago

Fresno County Garnet Fire Grows to 18,748 Acres in Sierra National Forest

A lightning-sparked wildfire, the Garnet Fire, in the Sierra National Forest has burned 18,748 acres in Fresno County and remains at 8% cont...

16 hours ago

Photo: USDA - Forest Service Tanker 40 at Fresno Air Attack Base. The Fresno County Garnet Fire in the Sierra National Forest has burned 18,748 acres and is 8% contained as crews make progress on containment lines while bracing for possible thunderstorms early this week. (Sam Wu/USFS)
16 hours ago

Fresno County Garnet Fire Grows to 18,748 Acres in Sierra National Forest

U.S. flag and Judge gavel are seen in this illustration taken, August 6, 2024. (Reuters File)
17 hours ago

US Judge Blocks Deportations of Unaccompanied Migrant Children to Guatemala

Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, August 31, 2025. (Reuters/Amir Cohen)
17 hours ago

Israel Pounds Gaza City Suburbs, Netanyahu to Convene Security Cabinet

Demonstrators hold a banner during the 'March for Australia' anti-immigration rally, in Sydney, Australia, August 31, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
17 hours ago

Thousands in Australia March Against Immigration, Government Condemns Rally

President Donald Trump walks on the grounds of the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, U.S., August 30, 2025. (Reuters/Nathan Howard)
17 hours ago

Trump Says He Will Order Voter ID Requirement for Every Vote

Activists Yasemin Acar, Greta Thunberg and Thiago Avila attend a press conference before the departure of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a humanitarian expedition to Gaza, at the port of Barcelona, Spain August 31, 2025. (Reuters/Eva Manez)
17 hours ago

Greta Thunberg Joins Flotilla Heading for Gaza With Aid

National Guard troops wear gas masks during protests against federal immigration sweeps, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 12, 2025. (Reuters File)
17 hours ago

Chicago Mayor Says Police Will Not Aid Federal Troops or Agents

A view of tents sheltering Palestinians displaced by the Israeli military offensive, in Gaza City, August 23, 2025. (Reuters File)
17 hours ago

Post-War Gaza Plan Sees Relocation of Population, ‘Digital Token’ for Palestinian Land: Washington Post

Search

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Send this to a friend