Ukrainian rescuers carry an injured pregnant woman from Mariupol’s damaged maternity hospital after a Russian bombing, March 9, 2022 (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP):

Tuesday’s Coverage: Blackouts Likely Until March After Russia’s Attacks

Source: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1919 GMT:

The US has announced another $400 million in military aid to Ukraine, including weapons, munitions, and air defense equipment.

The package has additional munitions for NASAMS air defense systems, high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS), heavy machine guns with thermal imagery sights to counter attack drones, and more than 20 million rounds of small arms ammunition.

More than 200 generators are being delivered to help Ukraine deal with power outages caused by Russian attacks.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked Washington:

UPDATE 1826 GMT:

In a video on Instagram, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has assured that “unbreakable” Ukrainians will “get through all of this”, rebuilding infrastructure damaged by Russian missile strikes.

He noted the juxtaposition of the strikes and terrorism:

Today, the European Parliament recognized Russia as a terrorist state….And then Russia proved that all this is true by using 67 missiles against our infrastructure, our energy grid, and ordinary people.

The President said Ukraine will request an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the latest Russian strikes.

Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko spoke of the energy crisis caused by the strikes:

We must also prepare for the worst scenario. That would be if there were widespread power cuts and the temperatures were even colder. Then parts of the city would have to be evacuated, but we don’t want it to come to that….

Putin wants to terrorize people, make them freeze, without light. But that won’t happen. My impression is that people will only get angrier, more determined. We will not die or flee as Putin wants.

UPDATE 1806 GMT:

Ukraine’s head of National Police, Ihor Klymenko, said six people were killed and 36 wounded in today’s Russian missile strikes.

He said he expects the toll to rise.

The Ukraine military said Russia launched 70 missiles, 51 of which were shot down, and 5 attack drones.

Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said 21 out of 31 missiles targeting capital were downed.

UPDATE 1801 GMT:

Ukraine and Russia have completed another prisoner exchange.

A Ukrainian civilian and 35 troops were freed in return for 35 Russian POWs.

Ukraine Presidential Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak confirmed:

UPDATE 1754 GMT:

The power units of three Ukrainian nuclear power plants have been switched off after today’s Russian missile strikes.

The State nuclear agency Energoatom said emergency protection was activated at the Rivne, Pivdennoukrains, and Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plants: “They work in project mode, without generation into the domestic energy system.”

The six reactors at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, in southern Ukraine are already dormant.

UPDATE 1744 GMT:

The site of the European Parliament was taken down on Wednesday afternoon by a cyber-attack, hours after MEPs voted 494-58 to label Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Parliament spokesperson Jamie Duch announced the DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) event. He said, “EP teams are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible”, but the site is still offline.

Parliament President Roberta Metsola said:

UPDATE 1527 GMT:

Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko says three people, including a 17-year-old girl, have been killed by Russian missile strikes. Another 11 people have been injured.

UPDATE 1416 GMT:

Authorities in Kyiv have confirmed the killing of three person and wounding of six in Russian missile strikes on Kyiv.

Some of the casualties were in a two-story residential building damaged by the attacks.

6he entire Kyiv region is without electricity and the water supply has been cut off in the capital.

Lviv in western Ukraine is also “without light”, says Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, and there are “interruptions” with the water supply.

From Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba:

Neighboring Moldova has also been affected, with Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Spinu reporting a “massive” blackout and State energy firm Moldelectrica repairing more than 50% of the country to electricity.

Deputy Prime Minister Nicu Popescu added:

UPDATE 1404 GMT:

Russia has launched another wave of missile and rocket strikes across Ukraine.

Air raid sirens have been sounded throughout the country, with missiles filmed, explosions heard, and power cut in regions such as Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, and Dnipro.

Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, confirmed a strike on critical infrastructure. One person has been injured.

Presidential advisor Mykhailo Polodyak posted:

UPDATE 1351 GMT:

The European Parliament has designated Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism”.

MEPs voted 494-58, with 44 abstentions. They cited Russia’s “deliberate physical destruction of civilian infrastructure and mass murder of Ukrainian civilians with the aim of eliminating the Ukrainian people”. The conclusion was supported by the documentation of more than 34,000 war crimes by Russian and Russian proxy troops.

The resolution also noted “terrorist acts” such as Russia’s supplying of weapons to the Assad regime and Moscow’s deliberate atttacks on Syrian civilians; the attempted assassination of Sergey and Yulia Skripal with Novichok nerve agent in March 2018; and the downing of Malaysian Airwarys flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 passengers and crew.

The Parliament urged the European Union’s 27 member states to adopt the designation “with all the negative consequences this implies”.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has pressed for months for the designation, tweeted:

Zelenskiy’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak added:

UPDATE 0824 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has written on Facebook about this morning’s Russian missile attack on a maternity hospital which killed a newborn:

The enemy has once again decided to try to achieve with terror and murder what it wasn’t able to achieve for nine months and won’t be able to achieve.

Instead, it will only be held to account for all the evil it has brought to our country.

A woman was injured by the blast, and rescuers pull two survivors from rubble.

Zelenskiy also posted that two people were killed and one injured by Russian shelling of a high-rise building and a clinic in Kupyansk — liberated by Ukrainian forces in September — in eastern Ukraine.

UPDATE 0740 GMT:

The latest Russian attacks across the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine have killed one civilian and injured eight.

UPDATE 0721 GMT:

The US has committed another $4.5 billion to the Ukraine Government to provide essential public services and to sustain its budget.

The announcement came hours after the European delivered another 2.5 billion euros ($2.57 billion) in assistance.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said 18 billion euros ($18.47 billion) will be provided in 2023 for reconstruction and public services.

UPDATE 0714 GMT:

Amid Russian attacks which have knocked out half of Ukraine’s energy grid and the onset of winter, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says “invincibility centers” will be set up around the country to provide electricity, heat, water, internet, mobile phone connections, and a pharmacy.

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskiy said:

If massive Russian strikes take place again and if there is an understanding that the electricity supply cannot be restored within hours, the work of “Points of Invincibility” will be activated. All basic services will be there, including electricity, mobile communications and the Internet, heat, water, and a first-aid kit. Absolutely free and 24/7….

Local authorities are tasked with informing people about the existence of “Points of Invincibility”. It should be very simple: in government buildings, in pharmacies, grocery stores, in post offices, there should be information about where a person can find support in the event of a long-term power outage.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: A Russian missile has struck a maternity ward in a hospital in southern Ukraine, killing a newborn.

The missile was fired on the city of Vilniansk in the Zaporizhzhia region early Wednesday morning.

Zaporizhzhia Governor Oleksandr Starukh posted on Telegram, “Grief fills our hearts.”

Russia has attacked hundreds of medical facilities throughout its 9-month invasion. The World Health Organization’s surveillance system recorded 688 assaults from February to October 2022.

In March, the Russians bombed a children’s and maternity hospital in the port city of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine, killing three people at the time and injuring 17. A pregnant woman and her baby who were in the facility died later.