Ukrainian utility crews are working to repair further extensive damage to the country’s energy grid, officials said on Saturday, after Russia launched a swarm of Iranian-made attack drones overnight, taking over to a huge barrage of cruise missiles, anti-aircraft missiles and drones on Ukrainian cities.
These attacks dealt another blow to Ukraine’s already battered power grid, which Russia has repeatedly targeted as part of a strategy to plunge the country into cold and darkness to make it lose morale, according to military analysts.
The strikes, the first major air assault in weeks, came as ground fighting intensified, with Ukrainian officials saying Russian forces are mounting a major new offensive to take control. throughout the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine.
Air defense systems destroyed 20 Shahed-136 drones between 6 p.m. and midnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement early Saturday. But three energy facilities in the Dnipro region in southeastern Ukraine were hit, including one in Kryvyi Rih for the second time in one day.
“They targeted our critical infrastructure,” said Serhiï Lysak, the head of the regional military administration, in a statement on the Telegram messaging application, describing the damage as “significant”.
The drones were shot down over the southern regions of Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odessa, reported The Kyiv Independentciting the Southern Command of the Ukrainian Army.
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PHOTO MARKO DJURICA, REUTERS
A Ukrainian soldier handles a mortar shell between two Russian strikes, near the village of Vouhledar, in Donetsk.
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PHOTO EMILE DUCKE, THE NEW YORK TIMES
As the sirens sound on the surface, Anna Hayko and her son Vladislav find refuge in a Kyiv metro station.
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PHOTO EMILE DUCKE, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Nearly a year after the first Russian offensives, Ukrainian civilians take shelter in a Kyiv metro station under the watchful eye of Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian romantic poet and fervent defender of national identity and culture.
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PHOTO ALEXEY PAVLISHAK, REUTERS
A passerby walks past a Russian propaganda poster in the village of Chornomorské, on the west coast of Crimea. “We are not abandoning our people,” reads the sign adorned with the “Z” symbol, posted on Russian military vehicles.
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PHOTO EMILE DUCKE, NYT
A member of the Ukrainian Air Defense deployed in the Kyiv region keeps his rocket launcher at the ready.
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PHOTO EMILE DUCKE, NYT
Fishermen take advantage of their afternoon to tease the fish on the Lehlych, near Rjychtchiv, south of Kyiv.
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PHOTO LIBKOS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
New crosses appear daily in this cemetery in Bakhmout, Donetsk, where progress is stagnating but losses are mounting.
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Rationed electricity
The drone attack came after Russian forces fired more than 100 missiles in a day of strikes across Ukraine, in what the Russian Defense Ministry and Ukrainian Air Force described as a “massive” assault.
Twelve people were injured in the country, according to Ukraine’s state emergency service, and the state-owned power company said several thermal and hydropower plants were badly damaged.
The company, Ukrenergo, on Saturday described the situation as “difficult but under control”, saying that electricity rationing had been implemented in some areas and that repair work was continuing.
Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, has been hit hard, officials say. The head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehoubov, on Saturday reported “significant” damage to infrastructure and said that emergency power cuts would be carried out for “several days”.
The attacks also disrupted the operation of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, according to the United Nations nuclear watchdog. He said late on Friday that “instability in the power grid” had shut down a reactor at the Khmelnytskyi power plant in western Ukraine, and that power generation from two other power plants had was reduced as a precaution.
Imminent Major Offensive
As the war nears its anniversary, Russia has poured troops and equipment into eastern Ukraine, in the initial phase of what Ukrainian and Western officials say will be a major offensive.
Ukraine’s Western allies rushed to provide more powerful weapons so that Kyiv could mount its own offensive. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government reiterated its demands for additional weapons and faster delivery.
Mr Zelensky revealed he received “good signals” from his allies when he pleaded for heavier weapons to be sent on a rare international trip last week to London, Paris and Brussels.
“This applies to both long-range missiles and tanks, as well as the next level of our cooperation: combat aircraft,” he said in his Friday evening speech. “But we still have to work on this. »
White House spokesman John Kirby predicted on Friday that the coming weeks and months would be “difficult and critical” for Ukraine. He said that while he has yet to see a major new offensive take shape, “we are anticipating it and, frankly, the Ukrainians too.”
The United States believes Russian President Vladimir Putin will “use” the winter months to “resupply, refuel, rearm” in anticipation of what could be new offensive operations in the spring, John Kirby said during a briefing. a press briefing on Friday. “As the weather improves, the fighting is likely to get fiercer,” he added.
Hotspots
In recent weeks, the heaviest fighting has centered on the Russian-occupied town of Kreminna and the Ukrainian-held town of Bakhmout, about 50 km apart in the Donbass region.
Ukraine’s military said on Saturday Bakhmut – where troops from Moscow are slowly closing in on vital supply lines – remained the main target for Russian forces, with 124 strikes and 54 ‘clashes’ in the area over the past day. . Moscow sees the city, which it has been bombarding since the summer, as a crucial step towards its goal of taking all of Donbass.
General Valery Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, said on Saturday that he discussed the fierce fighting in the east and the general battlefield situation during a phone call with General Mark Milley, chief of the United States Army General Staff.
“Despite constant enemy pressure, we continue to keep Bakhmout under our control and to take steps to stabilize the frontline around this city,” he said in a statement, adding that the “key of success” would be “an appropriate amount of arms, equipment and ammunition.
According to military analysts, Bakhmout’s strategic value lies in its being a crossroads for some of the region’s highways. Capturing the city would not guarantee that Russia could make major advances in the east, but it would better position its forces to do so.
The battle for the city was one of the bloodiest of the war, described as a “meat grinder” due to the heavy casualties suffered by both sides.
For a time, Russia’s efforts were largely led by fighters from the Wagner Group, a private paramilitary organization, which recruited prisoners into its ranks. Its founder, Evguéni Prigojine, a close associate of Putin, is considered to want a victory for Bakhmout to strengthen his political position in Russia.
“It’s probably too early to say we’re close,” Prigozhin said, noting that the Ukrainian military had sent additional units. But, he added, “we are doing very well”.
This article was originally published in the New York Times.