Ukrainians line up for water as Russians hit infrastructure
Russia’s strikes have left many in the Ukrainian capital without electricity or water. President Zelensky said they shot down most of the 55 Russian missiles.
Cody Godwin, Associated Press
While the fiercest fighting in Ukraine is concentrated in the east and south, the capital of Kiev and the areas around it are under a different kind of attack, with suffering and disruption being weaponized.
In the wake of Russian attacks that destroyed 40% of the country’s energy infrastructure, Ukraine’s electricity operator announced a blackout in Kiev and six other nearby regions, including Kharkiv. Unplanned emergency failures are also expected.
“We are doing everything to avoid this,” Mayor Vitaly Klitschko told state media. “But let’s be honest, our enemies are doing everything to make the city without heat, without electricity, without water supply, in general, so we all die. And the future of the country and each of us depends on how it will be. We are ready for various situations.”
Russian drone and missile attacks have affected 16 provinces and forced officials in Kiev to consider mass evacuations. They plan to set up about 1,000 warming shelters, but noted that this may not be enough for the city’s 3 million residents. In Kiev, the average temperature in winter ranges from 20 degrees to 30 degrees.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Sunday that about 4.5 million of the people lost power, telling the nation, “We must endure this winter and be even stronger in the spring than now.”
“THE TEST OF OUR ENDURANCE”: Will brutal winter weather change Ukraine or Russia?
Recent developments:
►The Zaporozhye nuclear power plant was reconnected to Ukraine’s power grid on Sunday, three days after fighting in the region shut it down, forcing the use of emergency diesel generators to keep vital cooling systems running.
►Russian officials continue to evacuate the occupied southern city of Kherson, sending out warning phone messages on Sunday telling residents to leave for the eastern bank in anticipation of a major battle with the Ukrainian army. Russian troops, although less visible, “have dug in there quite powerfully,” said Natalya Khumeniuk, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s Southern Forces.
►The remaining 15,000 residents of the eastern city of Bakhmut have been living under constant shelling for months, which has intensified in recent weeks, leaving them without water or electricity, local media reported.
Iran has dropped its denials that it has supplied Russia with drones and has cast doubt on other claims confirming the receipt.
“We gave a limited number of drones to Russia in the months before the war in Ukraine,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told reporters in Tehran on Saturday.
Amirabdollahian added that Iran did not know that Russia would attack Ukraine with drones, adding: “If it is proven to us that Russia used Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine, we will not be indifferent to this issue.”
This strikes a chord with Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which vaguely boasts of supplying drones to the world’s top powers.
Since last month, Russia has been waging a campaign to destroy power plants and other civilian targets in Ukraine, relying on explosive drones that can cost as much as $20,000, or 50 times cheaper than a cruise missile. Russia rebranded the drones, but there was evidence that they were Iranian-made Shaheds.
Both Russia and Iran, which is staunchly neutral in the war, have denied any deployments of drones. The United States and its Western allies at the UN Security Council called on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to investigate whether Russia used Iranian drones to attack civilians in Ukraine.
“The whole world will know that the Iranian regime is helping Russia prolong this war,” Zelensky said on Sunday.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who warned the Kremlin that using nuclear weapons in Ukraine would have “catastrophic consequences” for Russia, held confidential talks with President Vladimir Putin’s top aides in a bid to prevent an escalation of the war. is expanding, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
The goal of the talks in recent months was not to negotiate a peace treaty, but to keep lines of communication open and reduce the risk of using unconventional weapons in the war, the paper said, citing US and allied officials.
Sullivan visited Kiev on Friday and expressed “unwavering and unwavering” US support for Ukraine even after Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Russia may depose the commanders of all its military districts before the end of the year.
The last to be sidelined was Colonel General Aleksandr Lapin, who seems to have been replaced as the head of the Central Military District by Major General Aleksandr Linkov. According to the British Ministry of Defence.
The ministry said the commanders of Russia’s eastern, southern and western military districts have already been pushed out since February, when the invasion of Ukraine began.
“These dismissals are an example of blaming senior Russian military commanders for the failure to achieve Russia’s goals on the battlefield,” the ministry said. ‘
Contributed by: The Associated Press.
