Ukrainians focus on resilience in the aftermath of major Russian strikes

Kyiv's mayor says the water is back and the city's metro service has resumed. President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged companies to help set up more "centers of invincibility" for the public.

KYIV, Ukraine - Ukrainians rushed to repair damage and restart services on Saturday, a day after one of Russia's heaviest missile assaults on infrastructure killed at least five people and knocked out electricity and water in many major cities across the country . about new strikes, new explosions sounded over the port city of Odessa early Saturday and air raid alerts sounded across the country hours later. In the middle of the morning, the Ukrainian general command warned that military planes were taking off from neighboring Belarus and that the whole of Ukraine was a potential target.

The Ukrainian officials' first reports on Saturday were of intercepted incoming missiles. The country's southern military command said two incoming Russian missiles were intercepted by its air defense in Odessa and caused no casualties.

Across the country, Ukrainian rescue workers and utilities were working to restore electricity and water supplies, destroyed during a large wave of strikes in the power plants and power grids on Friday.< /p>

The Ukrainian General Staff said on Saturday that the Russians launched 98 missiles and 65 rockets fired from multiple rocket systems aimed at civil and energy infrastructure targets in this dam. The military had previously put the figure at 76 missiles, and while it's not immediately clear why the number changed, information provided in the first hours following an attack is often incomplete.

Ukrainian officials said 60 missiles were shot down before they could hit their targets, but 14 areas lost electricity and running water in the hours after the strikes.

ImageA Ukrainian police officer cordoned off an area where the remains of a rocket landed after a Russian attack in Kyiv on Friday.Credit...Felipe Dana/Associated Press

In the southern city of Kryvyi Rih, rescuers pull out the body of an 18-year-old boy months of the wreckage of a house in the early hours of Saturday, increasing the death toll from a Russian missile strike the watch at four. As missiles struck a power station in the city on Friday, knocking out electricity in the city, a missile also hit a residential building. The toddler's parents and a 64-year-old woman were killed in the strike, which also injured 13 other people.

Since Ukraine successfully repelled the Russian forces and regaining territory in the battlefield of eastern and southern Ukraine in recent months, Moscow has turned to a strategy of attacking power plants and energy supplies to increase pressure on the Ukrainian government by causing increased suffering among the civilian population.

Ukrainians responded defiantly, and the government sought to boost morale by repairing the damage the as quickly as possible.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that workers had started repairs even before air raid warnings were lifted. “Our electrical engineers and repair crews have already started work during the air strike and are doing everything possible to restore production and supply,” he said in his overnight address to the nation. . "It takes time. But it will be done."

He called on local authorities to partner with businesses to create additional neighborhood gathering points, called "invincibility centers", where people can gather to warm up, share news and charge their cell phones. Powered by generators or emergency power supplies, the centers have been...