Comment KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian missile barrage on Ukraine’s power grid sent the war spilling over into neighboring countries on Tuesday, hitting NATO member Poland and cutting power to much of Moldova. It was Russia’s largest barrage to date and some of the missiles crossed into Poland, where two people were killed, according to a US official. It was the first time in the war that Russian weapons landed in a NATO country. Polish government spokesman Piotr Mueller did not immediately confirm the report from a senior US intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation. But Mueller said top leaders were holding an emergency meeting because of a “crisis situation”. Polish media reported that two people were killed on Tuesday afternoon after a projectile hit an area where grain was being dried in Przewodów, a Polish village near the border with Ukraine. Neighboring Moldova was also affected. It reported massive power outages after the strikes knocked out a key power line supplying the small nation, an official said. Zelensky said Russia had fired at least 85 missiles, most of which targeted the country’s electricity facilities and shut down several cities. “We are working, we will restore everything. We will survive everything,” the president promised. His energy minister said the attack was the “most massive” bombing of power facilities in the nearly nine-month Russian invasion, which hit both power generation and transmission systems. The minister, Herman Halushenko, described the missile attacks as “another attempt at terrorist revenge” after military and diplomatic setbacks for the Kremlin. He accused Russia of “trying to cause maximum damage to our energy system on the eve of winter.” The airstrike, which led to at least one death in a residential building in the capital, Kyiv, followed days of euphoria in Ukraine that sparked one of its biggest military successes – last week’s recapture of the southern city of Kherson. The power grid had already been hit by previous attacks that destroyed around 40% of the country’s energy infrastructure. Russian President Vladimir Putin has not commented on the retreat from Kherson since his troops withdrew in the face of a Ukrainian offensive. But the stunning scale of Tuesday’s strikes spoke volumes and hinted at anger in the Kremlin. By striking targets in the late afternoon, just before dusk, the Russian military forced rescuers to work in the dark and gave repair crews little time to assess the damage in daylight. More than a dozen regions – including Lviv in the west, Kharkiv in the northeast and others in between – reported strikes or attempts by their air defenses to shoot down missiles. At least a dozen regions reported power outages, affecting cities that together have millions of people. Almost half of the Kyiv region lost power, authorities said. Ukrainian Railways announced train delays across the country. Zelensky warned that more strikes were possible and urged people to stay safe and seek shelter. “Most successes were recorded in the center and north of the country. In the capital, the situation is very difficult,” said a senior official, Kyrylo Tymoshenko. It said a total of 15 energy targets were damaged and claimed 70 missiles were shot down. A Ukrainian Air Force spokesman said Russia used X-101 and X-555 cruise missiles. As city after city reported attacks, Tymoshenko urged Ukrainians to “hang in there”. With battlefield casualties mounting, Russia is increasingly resorting to targeting Ukraine’s power grid, apparently hoping to turn the approach of winter into a weapon by leaving people in the cold and dark. In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said authorities found a body in one of three residential buildings hit in the capital, where emergency power outages were announced by power company DTEK. Video released by a presidential aide shows a five-story, apparently residential building in Kyiv burning, with flames licking up the apartments. Klitschko said air defense units also shot down some missiles. Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra went to a bomb shelter in Kyiv after meeting his Ukrainian counterpart and, on the security side, described the bombing as “a huge motivation to continue standing shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine . “There can only be one answer, and that is: Carry on. Continue to support Ukraine, continue to deliver weapons, continue to work for accountability, continue to work for humanitarian aid,” he said. Ukraine had seen a period of comparative calm since previous waves of drone and missile attacks several weeks ago. The strikes came as authorities were already working furiously to get Kherson back on its feet and begin investigating alleged Russian abuses there and in the surrounding area. The southern city is without electricity and water, and the head of the UN human rights office’s monitoring mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, on Tuesday denounced a “terrible humanitarian situation” there. Speaking from Kyiv, Bogner said her teams were trying to travel to Kherson to try to verify allegations of nearly 80 cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention. The head of Ukraine’s National Police, Igor Klymenko, said authorities would begin investigating reports from residents of Kherson that Russian forces had set up at least three alleged torture sites in now-liberated areas of the greater Kherson region and that “our people may he has been held and tortured there.” The recapture of Kherson dealt another severe blow to the Kremlin. Zelensky likened the recapture to the Allied landings in France on D-Day in World War II, saying both were milestone events on the road to eventual victory. But large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine remain under Russian control and fighting continues. Zelensky warned of possible bleaker news ahead. “Everywhere, when we liberate our land, we see one thing – Russia leaves behind torture chambers and mass graves. … How many mass graves are there in the area still under Russian control?” Zelensky asked. Associated Press writers Joanna Kozlowska in London, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Mike Corder in The Hague, Hanna Arhirova in Kherson, Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia and James LaPorta in Wilmington, North Carolina, contributed to this story. Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine:
