New Russian strikes hit energy infrastructure in several cities in Ukraine on Tuesday, including the capital kyiv, the day after a wave of similar attacks carried out in particular using kamikaze drones.
As winter approaches, “since October 10, 30% of Ukrainian power plants have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country”, denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Twitter, reiterating his refusal to negotiate with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
“The situation is critical now throughout the country, because our regions are dependent on each other,” presidential official Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on television, deeming “it is necessary for the whole country to prepare for what there may be power, water and heating failures”.
Around 1 p.m. local time, these attacks killed at least one person in Mykolaiv (south) and two in kyiv, according to the authorities, and affected dozens of towns and villages across the country. Power outages were reported in the capital and other areas.
Already on Monday, Russian strikes, using suicide drones in particular, had killed at least nine people, including five in kyiv, and caused power cuts in three regions.
And a week earlier, on October 10, Russian bombardments on an unprecedented scale for months, also on energy infrastructure, had left at least 19 dead and 105 injured. kyiv’s Western allies then promised more air defense systems, some of which have already been delivered.
Iranian drones
The Ukrainian operator Energoatom also accused the Russian army on Tuesday of having “kidnapped” two executives from the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant (south), the largest in Europe, which it has occupied since March. The plant has been the victim of regular bombardments and power cuts since the Russian invasion on February 24, raising fears of a nuclear disaster.
“Over the past 24 hours, the enemy has launched 10 missile attacks and 58 air attacks, and carried out up to 60 multiple rocket launchers”, summed up the Ukrainian general staff on Tuesday morning.
The latter also reported on the dispatch by the Russian army of 43 Iranian-made “Shahed-136” drones, of which “38 were shot down by Ukrainian soldiers”, and claimed “22 strikes” carried out on Monday by the Ukrainian air force, once again showing that Russia has failed to establish air supremacy.
“We have no such information,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied to a reporter’s question about Moscow’s use of Iranian drones in Ukraine. “Russian technology is used, with Russian names,” he added.
kyiv on Monday asked the European Union (EU) to impose more sanctions on Iran, saying that “Iran is responsible for the murder of Ukrainians”. Tehran reiterated its denials: “Iran has not exported arms to any of the warring parties,” said Nasser Kanani, the spokesman for its diplomacy.
Washington has threatened to sanction companies or states collaborating in Iran’s drone program after Monday’s attacks.
“Terrorize and kill”
The Russians “continue to do what they do best — terrorizing and killing civilians. In Mykolaiv, the enemy destroyed an apartment building with C-300 missiles. One person was killed,” denounced Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to local authorities, the victim was a 55-year-old man found in the rubble of the building after a night strike.
In kyiv, the operator DTEK reported one death and six injuries and “interruptions” in the supply of electricity and water for the inhabitants of the left bank of the capital. “Engineers are making every effort to restore supply,” he posted on Facebook.
“There were three strikes on electrical installations” in eastern kyiv, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a close adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, in a message posted on a social network.
The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, called on residents to save water and electricity.
In Dnipro, “the Russians hit an energy infrastructure […] with two missiles. There is a fire and serious damage,” said the head of the regional military administration, Valentyn Reznichenko, referring to power and water cuts across the region.
In Kharkiv, “the enemy launched eight missiles at the city from the Russian city of Belgorod”, according to the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleg Synegoubov, who did not report any casualties.
Other bombardments hit the city of Zhytomyr, located west of kyiv, according to Mr. Tymoshenko. Water and electricity were cut off there, said Mayor Serguiï Sukhomlin.
On Monday, the Russian bombardments had already hit kyiv, the surroundings of Kharkiv and Sumy (north-east), Donetsk (east), Dnipropetrovsk (center-east) or Kherson and Mykolaiv (south).
” High accuracy “
The Russian army, which will send up to 9,000 soldiers and some 170 tanks to Belarus, an ally of Moscow bordering Ukraine, congratulated itself on Monday for having reached all its targets, with “high precision weapons “.
The Russians “attack critical infrastructure […] Things that people need in their daily lives that are not military targets,” said US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken. “It’s a sign of desperation on Russia’s part.”
The Russian army is on the defensive on most of the front in Ukraine, retreating since September in the north as well as in the east and south. The only section where it is still advancing is the area of the city of Bakhmout (east), which it has been trying to take from the Ukrainians since the summer.
However, despite this context, 108 women, mostly soldiers, were freed thanks to a new prisoner exchange with Russia, according to the Ukrainian presidency.
In Russia itself, the Ukrainian army shelled two villages in the border region of Kursk, Tiotkino and Popovo-Lejatchi, causing power cuts, Russian authorities said on Tuesday. In the Belgorod region, also bordering Ukraine, Ukrainian gunfire hit a railway station, causing damage and injuring one, according to Governor Viatcheslav Beglov.
The day before, not far from there, 13 people had been killed and 19 injured following the fall of a Russian military plane which caused a gigantic fire in Yeisk (southwest). The plane crashed into a residential building where 600 people lived in this city of 90,000 inhabitants located opposite the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, devastated by a siege by Russian forces at the start of the conflict.
Russian investigators said Tuesday favor the track of a “technical defect” on the plane.