Chattanooga Times Free Press

Ukraine restores power as it recovers from Russian barrage

- BY KARL RITTER AND MSTYSLAV CHERNOV

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s capital had most of its power supply restored Friday, officials said, as the country again responded swiftly and defiantly to the latest Russian missile and drone barrage targeting critical infrastruc­ture.

In what has become a familiar Russian tactic since early October, the Kremlin’s forces struck Ukraine from afar Thursday while the ground battles in the country’s east largely remained mired in a grinding stalemate.

The apparent aim of attacking power stations and other infrastruc­ture is to weaken Ukraine’s resolve and compel the Ukrainian government to negotiate peace on Moscow’s terms.

Ukrainian authoritie­s scrambled to counter the consequenc­es of the latest bombardmen­t, part of a recurring cycle of urban smash-and-repair that has brought little change in the course of the war, which recently entered its second year.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in an assessment that “these missile strikes will not undermine Ukraine’s will or improve Russia’s positions on the front lines.”

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said the Russians are striking civilian infrastruc­ture, because they can’t efficientl­y target Ukrainian military assets.

“The Russians lack data about the location of Ukrainian troops and weapons, so they are targeting civilian infrastruc­ture and using the same old methods of attacking civilians to sow fear and panic in the society,” he said. “Ukraine has survived the winter and Russia’s strikes on the energy system in the spring hardly make any sense.”

Power and water were restored in Kyiv, said Serhii Popko, the head of the city’s military administra­tion. Popko said that about 30% of consumers in the capital remained without heating and that repair work was ongoing.

Power supplies were fully restored in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, private provider DTEK said Friday afternoon.

Around 60% of households in the city of Kharkiv that were knocked off grid by Russia’s missile strikes on Thursday were also back online, authoritie­s said, though significan­t damage remained in the Zhytomyr and Kharkiv regions in Ukraine’s northwest and northeast.

In another sign of normality quickly returning, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin made an unannounce­d visit to Kyiv on Friday.

Marin accompanie­d President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and senior military officers at the funeral of one of Ukrain’e best-known fighters and commanders who was killed in fighting near the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut.

The service for Dmytro Kotsiubail­o, killed a few days earlier at the age of 27, was held at the cathedral of Kyiv’s St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery. Many of the thousands of mourners clutched flowers, and the crowd knelt in silence as Kotsiubail­o’s coffin was carried out of the church toward Maidan Square.

Zelenskyy and Marin also laid flowers at a nearby memorial to fallen Ukrainian soldiers.

The prime minister echoed other Western leaders who have accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine and said Russian soldiers and leaders would be held accountabl­e in a courtroom.

“Putin knows he will have to answer for his crime of aggression,” the Finnish leader said during a news conference. “The future tribunal must bring justice efficientl­y and answer Ukrainians’ rightful demands.”

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