Attacks carried out by Russia hit a gas pipeline and a fuel depot in Ukraine in the early hours of Sunday (27, Saturday night in Brazil), according to Ukrainian authorities.
In Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, located close to the Russian border, Russian forces blew up a gas pipeline, Ukraine’s state special communications service reported, according to Reuters news agency.
Already in Vasilkov, about 30 km south of Kiev, large explosions hit a fuel depot. A Russian missile fired the fire, Interior Ministry adviser Pravda Gerashchenko said in a Telegram publication, according to Ukraine’s National News Agency.
The CNN team in the capital captured images that show the night sky brightly lit on the horizon. Videos posted on Twitter and verified by the American broadcaster show a fire and a column of thick smoke at the scene of the incident.
“The enemy wants to destroy everything here, but it will not succeed,” Vasilkov’s mayor, Natalia Balasynovich, said in a video posted on Facebook.
Kiev authorities instructed residents to seal windows to avoid inhaling toxic fumes after the fuel depot exploded.
Earlier, authorities had alerted the population to the possibility of impending bombing from Russia, and sirens had sounded in Kiev.
The capital is the scene of battles between Russian and Ukrainian troops. A curfew has been enacted, and residents have sought shelter in bunkers and subway stations.
The attacks on Kharkiv and Vasilkov, recorded at the start of the fourth day of the war, suggest a Kremlin strategy to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
The West has been trying to isolate Russia since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of his neighbor last Thursday (24).
On Saturday, governments in European countries and the United States announced measures to prevent the Russian central bank from using foreign reserves, and also threatened to cut some Russian banks from the global Swift payments system.
Also on Saturday, the governments of Germany, France and the Netherlands pledged to send weapons to help Ukraine defend itself. In turn, the authorities of Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Slovenia and Lithuania announced the closure of their airspace for flights from Russia.
