KYIV: Missile strikes hit cities across Ukraine on Tuesday, plunging seven million homes into darkness just days after a humiliating Russian retreat, prompting a defiant response from President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Seven million homes were without power following the latest attacks, the presidency said, dampening jubilation over the recapture of Kherson city as world leaders gather at a G20 summit expected to tackle the violence engulfing Ukraine.

Lviv in the west and Kharkiv in the east were also attacked on Tuesday, authorities said, with Lviv’s mayor reporting 80 percent of the city was without power.

Zelensky said in a video statement that Russia had fired 85 missiles at energy facilities across the country.

“We are working, we will restore everything,” he said as areas across Ukraine reported interruptions to power supplies including the western Ternopil region that said 90 percent of users were cut off. And the Dnipropetrovsk region’s military administration said an energy facility in Kryvyi Rih had been hit, creating a “complicated” situation for the grid.

Moldova, which borders Ukraine, reported power cuts because of the missiles fired at its neighbour and called on Moscow to “stop the destruction now”.

Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least half of the city’s residents were without power, two residential buildings were hit and “several missiles were shot down... by air defence systems”.

The deputy head of the president’s office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said the missiles had been fired by Russian forces and called the energy situation “critical”.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2022