Russia pounds Kyiv power facilities; damages bridge

KYIV: Russian forces hammered energy infrastructure around Ukraine's capital with missiles and drones overnight, straining Kyiv's power supply and heating systems as temperatures headed towards zero, officials said on Saturday. Explosions rocked the city as Russia fired multiple waves of ballistic missiles, several of which hit and damaged the Northern Bridge ⁠across the Dnipro River, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Strikes on energy facilities outside ⁠Kyiv — including systems sending power from two nuclear plants to the city and Ukraine's central regions — caused serious damage, the energy ministry said.
'The capital is facing serious difficulties with its electricity, water, and heat supplies,' ‌President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X, adding that ​substations in five other regions ⁠were also hit. He said Russia had launched 36 ballistic missiles, ​only four of which were intercepted, according ‌to Ukraine's air force. It added that air defences had downed 149 out of 172 drones.
At least two people were killed and around a dozen others wounded across Ukraine in the overnight attacks, which also damaged homes, businesses and non-residential buildings, authorities said. Moscow's defence ministry said it carried out a massive strike on what it described as targets in Ukraine's military-industrial sector, as well ‌as energy and transport infrastructure in and around Kyiv.
Russia has stepped up air attacks ​on Ukraine as its ground offensive has largely stalled, pounding energy infrastructure in major cities ​with ‌difficult-to-intercept ⁠missiles and drones more than 4-1/2 years into its full-scale attack. It has expanded its campaign in recent weeks to target Kyiv's bridges, snarling traffic in the city of more than ​3 million people.
Saturday's strikes come days before a new round ⁠of three-way talks in ​Abu Dhabi between Ukrainian and Russian officials, as part of a US-backed peace push that has so far yielded few results. 'Russia is preparing for trilateral talks by launching ballistic missiles at Ukraine's critical infrastructure,' Zelensky said on X.
The attacks also follow recent US midterm ​elections that have raised hopes in Ukraine for stronger support against Russia's war ​from a Democratic-controlled Congress. 'We are counting on the US Congress to give more attention to Ukraine, because Russia keeps increasing the number of its attacks,' Zelensky added.
⁠Russia's delegation to ​talks ​with the United States and Ukraine next week will include Kremlin aide Vladimir ⁠Medinsky as well ⁠as Deputy Foreign Ministers Sergei Ryabkov and ‌Mikhail Galuzin, Kremlin ​spokesman ⁠Dmitry Peskov told ​Interfax news agency. The delegation will also ​include Igor Kostyukov, chief of Russia's military intelligence agency, and Yuri ‌Zhigarlovsky, a senior General ​Staff officer, alongside ​other senior diplomatic and ⁠military officials, he added on ​Saturday.
Meanwhile, Italy's Foreign ⁠Minister Antonio Tajani said on Saturday that his personal ​data had been published ​on the dark web by what he said were pro-Russian hackers, adding that the move was linked to the Italian government's support for Ukraine. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has been ⁠one of the strongest backers of Ukraine among ⁠Western leaders, expressed her support for Tajani and said the sale of confidential information relating to public officials was 'a matter of serious ‌concern'
Moscow has not commented ​on the incident. ⁠Russia has consistently denied any involvement in ​cyberattacks or hacking operations abroad. Tajani, who is also Italy's deputy prime minister, said in a post ​on X that 'backing in a transparent way the freedom and independence of a sovereign state' had made him a target and that the hackers were seeking further information about him ‌and his family and were willing to pay for ​it.
The attacks were also a reaction to ​efforts ‌by ⁠the foreign ministry to strengthen cybersecurity, Tajani added Screenshots showed Tajani's picture among a list of ​18 'citizens hostile to the Russian Federation', ⁠which also included ​cybersecurity experts. The material was found in a section of the dark web accessible through the Tor network as part of monitoring activities carried out by ​cybersecurity authorities, a person close to the minister said. Further investigations are being undertaken, they added. — Reuters