extra resources from washington to cope with an expected migrant surge. basic services are starting to return to ukraine s capital after russia s latest missile onslaught. russia hit cities across ukraine on friday including the capital kyiv. a short time ago its mayor said the water supply and the subway are now restored. power is back on for two-thirds of the city while half of its residents have heat again. ukraine says nine power plants were also hit on friday which took more that be half of its generating capacity offline. and ukraine says friday s strikes involve something never seen during the war, russia using its strategic bombers to launch some of the missiles. and when they started falling on kyiv, some residents went underground to find safety. nick paton walsh reports.
the nuclear power plant provides 20% of the generating capacity for the whole ukrainian electrical industry, an industry that the russians have been trying to systemically destroy. so, they re very unlikely to give that up. on top of that, it s a very important location in terms of if the russians pulled out, the ukrainians would move back in. that would give them a bridge head on the other side of the dnipro river to continue their campaign, which they re likely to do over the next few beweeks perhaps in the zaporizhzhia front line, which has been frozen for the past few months. the status of the nuclear power station retains tenuous, with the u.n. observers still there regularly reporting that they see the evidence of shelling, the results of shelling, which both the ukrainians and russians blame each other for in that very, very tense and dangerous location. sam kylie in zaporizhzhia. sam, stay safe. thank you so much. joining me now with more,
war. the nuclear power plant, as you rightly pointed out, it s at its peak 20% of the generating capacity for the whole ukrainian electrical industry. an industry that the russians have been trying to systematically destroy. so, they re very unlikely to give that up. on top of, that john, it s very important location in terms of if the russians pulled out, ukrainians one back. and that would give them a bridgehead on the other side of the dnipro river, to continue their campaign. which in all probability, they re likely to do over the next few weeks perhaps in the zaporizhzhia frontline. which has been frozen for the last six months.
zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, the russians captured this back in march. it has been used as a fire base for attacking civilian targets on the other side of dnipro river still in the ukrainian hands. ukrainians have tried to recapture it twice. it is very unlikely that the russians are even thinking about evacuating that nuclear power station because it would mean giving up a strangle hold on the very electrical generating capacity that they currently hold. that nuclear power plant, when it is at its peak, provides 20% of the ukraine energy needs. and as you pointed out in the introthere, the energy structures here have been attacked several times, at least seven by wave bupon wave of drones over the last month and a half. and in addition to that, i have to say it is also an important tactical location if the ukrainians were able to move back in there.
or outgoing in zaporizhzhia. we ve seen the nuclear power stations across the country disconnected from the national grid. they have been reconnected. that s problematic because that means cooling systems have to rely on local diesel generators themselves vulnerable to break down, fuel outages or attack. that is something the international atomic energy authority has been extremely anxious about. and, of course, you have zaporizhzhia nuclear power station just down the river from where i am which is in russian hands being used by the russians as a fire base and regularly there are exchanges of artillery fire close to and sometimes hitting facilities in that nuclear power station. from the ordinary ukrainian perspective, they are trying to get by. cities like kherson, which are in total blackout because the russians destroyed the generating capacity in that city have also now been suffering from bombardment by the russians from the other side of the river