New strikes target Ukraine’ s utilities

Ukrainian officials reported a new barrage of Russian missile strikes across the country yesterday, an attack that was anticipated as Russia seeks to disable Ukraine’s energy supplies and infrastructure with the approach of winter.

There were reports of explosions in cities including Odesa, Cherkasy and Kryvyi Rih.

Odesa’s water company said a missile strike cut power to pumping stations, leaving the entire city without water.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, drove a truck across a bridge linking his country to the Crimean Peninsula following its repair from a bombing in October that had embarrassed Moscow.

Mr Putin’s journey over the Kerch Strait was an important sign that Russia was able to repair the span quickly after a truck bomb severed a key link from annexed Crimea to the mainland.

Russia blamed Ukrainian military intelligence and responded with waves of strikes on Ukraine’s energy facilities and other key infrastructure.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ihnat, said Russia launched land-based missiles from southern Russia and shipborne missiles from the Caspian and Black seas. Russian strategic bombers also launched missiles, he said.

Earlier yesterday, Russian media reported that explosions had rocked two air bases in Russia.

Neither Ukrainian nor Russian authorities immediately commented on the possible cause.

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said three servicemen were killed and six others injured when a fuel truck exploded at an air base in Ryazan in western Russia.

Separately, authorities in the Saratov region said they were checking reports about an explosion in the area of the Engels air base, which houses Tu-95 and Tu-160 strategic bombers that have been involved in launching strikes on Ukraine. Those bombers are capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

Asked whether Vladimir Putin had been briefed about the Engels base explosion, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the president was being regularly informed of developments.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, mocked the Russians over the apparent drone attack on Engels, stopping short of claiming responsibility.

“The Earth is round – discovery made by Galileo. Astronomy was not studied in Kremlin, giving preference to court astrologers. If it was, they would know: if something is launched into other countries’ airspace, sooner or later unknown flying objects will return to departure point,” he tweeted.

Meanwhile, Western countries began imposing a $60-per-barrel price cap and a ban on some types of Russian oil yesterday, part of new measures aimed at further stepping up the pressure on Moscow.

The move has prompted a rejection from the Kremlin and also criticism from President Zelensky, whose government wants the cap to be half as high.

The EU has also imposed an embargo on Russian oil shipped by sea.

Russia, the world’s second biggest oil producer, relies on the sale of oil and gas to underpin its economy, which has already come under sweeping international sanctions since Mr Putin launched his war against Ukraine back in February.

ABLAZE: A house fire rages following a Russian missile attack on recently liberated Kherson in Ukraine.