Lhe first snow has fallen in Ukraine, the mercury could drop to -10°C in the next few days, but more than 10 million people are without electricity. A situation that follows new Russian strikes in several cities, including kyiv. “At present, more than 10 million Ukrainians are without electricity”, particularly in the kyiv region, said Thursday evening Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his daily televised address. The Ukrainian president, whose country will enter its tenth month of war on November 24, denounced “another Russian terrorist attack”.
These repetitive bombings have targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since October, regularly depriving millions of inhabitants of power and water. “Civilian sites are the main target. Russia is waging war on electricity and heating for people by blowing up power plants and other energy facilities,” the Ukrainian president said.
Massive strikes
The Kremlin countered that the suffering of civilians in Ukraine was attributable to kyiv’s refusal to negotiate. “It is the consequence of the lack of will on the part of the Ukrainian side to settle the problem, to start negotiations, of its refusal to seek common ground,” declared Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin.
Massive strikes had already been carried out on Tuesday, November 15, following another humiliating retreat by Russian forces who abandoned, under pressure from a Ukrainian counter-offensive on November 11, the north of the Kherson region (south), including Moscow yet claims annexation. In the kyiv region, two Iranian-made Shahed cruise missiles and kamikaze drones were shot down by the Ukrainian defense. A journalist from Agence France-Presse (AFP) saw one of these missiles fly over a residential area in the east of the capital. In Dnipro (center-east), fourteen people, including a 15-year-old girl, were injured in a bombing, said regional governor Valentin Reznitchenko.
READ ALSOUkraine: what is behind the Russian withdrawal from Kherson?
“Unprecedented destruction” of the energy system
The first snowfalls occurred on Thursday 17 November. Regional governor Oleksiï Kouleba had warned the day before that the coming week would be “difficult”, with temperatures that could drop “up to -10°C”.
The national electricity operator Ukrenergo announced the extension of power cuts due to “the worsening of the situation”. “Due to a sudden cooling, electricity consumption increased”, which “further complicated the already difficult situation in the electrical system”, resulting in “wider restrictions” of energy consumption across the country, Ukrenergo lamented.
For its part, the private Ukrainian operator DTEK spoke of “unprecedented destruction” suffered by the energy system. “We are now living in survival mode, this is the energy front,” said the head of the Energy Research Center, Oleksandr Kharchenko.
Massive cases of torture
In addition, after the withdrawal of Russian forces from Kherson, sinister discoveries show the unprecedented scale of cases of torture in the city during the eight months of Russian occupation, denounced a senior Ukrainian official. “I have not yet seen” torture “on such a scale”, “after having visited all the torture rooms in various regions of Ukraine”, declared Thursday Dmytro Loubynets, responsible for human rights in the Parliament. “The scale of the phenomenon is horrifying.” “Dozens of people” were “electrocuted, beaten with metal pipes. Their bones were broken” and “the Russians filmed it all,” he charged.
In the streets of Kherson, euphoria sometimes gave way to frustration on Thursday, with crushes during the distribution of basic necessities. “This is the first time we have received help,” says Tatiana Bozhko, 62. “It’s first come, first served,” criticizes Maksym, a 27-year-old railway worker.
British artist Banksy posted a one-and-a-half-minute video on Instagram on Thursday showing several stencil works made in Ukraine with residents speaking out and also an on-screen message: “In solidarity with the people of Ukraine”. He had already published images in the night from Friday to Saturday of a stencil on a bombed building in Borodianka, near kyiv, thus confirming to be the author.
Missile lands in Poland
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has assured that Russia bears “ultimate responsibility” for the deadly fall of a missile in Poland, which killed two people on Tuesday, while an investigation must determine where it came from was fired. “What we see every day today is Russia raining missiles down on Ukraine, seeking to destroy its critical infrastructure, targeting Ukraine’s ability to keep the lights on, to keep the heating and allow the country to live and move forward, “said the head of American diplomacy.
Russia has denied having fired the missile, Poland itself deeming it “highly probable” that it was a Ukrainian anti-aircraft projectile and evoking “an unfortunate accident”. Ukrainian experts arrived in Poland on Thursday to participate in the investigation, said the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, on Twitter. “We hope that they will quickly gain access to the site” of the incident, “in cooperation with the Polish law enforcement authorities”.
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On the diplomatic and economic level, the agreement allowing Ukrainian grain exports from Ukrainian ports has been renewed for the four winter months, alleviating concerns about a possible global food crisis. This “Grain Initiative” in the Black Sea has enabled more than 11 million tons of grain to be released from Ukrainian ports in four months, after a long blockade by the Russian army in the spring.