More Russian missile strikes, as fighting rages in eastern Ukraine

By Dan Peleschuk and Max Hunder

KYIV (Reuters) -Russia again unleashed missiles on Thursday against Ukrainian energy facilities, while its forces stepped up attacks in eastern Ukraine, reinforced by troops pulled from Kherson city in the south which Kyiv recaptured last week.

NATO and Poland concluded that a missile that crashed in Poland on Tuesday, killing two people, was probably a stray fired by Ukraine's air defences and not Russian. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy contested this view in a rare public disagreement with his Western allies.

As the winter's first snow fell in Kyiv, authorities said they were working hard to restore power nationwide after Russia earlier this week unleashed what Ukraine said was the heaviest bombardment of civilian infrastructure of the nine-month war.

Explosions resounded in cities including the southern port of Odesa, the capital Kyiv, the central city of Dnipro and the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, where officials said two people were killed.

"Missiles are flying over Kyiv right now," Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal as saying.

Zelenskiy posted video footage, apparently shot from a car cam, showing a driver's journey through Dnipro being interrupted by a huge blast ahead that sent flames and black smoke pouring into the sky.

"No matter what the terrorists want, no matter what they try to achieve, we must get through this winter and be even stronger in the spring than we are now, even more ready for the liberation of our entire territory than we are now," he said.

At least 15 people were wounded in Dnipro, three were hurt in the northeastern city of Kharkiv and at least one was injured in Odesa, local officials said.

State energy company Naftogaz said gas production facilities in eastern Ukraine had been damaged or destroyed. Other sites struck included the huge Pivdenmash defence plant in Dnipro.

The United Nations' humanitarian office (OCHA) warned of a serious humanitarian crisis in Ukraine this winter, with millions facing "constant power cuts".

GRAIN DEAL EXTENDED

On a happier note, a deal aimed at easing global food shortages by facilitating Ukraine's agricultural exports from its southern Black Sea ports was extended for 120 days, though Moscow said its own demands were yet to be fully addressed.

President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, which helped forge the Black Sea grain deal, said he had been informed after U.S.-Russia talks in Ankara earlier this week aimed at reducing tensions over Ukraine that neither party would use nuclear weapons, according to a readout of his comments to reporters.

The Kremlin later said that no Russian officials were considering the use of nuclear weapons. It also accused Kyiv of moving the goalposts regarding possible peace talks and called on Washington to push Ukraine towards diplomacy.

Separately, Moscow said it would "examine" the opinion of a Dutch court that ruled that a Malaysian airliner was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014 by a Russian-made missile. The court also said Russia had "overall control" of the separatist forces in eastern Ukraine at the time.

Russia has repeatedly denied responsibility for the downing of MH17, in which all 298 passengers and crew were killed, which took place at a time of fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces in a precursor to the current conflict.

POLISH BLAST

NATO ambassadors held emergency talks on Wednesday to respond to Tuesday's blast at a grain facility in Poland, near the Ukrainian border, the war's first deadly extension into the territory of the Western alliance.

However, Polish President Andrzej Duda said the missile appeared to be a Soviet-made S-300 rocket most likely fired accidentally "by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defence", not by Russia. Russia and Ukraine both use the missile.

Nevertheless, Zelenskiy said "I have no doubt that it was not our missile", based on reports from Ukraine's military which the president said he "cannot but trust". An adviser to Duda said Ukraine was likely to get access to the site of the blast that it has requested.

U.S. President Joe Biden disputed Zelenskiy's assertion that the missile was not Ukrainian, telling reporters at the White House on Thursday: "That's not the evidence."

Moscow had denied responsibility. Russia's Foreign Ministry said the "mayhem" around accusations of Russian involvement in the blast were "part of a systematic anti-Russian campaign by the West".

FIGHTING IN EAST UKRAINE

Officials reported heavy fighting in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which Russia claims to have annexed along with the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in September after holding what it called referendums that were condemned as a sham by Kyiv and the West.

"In the direction of Svatove and Kreminna (in Luhansk region), the Ukrainian military has managed to push the enemy back a bit. Local residents say they can hear battles going on nearby," regional governor Serhiy Gaidar said in a TV broadcast.

Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in the Russian-controlled part of Zaporizhzhia, said a Ukrainian missile struck a village there, killing two people and wounding nine.

Moscow's forces retreated from the southern city of Kherson last week after a Ukrainian counteroffensive. It was the only regional capital Russia had captured since its Feb. 24 invasion, and the pullback was the third major Russian retreat of the war.

Ukrainian and Russian gunners on Thursday traded shellfire across the Dnipro River that bisects the Kherson region, the thumps echoing as a freezing rain drenched the city.

Investigators in recaptured territory in the region uncovered 63 bodies bearing signs of torture after Russian forces left, Ukraine's interior minister was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted the minister, Denys Monastyrsky, as telling national television: "The search has only just started, so many more dungeons and burial places will be uncovered."

Russia denies its troops target civilians or have committed atrocities. Mass burial sites have been found in other parts previously occupied by Russian troops, including some with civilian bodies showing signs of torture.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Cynthia Osterman, Simon Cameron-Moore and Gareth Jones; Editing by Stephen Coates, Clarence Fernandez and Alex Richardson)

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