An intense wave of Russian missile and drone strikes on six Ukrainian regions on February 7 killed at least five people — four of them in a high-rise apartment block in the capital, Kyiv — wounded dozens of others, and caused widespread damage to energy infrastructure.
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The latest round of Russian strikes came as EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and the head of the UN’s atomic agency, Rafael Grossi, were in Ukraine, with the latter visiting the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant to assess the situation amid concerns about the plant’s safety.
In Kyiv, debris from a downed Russian missile fell on an 18-story residential block in the southern Holosiyivskiy district, triggering a fire that killed at least four people, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
Sixteen people were injured in Holosiyivskiy and in the eastern district of Dnipro in the capital, Klymenko said.
Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said at least 38 people were wounded in the capital.
Fragments of a downed Russian missile also damaged electricity lines, leaving part of the Ukrainian capital without power and heating.
“Some consumers on the left bank [of the Dnieper River] are currently without electricity,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram. “The heating supply main on the left bank was damaged.”
“Another massive Russian air attack against our country,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on X, formerly Twitter, as an air-raid alert was declared for all of Ukraine. “Six regions came under enemy fire. All of our services are currently working to eliminate the consequences of this terror,” Zelenskiy wrote.
In the southern city of Mykolayiv, one man died following a Russian strike, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said. Russian missiles also hit the Kharkiv and Sumy regions, wounding two people, regional officials said.
Russian Missile Strikes On Kyiv Leave Parts Of Capital Without Power
Parts of the Ukrainian capital were left without power and heating following a deadly Russian missile attack that struck in the early morning hours of February 7, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched 64 drones and missiles at Ukraine’s territory. The Ukrainian air defense shot down 29 missiles and 15 drones, it said.
Borrell, in Kyiv on a two-day visit to highlight the bloc’s support for Ukraine, posted a picture on X from a shelter.
“Starting my morning in the shelter as air raid alarms are sounding across Kyiv,” Borrell wrote. “This is the daily reality of the brave Ukrainian people, since Russia launched its illegal aggression.”
Borrell met later with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who called for “urgent steps” to increase deliveries of military aid.
“If you ask a soldier at the front what he needs most now, the answer will be shells,” Kuleba told Borrell. “The scale of the war and Russia’s use of artillery reached a level for which, let’s be honest, the European defense industry was not ready,” he added.
Kuleba also said Ukraine found infighting in the U.S. Congress over the future of U.S. aid “confusing.” Some $60 billion in aid for Ukraine is included in a border security bill that has stalled in Congress despite the urging of President Joe Biden to pass it.
U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan told a joint news conference in Brussels with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on February 7 that the United States “can and will” deliver the needed aid. Stoltenberg said such a move was “vital.”
Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), meanwhile, arrived at Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhya — Europe’s largest nuclear power plant — accompanied by IAEA mission staff and Russian soldiers, Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Russia occupied the plant shortly after it launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and its six nuclear reactors are now idled.
The UN nuclear watchdog has voiced concern many times over the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe at the plant amid fighting in the area.