an air alert was triggered across the country, the day after massive Russian strikes

• Ukraine was doing everything on Saturday, December 17 to restore electricity after Russian missile strikes that caused power outages across the country. These bombings have been denounced as war crimes by the European Union.
• Seventy-four missiles, mostly cruise missiles, were fired by Russia Friday, sixty of whom were shot down by anti-aircraft defense, according to the Ukrainian military. Three people died following a Russian strike which hit a residential building in Kryvy Rih (South), according to the regional governor.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that kyiv and fourteen regions had been affected by power or water cuts. In kyiv, according to its mayor, Vitali Klitschko, only a third of the inhabitants had water and heating, and 40% electricity. In Kharkiv (North-East), the second largest city in the country, the authorities announced in the evening that they had restored power to 55%. According to the regional governor, Oleh Synehoubov, 85% of the inhabitants of the region had access to electricity on Friday evening.
• Throughout the country, interventions are underway to restore electricity. “Our engineers and repair crews have already started work during the air strike and are doing everything possible to restore power generation and supply. This takes time. But it will be done”said the Ukrainian president.
• The national electricity operator clarified that “electricity [serait] provided as a priority to critical infrastructure: hospitals, water utilities, heating installations, sewage treatment plants ».
• The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, condemned this new “example of the blind terror of the Kremlin”, of the “cruel and inhumane attacks” against the people who “constitute war crimes”. Same reaction on the French side: “These acts constitute war crimes and in no way weaken France’s determination to support Ukraine and fight against impunity”the foreign ministry said in a statement.
• The European Union has approved new sanctions targeting Moscow which notably prohibit the export of drone engines to Russia or third countries able to supply them.
• For their part, the pro-Russian authorities of the Luhansk region, in the East, accused the Ukrainian forces of artillery fire on two localities which left eleven dead and seventeen injured on Friday.

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