Russia bombs cities across Ukraine

KYIV, Oct 10 (Reuters/AP): Russia bombed cities across Ukraine during rush hour on Monday morning, killing civilians and destroying infrastructure in apparent revenge strikes after President Vladimir Putin declared an explosion on the bridge to Crimea to be a terrorist attack.
Missiles tore into Kyiv, the most intense strikes on the capital since Russia abandoned an attempt to captured it in the early weeks of the war. Explosions were also reported in Lviv, Ternopil and Zhytomyr in Ukraine's west, Dnipro and Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia in the south and Kharkiv in the east.
A witness in Russia's Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border also heard a blast from the border area.
In Kyiv, attacks struck in the heart of the busy city centre. The body of a man in jeans lay in a street at a major intersection, surrounded by flaming cars. In a park, a soldier cut through the clothes of a woman who lay in the grass to try to treat her wounds. Another woman was bleeding nearby.
City police said at least five people had been killed and 12 wounded.
A huge crater gaped next to a children's playground in a central Kyiv park. The remains of an apparent missile were buried, smoking in the mud.
More volleys of missiles struck the capital again later in the morning. Pedestrians huddled for shelter at the entrance of Metro stations and inside parking garages.
"They are trying to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging app. "The air raid sirens do not subside throughout Ukraine. There are missiles hitting. Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded."
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted: "Putin's only tactic is terror on peaceful Ukrainian cities, but he will not break Ukraine down. This is also his response to all appeasers who want to talk with him about peace: Putin is a terrorist who talks with missiles."
At one of Kyiv's busiest road junctions, a massive crater had been blown in the intersection. Cars were destroyed, buildings were damaged and emergency workers were on the scene. Two cars and a van near the crater were completely wrecked, blacked and pitted from shrapnel.
Ukraine nuclear plant
reconnected to grid
An external power line to Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant - the biggest in Europe - was repaired on Sunday after shelling disconnected the facility from the grid and forced it to resort to emergency diesel generators, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said the 750-kilovolt line was reconnected to the plant on Sunday evening following repair work by Ukrainian engineers. That enabled the plant to start switching off the generators that had kicked in to provide it with power after the line - its last connection to the grid - was cut early Saturday.
IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi tweeted that the reconnection was "a temporary relief in a still-untenable situation."