Ukraine suffered Friday morning new Russian missile strikes that caused water cuts in the capital kyiv and power across the country, Moscow showing itself determined to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure.
According to initial reports, at least two people died following a strike that hit a residential building in Kryvyi Rig, according to the regional governor. And another was killed by artillery fire targeting a residential area of Kherson, a city recaptured in November by Ukrainian forces.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, “about 40 missiles” Russian targeted the capital, 37 of which were shot down by anti-aircraft defense. They did not specify what damage the others caused.
Mayor Vitali Klitchko said the damage to the energy infrastructure caused “water supply interruptions in all areas of the capital”.
For its part, the Russian occupation of the Ukrainian region of Luhansk accused the Ukrainian forces of artillery fire on two localities, killing 8 and wounding 23 on Friday morning.
Faced with a series of military setbacks in the northeast and south of the country this fall, Russia opted in October for a tactic of massive strikes aimed at destroying Ukraine’s power grids and transformers, plunging millions of civilians in the cold and darkness in the middle of winter.
“A new massive wave of Russian bombing is targeting the energy infrastructure, facilities have already been damaged in the east and south of the country,” Energy Minister German Galouchchenko said on Facebook on Friday morning.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba reacted by demanding that the West deliver “a howitzer to Ukraine, a tank to Ukraine, an armored vehicle to Ukraine, for each missile or drone that targets Ukraine” .
Western military aid has already enabled Ukrainian forces to inflict major defeats on the Russian army.
In kyiv, the morning strikes led to the shutdown of the metro on Friday so that the stations could serve as shelters.
Bundled up in their coats, sitting on the ground or on the steps of the escalators, some spent four hours there, from the start of the alert around 8 a.m. to its lifting around noon, local time. “It has become something normal. This morning I woke up, I saw a missile in the sky, and I wasn’t surprised. I saw it and I knew I had to go on the subway,” said Lada Korovaï, a 25-year-old actress.
In the afternoon, the municipality announced on Telegram that the metro would remain at a standstill for the rest of the day, “due to damage to the energy system and due to emergency power cuts”.
On Wednesday, the capital had already been targeted by a swarm of 13 explosive drones, which the army says it shot down.
” Without electricity “
Elsewhere, entire swaths of the country were once again without power on Friday.
Thus, “the Kirovograd region is completely without electricity”, lamented its governor, Andriï Raikovych, on Telegram.
The country’s second city, Kharkiv, was also without power, as was Poltava.
” Without electricity […] the heating system no longer works” in Kremenchuk, the mayor of this city, Valéri Maletskiï, said on Telegram.
Multiple strikes have also targeted the Zaporizhia region, according to its governor, Oleksandre Staroukh.
Putin-Lukashenko Summit
This week, Ukraine’s Western allies, meeting in a conference in Paris, found about a billion euros to help the country save and repair its infrastructure while, in many cities, the population has no energy. electricity for only a few hours a day.
For their part, the Russian and Belarusian presidents, Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko, will meet in Minsk on Monday for a summit intended to further strengthen their alliance.
Belarus, Russia’s only ally in this war, had loaned its territory to allow the Russian assault on kyiv at the start of the invasion on February 24. But faced with Ukrainian resistance, the Kremlin had to resolve to give up the Ukrainian capital.
According to Mr. Lukashenko, the summit on Monday will be “above all (devoted) to the economic sphere”, but the two leaders will also talk about “the politico-military situation around (their) countries”.
Finally, in an interview published Thursday, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Valery Zalouzhny, said he was convinced that Russia would attempt a new attack on kyiv in the first months of 2023.
Since the spring, fighting has been concentrated in eastern and southern Ukraine. Moscow has had to cede large territories there since September, and has since mobilized 300,000 reservists to consolidate its lines.
The battles are particularly fierce around Bakhmout and Avdiivka, two towns in the east that Russian forces are trying to conquer.