by Dima Olenchenko, Daria Markina-Tarasova, Eliza Mackintosh, and Olga Voitovych for CNN
In what Kiev has referred to as one of Moscow’s largest missile barrages since the war started in February, explosions shook towns and cities across Ukraine on Thursday, devastating civilian infrastructure and killing at least three people.
Authorities have been warning that Russia is planning to unleash a full-scale attack on the electrical grid to end 2022, plunging the nation into darkness as Ukrainians strive to ring in the New Year and celebrate Christmas, which for the nation’s Orthodox Christians falls on January 7.
One of the biggest missile attacks by Russian terrorists since the start of the full-scale invasion has been saved for the final days of the year, according to a statement posted on Twitter by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on Thursday. “They imagine that Ukrainians will ring in the new year in the dead of night and bitter cold. The Ukrainian people, however, remain unconquerable.
Anastasiia Hryn, a 34-year-old resident of Kyiv, and her son went to the underground shelter beneath their building when they heard air raid sirens followed by an explosion. They weren’t overly shocked, though, and they didn’t let it depress them
.