Putin air strikes knock nuclear plant off electric network

VLADIMIR PUTIN launched a huge wave of missile and drone strikes on Ukraine knocking a nuclear power plant off the electricity grid and leaving it with 10 to 15 days of emergency back-up from generators, energy chiefs said today.

- Nicholas Cecil and Miriam Burrell

The capital Kyiv, the second largest city of Kharkiv in the east, and the Black Sea port of Odesa were all hit in the attacks on a wide arc of targets, from Zhytomyr, Vynnytsia and Rivne in the west to Dnipro and Poltava in central Ukraine, officials said.

At least five people were killed in a missile strike on a residential area in the western Lviv region, according to emergency services.

Footage from the area, some 440 miles from any military battlefield, showed a flattened house and badly damaged buildings nearby.

Another civilian was reported killed in the Dnipro region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said critical infrastructure, including power plants, and residential buildings in 10 regions were hit.