Putin spreads ‘terror and murder’ across Ukraine with new missile blitz

Russia has today unleashed another deadly wave on Ukraine, with a relentless series of missile strikes smashing into residential buildings and critical infrastructure facilities across the country. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of spreading fresh ‘terror and murder’ across Ukraine – hours after a newborn was killed in an attack on a maternity hospital.

The latest air strikes hit a two-storey residential building in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, killing three people and injuring three more, as well as critical infrastructure facilities in and around the city.

Russian strikes on Ukraine’s power grid left residents in the entire Kyiv region, western city of Lyiv and the northern city of Kharkiv without electricity.

The bombardment also caused blackouts across half of neighbouring Moldova, the deputy prime minister of the country said on Wednesday. 

The renewed barrage piled further hardship on a country already laboring from repeated strikes on its power grid, with Russia seemingly intent on turning the onset of winter into a weapon, by pounding Ukraine’s key infrastructure from the air. 

An air raid alert was issued across all Ukraine and Ukrainian media carried reports of air defence systems in action in several parts of the country.

Multiple regions across Ukraine reported attacks in quick succession, suggesting a barrage of strikes. In several regions, authorities reported strikes on critical infrastructure.

In Kyiv, locals heard several loud explosions as air defence missiles flew overhead. 

‘[Missiles] hit on one of the capital’s infrastructure facilities. Stay in shelters! The air alert continues,’ Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram.  

It comes after a newborn baby was killed after an overnight Russian missile strike hit a maternity ward in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region.

The air strikes hit a two-storey residential building in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, killing at least one person, as well as critical infrastructure facilities in and around the city. Pictured: A victim of the airstrike is seen led on the floor while covered in an emergency medical blanket

Locals carry a person injured in the Russian missile strike in a duvet cover in Kyiv on Wednesday 

First responders arrived at the scene of a fire in Kyiv following the Russian missile strike on Wednesday 

Overnight on Tuesday to Wednesday, ‘in the city of Vilniansk in Zaporizhzhia region, as a result of a rocket attack on the territory of the local hospital, the two-storey building of the maternity ward was destroyed,’ Ukrainian rescuers said on social media. 

They added that there was ‘a woman in labour with a newborn baby as well as a doctor’ inside the building. 

Reports initially said the baby was killed and that a new mother and a doctor were pulled from the rubble, and that they were the only people in the ward at the time.

The service specified in a follow-up post on Telegram that the rescued woman was the newborn’s mother. The region’s governor said the rockets were Russian.

President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the strikes as Russian ‘terror and murder’. 

A Russian missile struck the maternity ward of the Vilnianska Hospital near Zaporizhzhia, early Wednesday morning. Pictured: Firefighters search through the rubble of a building, Nov. 23

And now, Moscow launched further missile strikes on Kyiv and across Ukraine. 

Russian attacks have knocked out power for long periods for up to 10 million consumers at a time. Ukraine’s national power grid operator said on Wednesday more blackouts would be necessary across the country. 

This is a breaking news story, more to follow…