Kyiv rushes to make repairs after wave of Russian strikes
Ukrainian utility crews were working to repair new and significant damage to the country’s energy grid, officials said Saturday, after Russia launched a swarm of Iranian- made attack drones overnight on the heels of a huge barrage of cruise missiles, anti- aircraft missiles and drones on cities across Ukraine.
The attacks were another blow to Ukraine’s battered power grid, which Russia repeatedly has targeted in what military analysts say is a strategy of plunging the country into cold and darkness to lower morale.
The strikes, the first heavy aerial assault in weeks, occurred as fighting on the ground has intensified, with Ukrainian officials saying that Russian forces are mounting a major new push to seize control of the entire Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
Air- defense systems destroyed 20 of the Shahed- 136 drones from 6 p. m. to midnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement early Saturday. But three energy facilities in the Dnipro region of southeastern Ukraine were hit, including one in Kryvyi Rih for the second time in a day.
“They targeted our critical infrastructure,” Serhii Lysak, the head of the regional military administration, said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app, calling the damage “significant.”
Drones were shot down over the southern regions of Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa, The Kyiv Independent reported, citing the Ukrainian military’s southern command.
The drone attack occurred after Russian forces fired more than 100 missiles in a day of strikes across Ukraine, in what Russia’s Defense Ministry and the Ukrainian air force described as a “massive” assault. Twelve people were injured across the country, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, and the state- owned power utility said that several thermal and hydroelectric power plants had been hit.
The company, Ukrenergo, on Saturday called the situation “difficult but under control,” saying that power rationing had been put in place in some areas
and that repair work was continuing.
Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine, was hard- hit, according to officials. The head of the regional military administration, Oleh Syniehubov, on Saturday cited “extensive” damage to infrastructure and said that emergency power shutdowns would be in place for “several days.”
The attacks also disrupted operations at Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, according to the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog. It said late Friday that “instability in the electrical grid” had caused a reactor unit at the Khmelnytskyi plant in western Ukraine to shut down, and that the power output at two others plants had been reduced as a precautionary measure.
As the war nears its anniversary, Russia has been pouring troops and equipment into eastern Ukraine, in the early stage of what Ukrainian and Western officials say is expected to be a major offensive.
Ukraine’s Western allies have been rushing to provide more powerful weapons so that Kyiv can mount its own offensive. The government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reiterated its calls for even more arms — and faster delivery.
Zelenskyy said he had received “good signals” from allies when he pressed his case for heavier weapons on a rare international trip this past week to London, Paris and Brussels.
“This applies both to longrange missiles and tanks, and to the next level of our cooperation — combat aircraft,” he said Friday in his nightly address. “But we still need to work on this.”
John Kirby, a White House spokesperson, on Friday predicted that the coming weeks and months would be “difficult and critical” for Ukraine. He said that although he had yet to see a major new offensive take shape, “we’re anticipating that and, frankly, so are the Ukrainians.”
The United States believes Russian President Vladimir Putin will “take advantage” of the winter months to “restock, resupply, rearm” for what could be renewed offensive operations in the spring, Kirby said at a news briefing Friday.
“As the weather improves, the fighting will probably get more vicious,” he said.
In recent weeks, some of the fiercest fighting has centered on the Russian- occupied city of Kreminna and the Ukrainianheld city of Bakhmut, which are about 30 miles apart in the Donbas region.
Ukraine’s military said Saturday that Bakhmut — where Moscow’s troops have been slowly closing in on vital supply lines — remained the main focus of Russian forces, with 124 strikes and 54 “clashes” in the area over the past day.
Moscow sees the city, which it has been bombarding since the summer, as a crucial step toward its goal of taking all of Donbas.
Gen. Valerii Zaluzhny, the top commander of Ukraine’s armed
forces, said Saturday that he had discussed the fierce fighting in the east and overall battlefield picture in a phone call with Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“Despite constant enemy pressure, we continue to hold Bakhmut under our control and take measures to stabilize the front line around this town,” he said in a statement, adding that the “key to success” would be “an appropriate amount of weapons, equipment and ammunition.”
Bakhmut’s strategic value, military analysts say, is as a crossroads for some of the region’s highways. Capturing the city would not guarantee that Russia could make major advances in the east, but it would better position its forces to do so.
The battle for the city has been one of the bloodiest of the war, billed as a “meat grinder” for the heavy casualties suffered on both sides. Russia’s efforts there were for some time largely spearheaded by fighters from the Wagner private military
company, which has recruited prisoners into its ranks. Its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is a close associate of Putin’s and is seen as wanting a victory in Bakhmut to boost his political standing in Russia.
But with the fight grinding on, and Moscow eager to notch its first significant battlefield victory in months, the Kremlin in recent weeks has been flooding the area with troops. Analysts say that regular Russian forces are increasingly prominent around Bakhmut.
In a rare video interview released Friday, Prigozhin predicted that it could be some time before Moscow achieves its military aims in the Donbas region. “We will need to work for one and a half to two years,” he told Semyon Pegov, a Russian military blogger.
Prigozhin also urged patience when it came to Bakhmut.
“It is probably too early to say that we are close,” Prigozhin said, noting that Ukraine’s military had been sending in additional units. But, he added, “we are managing very well.”