Russian missile strikes cut Ukrainian power, water supplies

Ukraine warned of widespread blackouts after a massive wave of Russian missile attacks on Monday damaged power and water supplies across the country including in the capital Kyiv.

The Kremlin meanwhile warned that grain shipments would be “much riskier and more dangerous” after it pulled out of a deal allowing Ukrainian exports from Black Sea ports following an attack on Russian navy vessels in Crimea that Moscow blamed on the government in Kyiv. Ukraine hasn’t confirmed it carried out the assault.

“In circumstances where Russia is talking about the impossibility of ensuring the security of shipping in these areas, of course such a deal is hardly implementable and it takes on a different character,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Monday. “We can’t guarantee it.”

Russian missiles and drones damaged infrastructure in 10 Ukrainian regions and hundreds of locations are without power in seven of them, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Telegram.

More than 80% of Kyiv residents were left without running water and 350,000 apartments lost electricity supply after the missile strikes on the capital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.

With Russian forces in retreat on the battlefield as the invasion stretches into a ninth month, Putin has turned to repeated missile attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure in recent weeks. Russian state media has celebrated the change of tactics as an attempt to force Ukraine to surrender by starving and freezing the population into submission as winter approaches.

President Joe Biden condemned the “utter brutality” of the strikes earlier this month and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called them “another unacceptable escalation of the war,” his spokesman said. European Council President Charles Michel said the Russian attacks were “war crimes.”

“Instead of fighting on the battlefield, Russia fights civilians,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter after the latest attacks. “Russia does this because it still has the missiles and the will to kill Ukrainians.”

The strikes came after Moscow accused Kyiv of the attack on its Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol with airborne and water-based drones on Saturday. Russia quickly announced it was pulling out of the deal brokered by the UN and Turkey that has allowed safe passage of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain and agricultural products from Black Sea ports.

Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014, alleged one drone may have been launched from a civilian ship carrying grain, a claim Ukraine strongly denied.

Despite the Kremlin’s warning, ships loaded with crops sailed from Ukrainian ports Monday as the UN and Turkey sought to salvage the agreement that’s seen as critical to ease tight world supplies and combat surging global food prices. The continued passage of vessels through the Black Sea presents a test of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to scupper the accord.

Twelve vessels left Ukrainian ports Monday, Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Twitter.

Diplomatic consultations are taking place with the U.N. and Turkey on the future of the pact, said Peskov, who declined to comment on any conditions Moscow is setting out for rejoining the agreement.

Putin has repeatedly complained about the grain deal in recent weeks, saying not enough shipments were being sent to poor nations. Russia has also said its own grain and agricultural goods were not getting the same access to global markets, although they are not subject to international sanctions that have restricted other areas of its economy.

However, claims that developing nations aren’t benefiting from the safe-corridor deal aren’t backed up by data, which show a considerable segment of the shipments have gone to these countries.

Fragments of one Russian missile fired on Ukraine fell on the town of Naslavcea in neighboring Moldova, causing broken windows in several homes, the Interior Ministry in Chisinau said in a statement. The town is 6 miles from Ukraine’s Dnister dam.

Ukraine’s largest private power company, DTEK, is running low on stocks of spare parts to fix power infrastructure damaged by Russian attacks, Executive Director Dmytro Sakharuk said on TV.

Procurement problems are mounting amid soaring prices, and DTEK is also working to get equipment donated by foreign partners, he said.