White House warns that Russia could use chemical weapons in Ukraine 

There has been another air strike in Zhytomyr, according to the city’s mayor Serhii Sukhomlyn in two video messages posted to Facebook on Wednesday night.

This comes after Sukhomlyn said an apartment building and a major textile factory in Zhytomyr were destroyed by Russian military strikes on Tuesday night. There was also a Russian military strike that leveled a part of a Ukrainian tank factory outside of Zhytomyr on Saturday, substantiated by geolocated video of the aftermath.  

In Wednesday’s message, the mayor said, “An air strike has just been made. Thermal power plant of Zhytomir has been hit and a civilian building.”

In the civilian building hit, the mayor said an elderly woman living there was hiding in the basement and came out alive with minor injuries, which she is being treated for at a hospital.

The mayor also said all the windows were blown out at two hospitals including a children’s hospital but that there were no casualties and everyone was in a bomb shelter. Sukhomlyn added that he would write an appreciation letter to the doctors for “such a great job.” 

So far, there are no casualties associated with the strike on the thermal power plant but the plant will “most likely” have to be shut down, according to the mayor. The plant powers a large portion of the city, he said, providing heat to 30% of Zhytomyr. Sukhomlyn said officials will do their best to get it up and running again. 

Sukhomlyn said the city is shutting off its streetlights after the Ukrainian army advised officials to do so because the Russian air force “changed its strategy” with aircraft coming in “very low”.

“We are holding on. We’ve got a night ahead of us and we understand it can be very heated. Russians realize they are losing on all fronts. They don’t demand what they used to demand any more. We should survive and continue to hold on,” the mayor said.