Wave of Russian missiles hits Ukraine

Russia has fired a barrage of missiles astatine targets crossed Ukraine for the eighth clip successful 8 weeks.

Significant disruption to the powerfulness grid was reported, chiefly successful the east. In the south, Odesa was without electricity.

But the strikes, which came astir 2 weeks aft the last, whitethorn person done little harm than connected erstwhile occasions.

Ukraine says it changeable down 60 of the 70 missiles fired by Russia. Moscow says it deed each 17 of its targets.

Previous attacks person deed the country's vigor grid, leaving millions without energy and vigor arsenic wintertime arrives.

Warnings that Russia was readying a caller question of attacks person been circulating for respective days. They yet arrived conscionable hours aft a bid of explosions astatine 2 airbases heavy wrong Russia, which Moscow blamed connected Ukrainian drones intercepted by Russian air-defences.

Three servicemen were killed and 2 craft were lightly damaged successful the explosions, Russia's defence ministry said. Ukraine has yet to comment.

For Ukraine's hard-pressed electrical engineers, Monday's rocket strikes are apt to mean different circular of exigency repairs, often to facilities deed repeatedly successful caller weeks.

Before today's strikes, officials successful Kyiv were talking astir moving from highly disruptive exigency blackouts, which often past for galore hours, to much manageable scheduled powerfulness cuts which connection civilians immoderate severely needed predictability.

Those plans whitethorn present beryllium connected hold, but it seems Monday's harm could beryllium little extended than successful erstwhile attacks.

Another striking diagnostic of the latest Russian strikes is the evident lack of Iranian-made "kamikaze" drones.

Ukrainian officials precocious said Russia had utilized up its proviso of the unmanned vehicles. Another Ukrainian subject authoritative said acold upwind had prevented Russia from deploying them.

Either way, they bash not look to person been utilized since mid-November.

Russia began its large-scale, co-ordinated attacks connected Ukraine's powerfulness grid connected 10 October. Since then, astir fractional of the country's vigor infrastructure has been damaged, leaving millions of Ukrainians disconnected from energy conscionable arsenic wintertime temperatures dropped beneath zero.

Some Western leaders person called the strategy a warfare crime, due to the fact that of the immense magnitude of harm caused to civilian infrastructure. Attacks connected powerfulness grids are not needfully violations of planetary law, but they bash person to beryllium proportionate to immoderate subject vantage gained.

Experts person told the BBC that Russia's maneuver of hitting vigor infrastructure is astir apt designed to demoralise and terrorise the population, alternatively than summation immoderate factual subject advantage. This would beryllium a usurpation of planetary law, arsenic acceptable retired by Addition Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions.