Russia on Friday continued its major winter strategy to hit Ukraine’s power grid for the third year in a row, as freezing conditions ease ahead of the winter season, dealing a “huge blow” to the country’s largest energy company.
According to a report in the Kyiv Independent, the Russian military launched around 90 missiles, including cruise missiles, and 200 drones, targeting power plants in the Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk regions across western Ukraine. It was one of the largest attacks on Ukraine’s power grid.
The severity of the attack is not yet known, but at least half of Ternopuri region lost power and equipment was reportedly “damaged” by private energy company DTEK.
Residents take shelter in a subway station after being attacked by Russian missiles and drones in Kiev, Ukraine, on Friday. (Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
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The company said in a Telegram post that no casualties were reported and that it was “already the 12th large-scale attack on Ukraine’s energy industry this year and the 9th large-scale attack on its energy companies.” . “Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, DTEK power plants have been shelled more than 200 times in total.”
The mass attack follows reports this week suggesting that Russia may be planning another attack on Ukraine using its latest ballistic missile, the Oleshnik missile (which it first launched last month). It was received and carried out.
According to a report in Friday’s Financial Times, a US National Security Council official said the attack could occur “as early as this weekend.”
Similarly, an official told Reuters earlier this week: “Oleshnik is not a game-changer on the battlefield, but rather is simply another attempt by Russia to launch a terrorist attack on Ukraine, which we believe will fail.” I’m doing it,” he said.
The threat of a new major attack comes as Russian forces are gradually advancing in Donetsk, near the city of Pokrovsk, amid concerns that they may be giving Moscow access to supply routes linking the region to Zaporizhia. The Estonian intelligence service reported on Friday.
A locomotive passes under a destroyed bridge on a badly damaged railroad track in Pokrovsk, Ukraine, on November 16. (Kostiantin Liberov/Rivkos/Getty Images)
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According to open source data presented by Colonel Antu Kiviserg, head of the Estonian Defense Forces (EDE), Ukrainian forces also managed to repel a Russian attack on Krahov, a town in Dontescu, about 55 miles south of Pokrovsk. There is. Russian troops are trying to surround the town.
“Russian occupation forces are bringing forward all available forces and are trying to break through the defenses of our armed forces,” General Oleksandr Shirushkyi, the commander of Ukraine’s military, said in a Facebook post late Wednesday.
Pokrovsk remains a key Ukrainian defense position in Donetsk, and its fall would not only undermine Kiev’s access to supply routes, but also its ability to continue fending off Russian attempts to seize the entire region.
The growing sense of crisis that Ukraine is feeling in Donetsk coincides with concerns about whether the United States will continue to support Ukraine as the Trump administration is set to take office at the end of January.
President-elect Trump has not said whether he will maintain the continued level of U.S. aid to Ukraine, and in an interview with Time magazine published on Thursday, he said that Kiev would not allow the U.S. to attack targets in Ukraine. criticized the use of ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) supplied by the US Army. Russia.
President Trump said of the Ukraine war: “Anything can happen. Anything can happen. It’s a very volatile situation.” “I think the most dangerous thing right now is that (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskiy has decided, with (President Biden’s) approval, to start launching missiles at Russia. I think this is a huge escalation. I think that’s a stupid decision. ”
On Thursday, Ukrainian soldiers were seen with assault rifles in Ukraine’s Chernihiv Oblast during a training exercise against Russian sabotage groups. (Maksim Kishka/Suspirin Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC”/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
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In November, Biden abandoned his longstanding opposition to using U.S.-supplied missiles in Ukraine to attack Russian military targets, following a long-standing plea from Kiev.
Mr. Zelensky, along with other U.S. security experts, said Ukraine should be able to attack Russia amid years of deadly aggression, and that he should be able to launch a large-scale missile and drone campaign targeting Ukrainian civilians. It has argued that attacking used weapons depots and Russian military positions is crucial to changing the situation. The flow of war.
