Russia launches new Ukraine barrage as grain deal extended

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian airstrikes targeted Ukraine's energy facilities again Thursday as the first snow of the season fell in Kyiv, a harbinger of the hardship to come if Moscow's missiles continue to take out power and gas plants as winter descends.

Separately, the United Nations announced the extension of a deal to ensure exports of grain and fertilisers from Ukraine that were disrupted by the war.

The deal was set to expire soon, renewing fears of a global food crisis if exports were blocked from one of the world's largest grain producers.

Even as all sides agreed to extend the deal, air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine on Thursday.

At least four people were killed and more than a dozen others wounded in the drone and missile strikes, including one that hit a residential building, authorities said.

The Kremlin's forces have suffered a series of setbacks on the ground, the latest being the loss of the southern city of Kherson.

In the face of those defeats, Russia has increasingly resorted to aerial onslaughts aimed at energy infrastructure and other civilian targets in parts of Ukraine it doesn't hold.

Thursday's salvo appeared to be on a lesser scale than the nationwide barrage of more than 100 missiles and drones that knocked out power to 10 million people earlier this week.

Tuesday's strikes were described by Ukraine's energy minister as the biggest barrage yet of the nearly nine-month-old invasion against the battered power grid.

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