Multiple Ukrainian cities targeted as Russia unleashes biggest attacks in months

WARNING: This story contains the image of a dead person

Russia unleashed a widespread and lethal barrage of strikes against multiple Ukrainian cities on Monday, smashing civilian targets, including downtown Kyiv, and killing at least 14 people. 

Ukraine's Emergency Service said nearly 100 people were wounded in the morning rush-hour attacks that Russia launched from the air, sea and land against at least 14 regions, spanning from Lviv in the west to Kharkiv in the east. Many of the attacks occurred far from the war's front lines.

Though Russia said missiles targeted military and energy facilities, some struck civilian areas while people were heading to work and school. One hit a playground in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, and another struck a university.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose military invaded neighbouring Ukraine on Feb. 24, said the strikes were in retaliation for what he called Kyiv's "terrorist" actions — a reference to Ukraine's attempts to repel Moscow's invasion forces and cripple their supply lines.

The actions he referred to include an attack over the weekend on a key bridge between Russia and the annexed Crimean Peninsula, which is prized by the Kremlin.

The attacks on Ukraine plunged much of the country into a blackout, depriving hundreds of thousands of people of electricity into Monday night and creating a shortage so severe that Ukrainian authorities asked people to conserve and announced they will stop power exports to Europe starting Tuesday.

Power outages also often deprive residents of water, given the system's reliance on electricity to run pumps and other equipment.

Andriy Yermak, a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the strikes had no "practical military sense" and that Russia's goal was to cause a "humanitarian catastrophe."

Putin, speaking earlier in a video call with members of Russia's Security Council, said the Russian military launched "precision weapons" from the air, sea and ground to target key energy and military command facilities.

The Russian president has been under intense domestic pressure to take more aggressive action to stop a largely successful Ukrainian counteroffensive and to react forcefully to Saturday's attack on the Kerch Bridge, whose construction he used to cement his 2014 annexation of Crimea.

The missile strikes marked the biggest and most widespread Russian attacks in months. Putin, whose partial mobilization order earlier this month triggered an exodus of hundreds of thousands of men of fighting age from Russia, stopped short of declaring martial law or a counterterrorism operation, as many had expected.

But the sustained barrage on major cities hit residential areas and critical infrastructure facilities alike, portending a major surge in the war amid a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive in recent weeks and raising questions about how "precise" Russia's targeting is.

Following the attacks, Ukraine announced plans to halt electricity exports to Europe. "Today's missile strikes, which hit the thermal generation and electrical substations, forced Ukraine to suspend electricity exports from Oct. 11, 2022 to stabilize its own energy system," Ukraine's Energy Ministry said in a statement on its website.