<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>A fresh barrage of fatal Russian strikes hit cities across Ukraine early Friday, cutting water and electricity in major urban hubs and piling pressure on the grid in sub-zero temperatures.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">AFP journalists in Kyiv reported several loud explosions and the mayor said the metro had stopped running to allow residents to take shelter in underground stations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">The strikes killed two people and injured several others -- including children -- in the southern city of Kryvyi Rig, President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Another wave of massive Russian attacks on energy infrastructure," Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on social media, adding that: "There will be emergency power outages."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The onslaught is just the latest of several waves of strikes that began in October after a series of embarrassing battlefield defeats for Russia in Ukraine.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv, near the border with Russia, was without electricity, its mayor said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The central cities of Poltava and Kremenchuk also had no power.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Air raid sirens were sounding across the entire country while the extent of the damage was being assessed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Regional officials in Kryvyi Rig said rockets had hit a residential building.</div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Two people have died," governor Valentyn Reznichenko said, adding that "at least five people were injured, including two children. All are in hospital."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Oleksandr Starukh, the head of the frontline Zaporizhzhia region, which houses Europe's largest nuclear power plant, said the territory under Ukrainian control has been targeted with more than a dozen Russian missiles.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Water cuts in Kyiv -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There were explosions in several central districts of Kyiv, and water supplies were disrupted, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He said metro services had been suspended so that stations could be used as bomb shelters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Due to damage to energy infrastructure, there are interruptions to water supplies in all areas of the capital," Klitschko said on social media.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Metro traffic is temporarily stopped on all lines."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Earlier, Russian shelling in the southern city of Kherson recently recaptured by Ukraine cut power.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kherson has been subjected to persistent Russian shelling since Moscow's forces retreated in November.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed that a Ukrainian Red Cross volunteer had been killed by the strikes in Kherson and urged that humanitarian "personnel and property" be spared.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Moscow has said the strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure are a response to an explosion on the Kerch bridge connecting the Russian mainland to the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Kremlin has also said Kyiv was ultimately responsible for the humanitarian impact of the strikes for refusing to capitulate to Russian negotation terms.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The wave of attacks has spurred urgent pleas from Kyiv for greater air defence capabilities from Western allies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And Ukrainian defence officials have credited newly supplied systems for downing Russian missiles and drones.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Defence officials said this week Ukraine forces had shot down a swarm of more than a dozen Iranian-made attack drones launched at Kyiv.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Separately on Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he will visit Belarus next week for talks with his counterpart and ally Alexander Lukashenko.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Minsk said the pair will hold one-on-one talks as well as wider negotiations with their ministers on "Belarusian-Russian integration". AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>