There has been another airstrike in Zhytomyr, according to the city’s mayor, Serhii Sukhomlyn, in two video messages posted on Facebook on Wednesday evening.
This comes after Sukhomlyn said an apartment building and a large textile factory in Zhytomyr were destroyed by Russian military attacks on Tuesday evening. There was also a Russian military strike that razed part of a Ukrainian tank factory outside Zhytomyr on Saturday, substantiated by geolocated video of the aftermath.
In Wednesday’s message, the mayor said: “An airstrike has just been launched. The Zhytomir thermal power plant has been hit and a civilian building has been hit.”
In the civilian building that was hit, the mayor said an elderly woman who lived there hid in the basement and came out alive with minor injuries, for which she is being treated at a hospital.
The mayor also said all windows of two hospitals, including a children’s hospital, had been blown out, but there were no casualties and everyone was in an air raid shelter. Sukhomlyn added that he would write a letter of appreciation to the doctors for “such a great job”.
So far there have been no casualties in the strike at the thermal plant, but the plant will “most likely have to be shut down”, the mayor said. The plant powers much of the city, he said, and supplies heat to 30% of Zhytomyr. Sukhomlyn said officials will do their best to get it back on track.
Sukhomlyn said the city is turning off its streetlights after the Ukrainian military advised officials to do so because the Russian air force “changed its strategy” with planes coming in “very low”.
“We are holding on. We have one night ahead of us and we understand it can be very hot. The Russians realize they are losing on all fronts. They no longer demand what they used to demand. We have to survive and persevere,” said the mayor.
