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LAST UPDATE | 15 Nov 2022
MISSILE STRIKES HAVE hit cities across Ukraine today, plunging around 10 million homes into darkness just days after a humiliating Russian retreat, prompting a defiant response from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Millions of homes were left without power following the latest attacks, the presidency said, dampening jubilation over the recapture of Kherson city as world leaders gather at a G20 summit expected to tackle the violence engulfing Ukraine.
However, Zelenskyy said this evening that power was restored to eight million Ukraine consumers.
“About 10 million Ukrainians were disconnected after the terrorist attack. Supply to eight million consumers has already been restored. Power engineers and repairmen will work all night,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter.
Lviv in the west and Kharkiv in the east were also attacked today, authorities said, with Lviv’s mayor reporting 80% of the city was without power earlier.
Zelenskyy said in a video statement that Russia had fired 85 missiles at energy facilities across the country.
“We are working, we will restore everything,” he said as areas across Ukraine reported interruptions to power supplies including the western Ternopil region that said 90% of users were cut off.
And the Dnipropetrovsk region’s military administration said an energy facility in Kryvyi Rih had been hit, creating a “complicated” situation for the grid.
Moldova, which borders Ukraine, reported power cuts because of the missiles fired at its neighbour and called on Moscow to “stop the destruction now”.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said at least half of the city’s residents were without power, two residential buildings were hit and “several missiles were shot down … by air defence systems”.
The deputy head of the president’s office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said the missiles had been fired by Russian forces and called the energy situation “critical”.
Meanwhile, NATO member Poland is putting some military units on a heightened state of readiness, following unconfirmed reports that Russian missiles landed in the country.
‘Danger has not passed’
Tymoshenko shared footage of a blaze at a Soviet-era, five-storey residential building struck by the missile salvoes.
“The danger has not passed. Stay in shelters,” he added in the statement online.
The attacks came after Russia-appointed officials in Nova Kakhovka said they were leaving the important southern city, blaming artillery fire from Kyiv forces, which have reclaimed swathes of the south after Russia left Kherson.
In Kherson city, 41-year-old Olga Genkulova said it had “been five days without water and a week without electricity”.
“I knew this could happen so I’ve been stocking up on water,” she said packing bottles filled from the Dnipro River.
Ukrainian strikes killed two in a Russian region on the border with Ukraine according to the governor.
Zelenskyy said in a video “it is clear what the enemy wants. It will not achieve its goal”.
Yesterday, he made a surprise visit to the city of Kherson, announcing the retaking of the regional capital marked “the beginning of the end of the war”.
Zelenskyy told the G20 summit in Bali today “now is the time” to end the war, while Washington said the strikes would “deepen the concerns among the G20 about the destabilising impact of Putin’s war”.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Russia was again trying to destroy Ukrainian critical infrastructure.
Since September, Ukraine forces have been pushing deeper into the south.
Russia announced last week a full withdrawal from the regional capital of the southern Kherson region, allowing Ukraine to re-enter.
Moscow-installed authorities in Nova Kakhovka said on Telegram that state and municipal employees were relocated to safety.
The Russian-backed officials said that following Moscow’s pull-out from Kherson city, Nova Kakhovka came under “indiscriminate fire” and “life in the city is unsafe”.
They also claimed “thousands of residents” had followed their recommendation to leave to “save themselves”, saying Kyiv’s forces would seek “revenge on collaborators”.
Key dam at risk
Nova Kakhovka sits on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, now a natural dividing line between Ukraine’s forces that retook Kherson city on the west side and Russia’s forces on the opposing bank.
It is also home to the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam which was captured in the beginning of the invasion because of its strategic importance supplying the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula.
The Russian-controlled dam is a particular focus now after Zelenskyy accused Russian troops of planning to blow it up to trigger a devastating flood.
Any defects at the dam would cause water supply problems for Crimea, which has been under Russian control since 2014 and which Ukraine hopes to recapture.
Russian forces said last week that a Ukrainian strike had damaged the dam.
The Russian-appointed head of the occupied part of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said Tuesday the dam was no longer operating.
“The situation is more dangerous – not with electricity generation – but with the dam itself, which, in the event of an explosion, would flood a fairly large area,” he said on state-run television channel Rossiya-24, according to Russian agencies.
The loss of Kherson was the latest in a string of setbacks for the Kremlin, which invaded Ukraine on 24 February hoping for a lightning takeover that would topple the government in days.
NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg nonetheless cautioned that Ukraine was facing difficult months ahead and said that Russia’s military capability should not be underestimated.
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The map shown is cropped so you don’t see how vast the country is and how little of it is a ‘warzone’. Loads of space for refugees in the west of the country.
@John Fahy:
The west of the country is filled with IDP’s from the east of the country. People are living in abandoned houses, abandoned sanitariums and school gyms. Also bear in mind that Lviv, the safest city in Ukraine has been targeted by 20 missile strikes since February and is looking at the potential prospect of being without heat and power for the winter.
@John Fahy: So you want tens of millions of Ukrainians to live in “Western Ukraine”, which has literally two cities with a population of over 500k. Three if you want to include Odesa which is right on the periphery of the war-zone.
All this while Kyiv is constantly under attack and routinely without power and heating as are many other large towns and villages, during the middle of winter where night temperatures can get down to -10 or -15 Celsius.
You’re a bright spark.
@Calvin James:
Up to 21 after today’s strike
@John Fahy: blanket bombing happening as far as and into Poland .
@John Fahy: really? Have you considered the logic to that?
Imagine half of Ireland moving into the other half of the country. Where would we house them?
Even if they could be housed in half of country as you suggested, what about power? Russia has targeted the power infrastructure.
What about heating? Winters are extremely cold.
There’s no part of Ukraine that is safe today, just look at what happened with those missiles hitting Poland.
You also neglected to mention that Russia invaded on three borders. The war only looks like its on one side today due to the Ukrainian army pushing the Russian army. There’s always the risk of another offence by the Russians.
Try and get the facts right before posting.
@John Fahy: I hope I’m not related to you
Zing
@Kieran Stafford: check your facts buddy before lazily regurgitating and spreading fake news and outrage.
This 15,000 figure was arbitrarily arrived at by a number of influencers who obviously influenced your slack jawed self.
That may be close to the number arrested, but according to the BBC, which cited a Norway-based Iran human rights group, 20 people are facing charges ‘punishable by death’ in Iran.
Check yourself and your outrage before stirring shït mate.
Yeah, and the Russians are on the run and Qatar will have a white Christmas etc etc etc
@Jim O’Sullivan: Pushed back from the capital city of a region that they claim voted to join them, they are on the run alright and we need to run faster when the next batch of Western made armaments show up. Showing your colours comrade, what is the PBP’s stance on the current invasion? Leave me guess, boo the west and yaah Russia
@Jim O’Sullivan: targeting civilian areas with long range missiles is a sign of losing. Think back to WWII when the Hitler did the same with V1 and V2 missiles.
@Kieran Stafford: Source?
@Kieran Stafford: Because that’s untrue.
Breaking News that a Russian missile has just hit a town in Poland killing two.
@Ciarán O’ Donoghue: how do you know?
@Kieran Stafford: Sky are reporting it
NATO Air Forces over Ukraine at least.
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