Russia steps up onslaught

RUSSIA again unleashed missiles yesterday against Ukrainian energy facilities, while its forces stepped up attacks in eastern Ukraine, reinforced by troops pulled from Kherson city in the south, which Kyiv recaptured last week.

As the winter’s first snow fell in Kyiv, authorities said they were working hard to restore power nationwide after Russia earlier this week unleashed what Ukraine said was the heaviest bombardment of civilian infrastructure of the nine-month war.

Explosions resounded in cities including the southern port of Odesa, the capital Kyiv, the central city of Dnipro and the south-eastern region of Zaporizhzhia, where officials said two people were killed. At least 15 people were wounded in Dnipro, three were hurt in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv and at least one was injured in Odesa.

State energy company Naftogaz said gas production facilities in eastern Ukraine had been damaged or destroyed. Other sites struck included the huge Pivdenmash defence plant in Dnipro. The UN humanitarian office warned of a serious humanitarian crisis in Ukraine this winter.

On a happier note, a deal aimed at easing global food shortages by facilitating Ukraine’s agricultural exports from its southern Black Sea ports was extended for 120 days, though Moscow said its own demands were yet to be fully addressed.

President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, which helped forge the Black Sea grain deal, said he had been informed after US-Russia talks in Ankara earlier this week aimed at reducing tensions over Ukraine that neither party would use nuclear weapons. The Kremlin later said that no Russian officials were considering the use of nuclear weapons. It also accused Kyiv of moving the goalposts regarding possible peace talks and called on Washington to push Ukraine towards diplomacy.