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It is an impossible and desperate mission called out by Ukrainian technicians and operators every day to rebuild what is being destroyed, to restore lines, civilian infrastructure and services bombed by Russian missiles and drones. It is the new phase of the war, now that winter will slow down direct clashes on the ground: with Moscow, determined to blunt popular resistance by depriving them of light, heating and water.
Scheduled power outages are triggered in Ukraine
In order not to run the risk of a total blackout and to relieve the load on the power grid, the operator Ukrenergo has announced the imposition of scheduled power outages alternately for the city of Kyiv and for seven other neighboring regions: in addition to that of the capital Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Sumy, Poltava , Kharkiv. Every day, Ukrenergo says, power outages last six hours or more, based on a calendar set by regional distributors. By outfitting hundreds of emergency shelters with autonomous generators and supplies, Kiev authorities are preparing for the most dramatic of emergencies, a total power outage that could force them to evacuate a city of two million people.
In cities and villages, the targets of the Russians are power plants, reservoirs, pipelines, gas pipelines. A less costly war for the Russians, who can count on the relatively cheap drones from Iran: Tehran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian acknowledged this for the first time yesterday, but spoke of “limited quantities and denied direct links to the war. The agreements and deliveries of the Shahed-136 took place months before the invasion of Ukraine, according to the official agency Irna. Amir-Abdollahian then described the news that Iran wanted to supply the Russians with missiles as “completely false”: “Big noise made by some western countries”.
Zelenskyy: We know what the enemy is preparing, we will react
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, referring to the urgency of increasing defenses against drones and the energy emergency, intervened, saying that he had analyzed the situation on the front with the military leaders in great detail: “We know what the enemy is preparing – said the President of Ukraine -. We will respond and continue to liberate our country. Separately, we considered countermeasures against terror from missiles and drones. The percentage of drones shot down is growing, but we still have work to do. We must ensure full protection of the Ukrainian skies, we will do everything possible and impossible in this regard. In the coming weeks we expect good news in the field of air and missile defense». In the past few days, the White House has repeatedly assured Ukraine that its engagement will continue.
The counter-offensive advances towards the port of Kherson
At the front, the main focus is on the occupied port city of Kherson, which the Ukrainian counter-offensive is advancing on while the Russians prepare for a potentially decisive battle. The Ukrainians want to take control of the right bank of the Dnipro River and then try to establish a bridgehead on the left bank, an outpost to Crimea. Aware that the loss of Kherson would be a very heavy blow, the Russians strengthen their defenses and drive out the civilian population: Vladimir Putin calls them evacuations, the Ukrainians forced deportations.