Russian forces confirmed on Tuesday (18) that they had hit Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in fresh bomb attacks that caused power and water outages in several cities in the country, including the capital Kyiv. “All targets were hit,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a similar statement to the previous day. An adviser to the Ukrainian Presidency warned the population to prepare for the winter with shortages of energy, water and heating.
The new Russian bombings killed at least two people in Kyiv and a 55yearold man in Mykolayev, a city in southern Ukraine.
“Russian forces continued to attack Ukraine’s military command and power systems with highprecision, longrange air and sea weapons,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said in its daily report. The report is virtually identical to the one released on Monday following the bombings in Ukraine that killed nine.
The Russian army also claims that on Tuesday it recaptured the village of Gorobivka in the Kharkiv region (northeast), which it lost to Ukrainian forces in the counteroffensive launched from Kyiv in September.
As winter approaches, “since October 10, 30% of Ukraine’s power plants have been destroyed, leading to massive power outages across the country,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a message on Twitter. He also reiterated his refusal to negotiate a ceasefire with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukrainian operator DTEK has reported “interruptions” in power supplies in a key area of Kyiv. “Engineers are making every effort necessary to restore power,” DTEK said on Facebook. The mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitschko, urged residents to save water and electricity.
In a television interview, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Presidency, described the situation across the country as “critical” “because our regions are interdependent”. He said the population must prepare for the lack of power, water and heating given the damage caused by the recent Russian bombings.
As of Monday, Moscow’s attacks had killed at least nine people, five of them in Kyiv, and caused power outages in three regions of Ukraine. The current Russian air offensive comes on top of the October 10 bombings, which also destroyed electrical infrastructure and left 19 dead and 105 wounded. Western allies have promised more air defense systems, some of which have already been delivered to Ukraine.
Ukrainian operator Energoatom also on Tuesday accused the Russian army of “kidnapping” two executives at the Zaporiya (South) nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, which has been occupied by Moscow forces since March. The complex has suffered frequent bombings and power outages since the Russian invasion on February 24, raising fears of a nuclear disaster.
The General Staff of Ukraine took stock of the operations of the two parties to the conflict.
“In the last 24 hours, the enemy launched 10 rocket attacks and 58 airstrikes, in addition to firing up to 60 shots from multiple rocket launchers,” the Kiev military command summarized on Tuesday morning. “Russia has deployed 43 Iranianmade Shahed136 drone planes,” the report said, “of which 38 were shot down by Ukrainian soldiers.”
Kyiv claimed responsibility for “22 strikes” by its air force on Monday, showing once again that Russia had failed to establish its air supremacy.
“We don’t have this information,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied when asked by a journalist about the use of Iranian drones. “Russian technology with Russian names is used,” the spokesman added.
On Monday, the Ukrainian government called on the European Union to impose more sanctions on Iran, claiming that “Iran is responsible for the deaths of Ukrainians.” But the Iranian government has again denied involvement in the conflict. “Iran has not exported arms to any of the warring factions,” said Nasser Kanani, a diplomatic spokesman for the Islamic Republic.
After the attacks in Ukraine, Washington is threatening sanctions against companies or states that cooperate with the Iranian drone program.
Russians “continue to do what they do best terrorize and kill civilians,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. “In Mykolayev, the enemy destroyed an apartment building with C300 rockets. One person was killed,” said the Ukrainian leader. According to local authorities, the victim was a 55yearold man who was found in the rubble of a building hit by a latenight bomb blast.
In Dnipro, “the Russians shelled an electrical infrastructure … with two missiles”. There is a fire and severe damage,” said the head of the regional military administration, Valentyn Reznichenko, citing power and water outages across the region.
In Kharkiv, “the enemy fired eight missiles from the Russian city of Belgorod,” according to Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegoubov, who reported no casualties.
Further bombings hit the town of Jytomyr west of Kyiv. Already on Monday, Russian attacks had hit the capital near Kharkiv and Soumy (northeast), Donetsk (east), Dnipropetrovsk (central east), Kherson and Mykolayev (south).
The Russian army, which will send up to 9,000 troops and about 170 tanks to Belarus, an ally of Moscow that borders Ukraine, said Monday it hit all of its targets with “highprecision weapons.” The statement provoked a reaction from the United States.
The Russians are “attacking critical infrastructure…things that people need in their daily lives that are not military targets,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. “This is a sign of desperation on the part of Russia,” Blinken said.
The Russian army has suffered significant territorial losses since the Ukrainian counteroffensive that began in September. Russian troops withdrew from areas of northern, eastern and southern Ukraine. The only region where Moscow is still advancing is an area around the eastern city of Bakhmut, which Russian soldiers have been trying to take from the Ukrainians since the summer.
Despite this context, in which neither party is ready to make concessions, 108 women, mostly military personnel, have been released in a new prisoner exchange with Russia, the Ukrainian presidency said.
For its part, Russia claims that the Ukrainian army bombed two villages in the Kursk border region, Tiotkino and PopovoLejatchi, causing power outages. In the Belgorod region, which also borders Ukraine, a Ukrainian fire struck a train station, causing damage and injuring one person, according to Governor Vyacheslav Beglov.
Not far from that area on Monday, a Russian supersonic fighterbomber crashed, killing 13 and injuring 19. The incident took place in Yeysk, a town of 90,000 in southwest Russia across from Ukraine’s Mariupol, which was devastated by a siege by Moscow forces early in the conflict. The device fell on an apartment building housing 600 people, sparking a massive fire. According to rescuers, among the dead were three children who finished operations on the rubble of the building.
Russia has launched an investigation to determine the causes of the plane crash, favoring the hypothesis of a “technical failure”.