Ahead of the peace talks in Abu Dhabi between the Russia and Ukraine, Moscow launched launched a renewed attack against Kyiv. This attack also comes after Trump announced a truce till February 1 between the two nations due to “frigid temperatures.”
Moscow fired around 450 long-range drones and 70 missiles of various types at Ukraine in a major attack overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday.
Both Russia and Ukraine are expected to participate in US-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates on Wednesday and Thursday this week. The talks will focus on ending the all-out war launched by Russia nearly four years ago.
“Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people is more important to Russia than diplomacy,” Ukrainian President Zelensky said, while also urging allies to send more air defense supplies to Kyiv to exert “maximum pressure” on Russia to end its full-scale invasion.
Russia targets Ukraine's power grid, national museum
Russia has in its strikes attempted to target Ukraine’s electricity network, striking substations, transformers, turbines and generators at power plants.
{{/usCountry}}Russia has in its strikes attempted to target Ukraine’s electricity network, striking substations, transformers, turbines and generators at power plants.
{{/usCountry}}With the strikes, Moscow is attempting to wear down the Ukrainians' will to fight by escalating hardship for the civilians, reported AP.
The overnight attack allegedly hit Ukraine's largest private power company, DTEK's thermal power plants, in what became the ninth major assault since October.
The strikes bombarded at least five regions of Ukraine and specifically targeted the power grid, Zelenskyy said, with officials stating that at least 10 people were wounded.
The Russian attack on Ukraine also damaged the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War, at the foot of the Motherland Monument in Kyiv, AP cited Ukrainian Culture Minister Tetiana Berezhna as saying.
“It is symbolic and cynical at the same time: the aggressor state strikes a place of memory about the fight against aggression in the 20th century, repeating crimes in the 21st,” the minister said.
More than 1,000 apartments in Kyiv without power
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that by early morning on Tuesday, 1,170 apartment buildings in the capital had been left without any heating, AP reported. This rendered a major setback to earlier repair operations which had restored power to all but 80 apartment buildings in Kyiv.
Meanwhile, five people were wounded in the strikes in Kyiv which also damaged and set ablaze residential buildings, a kindergarten and a gas station, the State Emergency Service said.
Moscow also struck Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv and southern Odesa, with the latter region reporting injuries.