WATCH: Zelenskiy - 30% of Ukraine's power stations destroyed by Russian forces

Firefighters work to put out a fire in a thermal power plant, damaged by a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine. Picture: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters

Firefighters work to put out a fire in a thermal power plant, damaged by a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine. Picture: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters

Published Oct 18, 2022

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By Pavel Polityuk and Max Hunder

Kyiv - Russian forces carried out new air strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities on Tuesday, causing several explosions in an area of northern Kyiv where there is a thermal power station.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office, said there had been three Russian strikes on an unspecified energy facility. City mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack was on "critical infrastructure" in northern Kyiv, where Reuters witnesses saw thick smoke rising into the sky.

Neither official said whether the thermal power station had been hit. They also gave no casualty details.

"Ukraine is under fire by the occupiers. They continue to do what they do best - terrorise and kill civilians," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

"The terrorist state will not change anything for itself with such actions. It will only confirm its destructive and murderous essence, for which it will certainly be held to account."

Tymoshenko said two air strikes hit an energy facility in the southeastern city of Dnipro, causing "serious damage", presidential aide Kyrylo Tymoshenko wrote on Telegram.

"There is a fire raging and serious destruction," regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said of the strike on Dnipro.

An air strike left the northern city of Zhytomyr without water and electricity supplies, its mayor said, and a Reuters witness said a Russian missile struck an apartment building in the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv.

Firefighters work to put out a fire in a thermal power plant, damaged by a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, October 18, 2022. Picture: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters

The missile completely destroyed one wing of the building in the downtown area, leaving a large crater.

"In Mykolaiv, the enemy destroyed a residential building with C-300 missiles. A person died. There was also a strike at the flower market, the chestnut park. I wonder what the Russian terrorists were fighting against at these absolutely peaceful facilities?" Zelenskiy said.