Ukrainian officials said on Saturday that Ukraine’s utility teams were working to repair new and significant damage to the country’s power grid, after Russia launched a series of attack drones Iranian-made machinery overnight after a massive explosion. cruise missile seriesanti-aircraft missiles and drones over cities across Ukraine.
The attacks are another blow to Ukraine’s already ravaged power grid, which Russia has repeatedly targeted in what military analysts see as an offensive strategy. plunge the country into cold and darkness to lower morale.
The strikes, the First major air raid in weeksThe incident comes as ground fighting intensifies, with Ukrainian officials saying Russian forces are waging a major new attempt to gain control of the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
Air defense systems destroyed 20 Shahed-136 drones between 6pm and midnight, Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement early Saturday. But three energy facilities in the Dnipro region of southeastern Ukraine were attacked, including one in Kryvyi Rih for the second time in a day.
The drone attack came after Russian forces fired more than 100 missiles in a day of air strikes across Ukraine, what both the Russian Defense Ministry and the Ukrainian air force described as an attack. “large scale”. Twelve people were injured across the country, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraineand the state-owned power company said a number of thermal and hydroelectric plants had been severely affected.
The company, Ukrenergo, on Saturday called the situation “tough but under control,” said that power distribution was already in place in some areas and repair work was continuing.
Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, has been hit hard, according to officials. The head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov, on Saturday quoted “widespread” damage to infrastructure and said that the emergency power cut would be in place in “several days”.
The attacks also disrupting operations at Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, according to the United Nations nuclear watchdog. It said late Friday that “instability in the power grid” had forced one reactor unit at the Khmelnytskyi plant in western Ukraine to close and power output at two other plants had been reduced as a result. precautions.
As the war neared its first anniversary, Russia pour troops and equipment into eastern Ukrainein the early stages of what Ukrainian and Western officials say will be a major attack.
Ukraine’s Western allies rushed to provide more powerful weapons so that Kiev could launch its own offensive. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government has reiterated its call for more weapons – and faster deliveries.
Mr Zelensky said he had received “good signals” from allies in promoting the use of heavier weapons. a rare international trip in the past week to London, Paris and Brussels.
“This applies to both long-range missiles and tanks, as well as our next level of cooperation – fighter aircraft,” he said. on friday in my nightly address. “But we still need to do this.”
John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the White House, on Friday predicted that the coming weeks and months will be “difficult and important” for Ukraine. He said that although he has yet to see a major new attack forming, “we are anticipating it and frankly neither are the Ukrainians.”
The United States believes that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia will “take advantage” of the winter months to “replenish, resupply, rearm” offensive operations that could be resumed in the spring, Mr. Kirby said. told a press conference on Friday. “As the weather improves, the fighting is likely to become more intense,” Mr Kirby said.
In recent weeks, some of the heaviest fighting has centered on the Russian-occupied city of Kreminna and the Ukrainian-controlled city of Bakhmut, about 30 miles apart in the Donbas region.
Ukraine’s military on Saturday said Bakhmut remained the main focus of Russian forces, with 124 airstrikes and 54 “collisions” in the area over the past day. Moscow considers the city they have been bombarding since the summer as an important step towards the goal of capturing the entire Donbas.
General Valery Zaluzhny, the top commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said on Saturday that he discussed the fierce fighting in the east and the overall picture of the battlefield in a phone call with General Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Despite continued pressure from the enemy, we continue to control Bakhmut and take measures to stabilize the front lines around this town,” he said in a statement, adding that ” the key to success” would be “the right amount of weapons. equipment and ammunition.”
Military analysts argue that the strategic value of Bakhmut is the intersection of several highways in the region. Capturing the city will not guarantee that Russia can make great strides in the east, but it would be better for them to deploy their forces to do so.
The battle for the city was one of the bloodiest of the war, considered a “meat grinder” because of heavy casualties on both sides. The Russian efforts for a while were led mainly by fighters from the private military company Wagner. Prisoners are recruited into its ranks. Its founder, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, is a close associate of Putin and is seen as wanting to win in Bakhmut to raise his political position in Russia.
But with the fighting raging and Moscow eager to win its first major victory on the battlefield in months, the Kremlin has in recent weeks flooded the region with troops. Analysts say that Russian regular forces are increasingly prominent around Bakhmut.
in a rare Video interview released on FridayPrigozhin predicts that it may take some time before Moscow achieves its military goals in the Donbas region. “We will have to work for a year and a half to two years,” he told Semyon Pegov, a Russian military blogger.
Mr. Prigozhin also called for patience when it comes to Bakhmut.
“It’s probably too early to say we’re close,” Prigozhin said, noting that the Ukrainian military had sent additional units. However, he added, “we are managing very well.”
Ivan Nechepurenko contribution report.
