Explosions rock Ukrainian cities as Russia fires “more than 100 rockets” in waves

According to a Reuters correspondent and local media reports, explosions were heard in Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Odessa.

Power outages have been announced in the Odessa and Dnipropetrovsk regions to minimize possible damage to energy infrastructure.

The attack followed the Kremlin’s rejection of a Ukrainian peace plan, which insisted Kyiv accept Russia’s annexation of four regions.

Moscow has repeatedly denied attacking civilians, but Ukraine says its daily bombings are destroying cities, villages and the country’s infrastructure from electricity supplies to medical supplies.

According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s deputy chief of staff Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Russian shelling hit a hospital maternity ward in the city of Kherson on Wednesday, although no one was injured. Staff and patients have been transferred to an animal shelter, Tymoshenko said in a post on Telegram.

“It was scary…the explosions started abruptly, the window handle started tearing off…oh, my hands are still shaking,” said Olha Prysidko, a new mom. “When we got to the basement, the shelling wasn’t over. Not for a minute.”

The recently liberated southern city of Kherson, Ukraine, is under constant bombardment from Russian forces, which retreated to the east bank of the river when the city was recaptured in a major victory for Ukraine last month.

In a video speech, Zelensky urged Ukrainians to hug loved ones, tell friends they appreciate them, support colleagues, thank their parents and rejoice with their children more often.

“We haven’t lost our humanity despite going through horrific months,” he said. “And we won’t lose it, even though we have a difficult year ahead of us.”

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Kyiv and its Western allies have denounced Russia’s actions as imperialist-style land grabs.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is calling it a “military special operation” to demilitarize his neighbor.

Sweeping sanctions have been imposed on Russia because of the war that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced millions from their homes, left cities in ruins and rocked the global economy, driving up energy and food prices.

Russian gas exports to Europe via pipelines plummeted to a post-Soviet low in 2022 when its biggest customer curtailed imports due to the Ukraine conflict and a major pipeline was damaged by mysterious explosions, Gazprom data and Reuters calculations show.

Talks about an end to the war are not yet in sight.

Zelenskyy is vigorously pushing ahead with a 10-point peace plan that would require Russia to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and withdraw all its troops.

But Moscow rebuffed it on Wednesday, reiterating that Kyiv must accept Russia’s annexation of the four regions – Luhansk and Donetsk to the east, and Kherson and Zaporizhia to the south.

There can be no peace plan “that doesn’t take into account today’s realities in relation to Russian territory, with four regions joining Russia,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Zelenskyy’s idea of ​​using Western help to drive Russia out of eastern Ukraine and Crimea and to get Moscow to pay damages to Kyiv was an “illusion,” the RIA news agency reported.

TASS quoted Lavrov as saying that Russia would continue to expand its combat strength and technological capabilities in Ukraine. He said Moscow’s mobilized troops had undergone “serious training” and that while many were now on the ground, the majority were not yet on the front lines.

Zelenskyy urged parliament to remain united and praised Ukrainians for helping the West “find itself again”.

“Our national colors are now an international symbol of courage and indomitability around the world,” he said in an annual speech given behind closed doors.

On the front lines, Russia shelled more than 25 settlements around Kherson and Zaporizhia, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Wednesday. The Kherson region at the mouth of the Dnipro serves as a gateway to the Crimea annexed by Russia.

Heavy fighting continued around the Ukrainian-held town of Bakhmut in eastern Donetsk province and to the north around the towns of Svatove and Kreminna in Luhansk, where Ukrainian forces are trying to break through Russian defenses.

Britain’s MoD said Russia likely strengthened the Kreminna section of the front line as it was logistically important and relatively vulnerable after Ukraine pushed further west.

Kyiv-based military analyst Oleh Zhdanov noted that the city of Kharkiv and the region also faced heavy attacks that damaged a regional gas pipeline.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in a Telegram post that the city had been attacked twice, “presumably” by Iranian Shahed drones, five of which Ukraine’s Eastern Air Command had separately reported shot down over the city of Dnipro .

Reuters was unable to verify battlefield reports.