Ukraine war live updates: Ukraine reels from hypersonic missile attacks; Wagner group possibly taking ‘tactical pause’ in Bakhmut

Kharkiv governor Oleh Synyehubov said that “the energy system has suffered significant damage” in the eastern Ukrainian city after it was hit in a wave of Russian missile and drone attacks Thursday.

“Nevertheless, critical infrastructure has already been restored in the city, and water supply has been almost completely restored,” Synyehubov wrote in a post on the Telegram messaging app. Public transport however remains closed, he added.

A Russian military spokesperson confirmed that its strikes hit targeted Ukrainian critical infrastructure in several cities across the country.

— Natasha Turak

Forces of the Russian mercenary group Wagner — thousands of whom have been fighting in Ukraine — are believed to be taking a “tactical pause” in the eastern city of Bakhmut, which has been entirely destroyed by fighting, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank.

“The Wagner Group’s offensive operation in eastern Bakhmut appears to have entered a temporary tactical pause and it remains unclear if Wagner fighters will retain their operational preponderance in future Russian offensives in the city,” the ISW wrote in a Twitter post.

The bloody battle for Bakhmut has been waging for months and has been likened to a “meat grinder” for the volume of casualties being produced by the fighting there. Moscow says Ukrainian forces are surrounded, which Kyiv denies.

Ukrainian officials say they are determined to hold the ravaged city, because a Russian victory there would mean a direct access route for its forces to the rest of Eastern Ukraine.

— Natasha Turak

At least nine people in Ukraine are confirmed to have been killed by a wave of Russian hypersonic missile attacks fired Thursday. It is the first time Russia has used its powerful Kinzhal missiles, which can get past air defense systems, since the early months of its invasion — and the most intense day of strikes since late January.

The strikes hit critical Ukrainian energy infrastructure, which local emergency services are working rapidly to fix.

Russian defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said of the attack: “High-precision long-range air, sea and land-based weapons, including the Kinzhal hypersonic missile system, hit key elements of Ukraine’s military infrastructure.”

Ukraine’s military said it had not been able to intercept the six Kinzhal ballistic missiles.

“This was a major attack and for the first time with so many different types of missiles,” a Ukrainian military spokesperson was cited by Reuters as saying. “It was like never before.”

— Natasha Turak

Maxar satellite images depict how the battle of Bakhmut has changed the landscape near the city.

Before: Images show only a handful of craters in fields just east of Bakhmut, Ukraine

After: Photos show hundreds of craters in the fields.

– Maxar Technologies

A man was killed, and another wounded, after an artillery attack in Volnovakha, Ukraine.

— Anadolu Agency | Getty Images