Russia Ukraine war news latest: Hypersonic missile strikes cause blackouts in Kharkiv and Kyiv

Lviv, Kyiv, the Black Sea port of Odesa and the second-largest city Kharkiv were all hit as missiles targeted a wide arc of targets, stretching from Zhytomyr, Vynnytsia and Rivne in the west to Dnipro and Poltava in central Ukraine, officials say.

Here’s what we know of the damage so far:

• At least five people were killed in a missile strike on a residential area in the western Lviv region, according to emergency services. Footage from the area, some 700 km (440 miles) from any military battlefield, showed a flattened house and badly damaged buildings nearby.
• Another civilian was reported killed in the central Dnipro region.
• Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko reported explosions in the southwestern part of the capital. He said on Telegram that 40 percent of consumers in Kyiv were without electricity.

• The governor of Odesa region, Maksym Marchenko, said on Telegram that a mass missile attack had hit an energy facility in the city, cutting power. Residential areas had also been hit.
• Kharkiv region governor Oleh Synehubov said the city and region had been hit by 15 strikes, with targets including infrastructure.
• Other strikes were reported in regions throughout the country

Ukraine will take part in the European Union countries’ scheme to jointly buy gas, the bloc’s energy policy chief said on Thursday.

“We have integrated Ukraine in the gas joint purchasing platform with a view to help secure 2 billion cubic meters of additional gas,” EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson told a meeting of EU lawmakers.

EU countries plan to sign their first contracts to jointly buy gas by this summer.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday, during a press conference with his Saudi counterpart, that Saudi Arabia and other countries had facilitated prisoner of war swaps with Ukraine.

Europe’s largest nuclear plant was left without power after Russian missiles rained down on several cities across Ukraine in a fresh offensive on Thursday morning that killed at least five people.

The Zaporizhzhia plant in southeastern Ukraine, occupied by Kremlin troops, was left relying on backup generators after rockets damaged the infrastructure that had been delivering electricity to the site.

The Black Sea port of Odessa and Kharkiv, Ukraine’s largest city were among the cities hit in the early morning barrage of missiles and explosions were also reported in the capital Kyiv.

Russia has unleashed a new wave of air strikes across Ukraine, killing at least six people and knocking out power, including to the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station.

Ukraine’s military said Russia fired 81 missiles and eight drones in attacks mainly targeting energy infrastructure, and that the weapons used included six hypersonic Kinzhal missiles which Ukraine cannot intercept.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned the new wave of Russian missile strikes and said Moscow “won’t avoid responsibility”.

In a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app, Zelensky said critical infrastructure and residential buildings in 10 Ukrainian regions had been hit in the latest overnight attacks.

“The occupiers can only terrorize civilians. That’s all they can do. But it won’t help them. They won’t avoid responsibility for everything they have done,” Zelensky said.

Russia fired 81 missiles, including six Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, and eight drones at Ukraine in early-morning strikes, the Ukrainian air force said.

Ukraine destroyed 34 cruise missiles and four Shahed suicide drones, and eight drones and guided missiles were also prevented from reaching their targets, it said in a statement.

The Ukrainian military cannot intercept the Kinzhal missile.

Russia-installed officials in the Moscow-controlled part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region have called a halt in electricity supplies to the nuclear power station from Ukrainian-held territory “a provocation”.

Russia unleashed a massive missile barrage across Ukraine early today, targeting energy infrastructure in the first attack on such a scale in three weeks.

The pre-dawn attacks led to air raid sirens wailing for hours across Ukraine, including the capital, Kyiv, where explosions occurred in two western areas of the city.

Defense systems were activated around the country, and it was not clear how many missiles hit targets or were intercepted.