Thousands of Ukrainians will freeze to death in their homes this winter unless the country gets more anti-aircraft guns to defend its power plants, an expert has warned.
dr Justin Bronk of the RUSI think tank called on the West to donate more shoulder-launched missiles and mobile anti-aircraft batteries to Kyiv to repel Russian attacks on its power grid with cruise missiles and Iranian-made drones.
Ukraine’s national grid operator has today warned of “further, deeper” blackouts because the country lacks a third of the energy it needs to keep going.
Meanwhile, Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko urged people to make plans to flee the capital if there were a “complete and prolonged blackout” that would completely cut off lights, heating, water and sewage .
Ukraine desperately needs anti-aircraft defenses from the West or thousands of people will freeze to death in their homes this winter and one expert has warned (pictured, power outage in Kyiv)
Ukraine’s power grid operator today warned the country lacks a third of the energy it needs to operate and is facing “further, deeper” blackouts
Ukrainians eat dinner by candlelight in a bar in Kyiv as power outages swept the capital and people were warned to flee if a blackout “prolonged”.
Vladimir Putin changed tactics in early October to attack Ukraine’s power plants and power lines after suffering significant defeats on the battlefield.
Using precision-guided bombs and Iran-supplied Shahed 136 suicide drones, its forces have since crippled around 40 percent of Ukraine’s power generation capacity.
While Ukraine is believed to take out the bulk of incoming drones and missiles, enough manage to do significant damage.
Attacks on civilian infrastructure are a war crime under international law.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Dr. Bronk: “Russia has fired between 400 and 500 so far [the Iranian drones] with up to 2,600 on order…
‘[Ukraine] needs a large number of [shoulder-launched missiles] and anti-aircraft guns so they can start repairing a lot of the substations and things that get hit…
“To be blunt, if they don’t get better equipment and better defenses against those Shahed missiles, thousands of Ukrainians will freeze to death in the winter.”
In a speech overnight, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Putin warned against “concentrating forces and resources on our infrastructure for a possible repetition of mass attacks. First of all energy.’
More than 4.5 million people are already without power, Zelensky said, amid fears support for Ukraine could falter as the war’s impact on energy and food prices continues into the winter.
Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s power grid with Iranian-made drones and cruise missiles since early October after being pushed back onto the battlefield
Ukraine says around 40 percent of its power generation capacity was destroyed in the last month, leaving its electricity desperately short
Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak previously said on Twitter that despite Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure, Ukraine will “stand by” by deploying air defenses, protecting infrastructure and optimizing consumption to achieve this.
The country faced a projected 32 percent deficit in electricity supplies on Monday, Sergei Kovalenko, the chief executive of YASNO, a major energy supplier in the capital, said on his Facebook page.
The warnings followed statements by Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko urging residents to “think everything,” including a worst-case scenario in which the capital loses electricity and water.
Residents should consider spending “some time” with friends or family outside of the city, he said in a TV interview on Saturday, in which he accused Putin of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure.
“His job is for us to die, freeze to death or make us leave our country so he can have it. That’s what the aggressor wants to achieve,” Klitschko added.
To the south, Russia and Ukraine continued to exchange accusations as Ukraine advances towards the city of Kherson. Portal was unable to immediately verify Battlefield accounts from either side.
Regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevich said Russian forces destroyed about 1.5 km of power lines, cutting off supplies to the city of Beryslav.
“It is likely that there will be no electricity in Beryslav until it is completely liberated from occupation,” Yanushevich wrote on messaging app Telegram, adding that power lines to Kherson were also destroyed.
Russia has made extensive use of cheap Iranian-made suicide drones in the energy strikes and is said to have ordered thousands more
On Sunday, Russian news agencies said shelling by Ukrainian forces damaged Ukraine’s huge Russian-held Nova Kakhovka dam upstream from Kherson on the Dnipro River. They provided no supporting evidence, and Portal was unable to immediately verify the reports.
Russia’s state-run TASS quoted a rescue service official as saying a missile fired from a US-made HIMARS missile system struck and damaged the dam’s lock.
The official called the incident an “attempt to set the stage for a humanitarian catastrophe by breaching a dam.”
The warnings came as the Wall Street Journal said US National Security Advisor Sullivan had been holding confidential talks with Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev for the past few months.
Few high-level contacts between US and Russian officials have been made public in recent months, as Washington insisted that all talks on ending the war in Ukraine be held between Moscow and Kyiv.
The White House declined to comment on the report, responding only with a statement attributed to National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson: “People are making many claims.”
Ukraine needs shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles and anti-aircraft batteries with radar to avoid hitting its power plants (file image)
On Saturday, The Washington Post said the United States privately encouraged Ukraine to signal its openness to negotiations with Russia, as the State Department said Moscow would escalate the war and was not serious about participating in peace talks.
The paper, citing unidentified sources, said the request by American officials was not aimed at pushing Ukraine to the negotiating table, but a calculated attempt to ensure Kyiv retained the support of other nations.
Zelenskyy signed a decree on Oct. 4 formally declaring the prospect of Ukrainian talks with Putin “impossible” but leaving the door open to talks with Russia.
The White House National Security Council initially did not comment on the accuracy of the report.
A State Department spokesman replied: “We have said it before and will say it again: actions speak louder than words. If Russia is willing to negotiate, it should stop its bombs and missiles and withdraw its forces from Ukraine.”