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Destruction of a building in Vyshhorod north of Kyiv
Photo: OLEG PETRASYUK / EPA
It is the second massive air raid within a few days: on Wednesday, Russia again fired on numerous targets in Ukraine.
According to Ukrainian sources, several people died in the attacks on Kyiv and other areas, including a 17-year-old.
According to Ukrainian information, an infant died in a hospital on Wednesday night after being hit by a Russian missile.
The supreme commanding general of Ukraine, Valeriy Saluschniy, said in the evening that 51 of 67 Russian cruise missiles had been shot down.
Accordingly, 30 rockets were fired at Kyiv alone.
Of these, 20 were intercepted.
It is the heaviest wave of attacks since Russian missile and drone strikes on November 15, when Russia fired around 100 missiles.
Nuclear reactors shut down
As a result of Wednesday's attacks,
the reactor blocks of several nuclear power plants in Ukraine had to be shut down
.
As the state operator Energatom announced, the emergency systems had to be activated at the Rivne, Pivdennoukrainsk and Khmelnyzka nuclear power plants.
"Today's rocket attacks have led to the temporary isolation of all nuclear power plants and the majority of thermal and hydroelectric power plants," the Ministry of Energy in Kyiv said on Facebook.
The authority did not provide more detailed information on the number of households affected.
According to Kiev's Mayor Vitali Klitschko, terrestrial television was temporarily out in the capital, and there were also stronger fluctuations in the already ailing power grid.
The water supply was also interrupted in the entire metropolis with its three million inhabitants.
The
UN Security Council wanted to deal with the Russian attack in New York that evening
.
According to diplomats, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will also make a video speech.
EU Parliament sees Russia as a
state sponsor of terrorism
The
European Parliament had previously classified Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism
.
A large majority of MPs approved a corresponding resolution on Wednesday, which also describes Russia as a "state using terrorist means".
In addition, according to the will of the European Parliament, the EU should create a terror list for states like Russia in order to punish them more severely.
Zelenskyy welcomed the decision: "Russia must be isolated and held accountable at all levels to end the long-standing policy of terrorism in Ukraine and around the world," the Ukrainian president wrote on Twitter.
However, Parliament's resolution is not legally binding and has primarily a symbolic effect.
Shortly after the decision, the
EU Parliament became the target of a cyber attack apparently controlled from Russia
, in which the Parliament's website was temporarily paralyzed.
"A group of Kremlin supporters has come forward," Parliament Speaker Roberta Metsola wrote on Twitter.
According to parliament speaker Jaume Duch, it was a DDoS attack.
Servers are bombarded with so many requests that the system can no longer cope with the tasks.
As a result, the websites of the institutions concerned are often temporarily unavailable.
fek/dpa/Reuters
