12/13/2022 06:28 (act. 12/13/2022 06:30)
Ukrainian soldiers hold position ©APA/AFP
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expects further Russian attacks on his country’s energy supply. “After each Russian attack, we restore the system as much as possible,” he said in his daily video on Monday night. Everything is being done to bring new equipment into the country to repair the damage. However, it should be borne in mind that Russia has not given up its “terrorist tactics”.
“Although it is obvious that we know where to fire even without light, Russia still depends on blackouts,” continued the president. But this is “the last hope of terrorists”. He urged the population to take air strike warnings seriously in order to be prepared for any eventuality. “And we’ll do anything to get through this winter.”
According to the Ukrainian military leadership, Russian forces are heavily bombing targets in eastern and southern Ukraine with rockets, artillery and drones. Ukrainian military and civilian officials also said that in recent fighting, Russian artillery shelled nearly 20 settlements around the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut and the southern city of Kherson.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, heavy fighting continues around Bakhmut and Avdiivka in Donbass in eastern Ukraine. Several advances by Russian troops were beaten back there, the Ukrainian general staff in Kiev announced on Monday night. Several Russian multiple rocket launcher attacks have been reported in Kherson in southern Ukraine. There were dead and wounded, he said.
Russian troops and armored vehicles were the target of several attacks by the Ukrainian air force and barrel and rocket artillery. However, the military in Kiev did not provide more detailed information about the location.
The General Staff said Russian advances in the east of the country involved attacks on four settlements in the Donetsk region and eight in Luhansk. Russia uses missiles, drones and artillery at the front. The information could not be independently verified. The two regions belong to a total of four that the Moscow government has declared to be Russian territory.
According to estimates by the Ukrainian military intelligence service, Russia still has an arsenal of about 360 cruise missiles. That’s enough for at least five waves of attacks, spokesman Vadim Skibizkyj said.
According to the Moscow-appointed administrator of the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, more than half of the area is under Russian control. “Just over 50 percent of the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic has been liberated,” Denis Pushilin told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. However, the situation in the area along the Lyman front line remains very difficult.
For weeks, the Russian military has targeted the entire energy infrastructure with missiles and so-called kamikaze drones. As a result, massive water and power failures are the order of the day. This tactic is primarily aimed at putting pressure on the civilian population in winter. Initially, there were no reports of further attacks on the Ukrainian power grid overnight.
After the weekend’s attacks, the port of Odessa resumed operations on Monday. National energy company Ukrenergo said around 1.5 million people are being reconnected to the grid bit by bit. The administration of the Kiev region reported 14 settlements in which electricity was still completely turned off, in 37 others the supply was limited.
The US is delivering the first batch of power generation plants to Ukraine to shore up the country’s power infrastructure against Russian attacks. A US official said the first shipment was about $13 million worth of equipment. Two more planeloads of equipment are due to follow later this week. “Our strategy now is to first help Ukraine defend itself against deliberate attacks on civilian energy infrastructure that could result in a humanitarian catastrophe,” a senior US official said.
Meanwhile, UN Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths, who is in charge of the emergency response, arrived in Ukraine to assess “new challenges amidst mounting damage to infrastructure”, his office said.
European Union foreign ministers agreed on Monday to raise a joint fund for military aid to the Kiev government by another 2 billion euros. In addition, EU states agreed on Tuesday night to financial aid of up to 18 billion euros. The aim of aid to Ukraine is to provide the country attacked by Russia with loans of up to 18 billion euros via the EU next year. The money must allow, among other things, to cover current expenses with pensions, hospitals and schools.