A fresh barrage of fatal Russian strikes hit cities across Ukraine early Friday, cutting water and electricity in major urban hubs and piling pressure on the grid in sub-zero temperatures. Several loud explosions and the mayor said the metro had stopped running to allow residents to take shelter in underground stations. The strikes killed two people and injured several others including children in the southern city of Kryvyi Rig, President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown.

"Another wave of massive Russian attacks on energy infrastructure," Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on social media, adding that: "There will be emergency power outages." The onslaught is just the latest of several waves of strikes that began in October after a series of embarrassing battlefield defeats for Russia in Ukraine. Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv, near the border with Russia, was without electricity, its mayor said.

The central cities of Poltava and Kremenchuk also had no power. Air raid sirens were sounding across the entire country while the extent of the damage was being assessed. Regional officials in Kryvyi Rig said rockets had hit a residential building. "Two people have died," governor Valentyn Reznichenko said, adding that "at least five people were injured, including two children.  All are in hospital. "Oleksandr Starukh, the head of the frontline Zaporizhzhia region, which houses Europe's largest nuclear power plant, said the territory under Ukrainian control has been targeted with more than a dozen Russian missiles.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP