Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, claims that civilians have been killed in a barrage of devastating missile and drone attacks. He also accuses Russia of launching attacks across many cities, including the capital Kyiv, with the intention of destroying the nation's energy infrastructure.
At least eight people were killed in the largest wave of attacks in Ukraine in months, which occurred a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Kiev of a catastrophic explosion on the Kerch Bridge connecting Russia to the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.
“This morning is difficult. We are dealing with terrorists. Dozens of missiles and Iranian Shaheds. They have two targets. Energy facilities throughout the country,” Zelenskyy said in a video address on social media, adding that “the second target is people”.
The dozens of missile and drone attacks across Ukraine, including rare attacks on Kyiv and the western region of Lviv, knocked out power and heat, in apparent revenge for the attack on the Kerch Bridge on Saturday.
A huge crater gaped next to a children’s playground in a central Kyiv park. The remains of an apparent missile were buried, smoking in the mud.
Zelenskyy said attacks also took place in Dnipro, Vinnytsia and Ivano-Frankivsk in central Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia in the south and the Kharkiv and Sumy regions in the east, among others.
His prime minister said 11 major infrastructure targets were hit in eight regions, leaving swaths of the country with no power, water or heat.
He recorded his statement in front of the Presidential Office in Kyiv, several kilometres away from the location where the attacks took place just hours before.
“They seek panic and chaos,” Zelenskyy said. “But we are Ukrainians. Helping each other. We believe in ourselves. We restore everything that was destroyed. There may be temporary power outages now, but there will never be an interruption in our confidence – our confidence in victory,” Zelenskyy added.
Zelenskyy called on residents to stay in air raid shelters and abide by the advice of local authorities.
The explosions began at about 8:15am (05:15 GMT), with air raid sirens sounding in the Ukrainian capital more than an hour before the blasts.
Part of the far-western Ukrainian city of Lviv is without power after energy infrastructure was damaged in a Russian attack, the mayor said.
Sadovyi said on Telegram. As a result, he said, there is no hot water.
There was no immediate word from Moscow on what it was targeting. Russia has denied in the past that it deliberately targets civilians. In an address today, Putin said the attacks were aimed at “energy, military command and communications facilities in Ukraine”.
Zelenskyy said he had spoken with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron to urge a tough response against Moscow in the wake of the deadly attacks.
‘Very different
Al Jazeera’s Rory Challand, reporting from Kyiv, said the capital “hasn’t experienced anything like this in months”.“People stopped paying attention to the air raid sirens, so it’s a very, very different reality this Monday morning,” Challand added.
“In fact, I would say nothing like this has happened since the start of the war, and even at the beginning of the war, there weren’t as many central strikes as have taken place today.”
The attacks come a day after Putin blamed Ukraine for the explosion on Kerch Bridge. At least three people were killed in the bomb blast.
Ukrainian forces retook large areas around Kyiv in early April after Russia abandoned its push towards the capital.
The Russian president has come under increasing pressure after suffering a series of military setbacks in recent weeks.
He continued reshuffling his military leadership, appointing a new general to lead the war.