By Vladyslav Smilianets
KYIV, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Kyiv resident Nataliya Revutska could have it worse: her apartment is still liveable after a Russian drone smashed into her high-rise late on Thursday, shattering windows across the building and exposing residents to bitter January winds.
“There’s no water, there’s no power – there’s nothing. But it’s warm in those two rooms,” said the 58-year-old, pointing across her damaged apartment to the other side of the building.
Revutska’s high-rise was one of the latest sites damaged in a sprawling Russian winter campaign to plunge Ukrainians into cold and darkness as their government faces U.S. pressure to end the nearly four-year-old war launched by Moscow.
Officials said on Friday they were racing to restore power to 500,000 consumers and heating to 6,000 buildings in Kyiv as temperatures hovered around -10 degrees Celsius (14 Fahrenheit), after an attack that involved 242 drones and 36 missiles.
Four people were killed in the strikes, which also included a hypersonic Oreshnik missile fired by Russia at the western Lviv region near the EU border.
Revutska’s building was left with a sweeping, charred scar across several stories where the drone had struck. Heavy snow fell as residents and workers collected debris to the din of generators.
RUSSIAN ATTACKS STRAINING ENERGY SYSTEM
Twelfth-floor resident Oleg Marasin, 54, described yelling for help to a group of medics below, who had been hit in a second strike.
“One was dead, the others were badly wounded,” he said as street noise flooded his apartment, where shattered glass was strewn across a floor littered with children’s toys.
Ukrainian officials have warned that a cold snap could further strain the country’s energy system, which has come under regular attack since autumn.
Deputy energy minister Mykola Kolisnyk told reporters on Friday that only part of the outages were a result of the overnight attack – with the weather accounting for the greater portion.
On Thursday, Russian strikes on Ukraine’s industrial southeast had sparked near-total blackouts across two regions.
Still, residents like Marasin and Revutska appeared largely calm, telling Reuters their spirits have not yet been shattered despite Russia showing little interest in a U.S.-backed peace push.
“We’ve already survived – so we’ll continue living,” said Revutska, dressed in a thick gray fleece and tan knit hat.
“We’ll figure it out somehow.”
(Additional reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Writing by Dan Peleschuk, Editing by William Maclean)
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