Ukraine imposed electricity restrictions on Thursday after Russia carried out several airstrikes on its critical infrastructure, AFP reported, citing authorities. Russian missile attacks and bombing of energy infrastructure on Wednesday left more Ukrainian villages, larger settlements and parts of two cities without electricity, Ukrainian officials said, as quoted by the Associated Press. In this way, Moscow has further tightened the energy noose with which it puts pressure on the country and threatens millions of people with suffering during the winter, the agency notes.
“Tomorrow, October 20, 2022, electricity restrictions will be introduced throughout Ukraine”announced this evening on “Telegram” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Deputy Head of the Office of President Volodymyr Zelensky. He called Ukrainians yes “minimize their consumption” of electricity. Otherwise there will be “temporary interruptions” on the buckle, warned Tymoshenko.
Zelensky said yesterday that Russia has destroyed about 30 percent of Ukraine’s electricity generation capacity since October 10. Over 1,000 Ukrainian settlements are without electricity.
In this context, Spain announced today that it will send five electric generators to Ukraine. These are four 400-kilowatt generators and one 150-kilowatt generator, the Spanish Defense Ministry announced in a statement, quoted by France Press.
On Wednesday, the shelling cut off electricity and water supplies to parts of the city of Energodar, the city mayor, Dmytro Orlov said. The southern Ukrainian city is located near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is one of the hottest spots in the conflict in the nearly eight-month invasion.
The missiles caused severe damage to an energy plant in the Kryvyi Rih city region, the district governor announced. According to him, the electricity supply to villages and cities has been cut off.
Zelensky thanked Ukrainian soldiers who shot down Iranian-made missiles and drones aimed at energy infrastructure sites. In his evening video speech, he said that saving electricity during rush hour would help “the whole country”. The president added that a newly arrived German air defense system is already doing well against Russian attacks.
“The Russian call for help from Iran is a recognition by the Kremlin of its military and political bankruptcy,” Zelensky also said in his video speech. Russia has spent billions on its military industrial complex for decades, but now it has to rely on Tehran’s “relatively simple drones and missiles,” he added. Hitting Ukraine with whole swarms of these drones may give the Russians tactical hope, but “it won’t help them strategically in any way,” Zelensky said.
In recent days, the Russian military has increasingly used Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones to target the Ukrainian energy system, as well as Ukrainian cities, DPA points out. Both Moscow and Tehran deny having reached an agreement on drones. Iran has sent instructors to Russia-annexed Crimea to teach Russians how to use Iranian drones, according to a New York Times report yesterday, citing current and former intelligence officials familiar with the matter.
Ukraine discusses its energy security amid Russian air strikes
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the safety of energy plants with high-ranking officials following Russian airstrikes on the country’s energy infrastructure, Reuters reported.
He gave few details on the “strategic meeting”, merely saying that measures were discussed to “neutralize the consequences in the event of a breakdown of the Ukrainian energy system”.
“We are working on the creation of mobile points to power the critical infrastructure of populated areas,” Zelensky wrote in “Telegram”. “We are preparing for various scenarios with possible consequences. Ukraine will defend itself. No matter what the enemy plans and does.”
The governor of the Ivano-Frankivsk region, Svetlana Onishchuk, said in an online statement that a Russian missile attack hit “a thermal power plant in Burshtin, causing a fire”. According to her, no one was injured in the impact.
Ukrainian authorities also reported ongoing Russian missile attacks in the Vinnytsia city area, the DPA reported.
A reporter from the agency said explosions were also heard in the area of the capital Kiev. At the moment, there is no information on destruction and casualties.
The Ukrainian army claimed that Russia launched missiles and combat drones from the territory of Belarus against the Kiev region. There is information on the interception of two Russian missiles in the area of the city of Chernigov.
About 50 employees of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant are in Russian captivity
The president of the Ukrainian nuclear company “Energoatom” Petro Kotin announced today that about 50 employees of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant (ZAEP) are currently in Russian captivity, Ukrinform reported.
In a statement to the AFP, Kotin said that since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russia has arrested about 150 employees of the nuclear power plant it occupies in the Zaporozhye region of southeastern Ukraine. According to him, some of them were later released, but “there are also those whose fate is still unknown”.
On October 17, the occupants arrested and led in an unknown direction the head of the information technology service of ZAPP Oleg Kostyukov and the assistant to the general manager of the plant Oleg Oshek, notes Ukrinform.
Russia says it has rejected a Ukrainian attempt to take over the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant
Russia said Ukrainian forces tried to regain control of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, but their attempt was rejected after several hours of fighting, Reuters reported, citing state news agency RIA Novosti. .
“After the bombing of the city, an attempt was made to land, including an attempt to capture the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The battle lasted several hours, at least three to three and a half hours,” said the head of the club appointed by the Russians administration, Vladimir Rogov. He added that the attack was “repulsed” and no less than 30 Ukrainian boats participated (the Zaporozka nuclear power plant is located on the banks of the Kakhov reservoir on the Dnieper River, ed.). Reuters notes that it has not been able to confirm the reliability of the information from independent sources.
The Russian-appointed local administration in the city of Energodar reported that the administration building and the city’s infrastructure were hit by an American “Hymars” rocket system, TASS reported. Damaged a bridge at the entrance to the city and an electrical substation. There is no information on the victims.
A new phase of the war
According to the New York Times, Ukrainians face shortages of electricity, water and heating as the Russian bombing of civilian sites and infrastructure leaves millions of people facing the prospect of a harsh winter without access to basic services.
The Russian bombing heralds a new phase of the war, the publication says. Although the Kremlin forces cannot achieve success on the battlefield, they increasingly seek to inflict suffering from a distance. Civilians and infrastructure have been targets since the invasion began, but Russia has significantly increased strikes deep inside Ukraine, focusing on vital networks of service infrastructure, the collapse of which would lead to a new kind of disaster. humanitarian there, the New York Times commented. ”.
Britain and the United States have had urgent talks over Russia’s use of Iranian kamikaze drones, writes the British “Telegraph” edition. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace arrived in Washington for an emergency meeting with his American counterpart last night to discuss Russia’s use of drones to attack Kiev, the paper said. The Telegraph notes that the conversation between the two ministers was described by one source as a “planning meeting” and part of preparations to respond to the Russian aggression.
Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure are pure terror, Von der Leyen said
Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine are war crimes and pure terror, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament today. She noted that the purpose of these actions is to keep the Ukrainians without heating and water.
According to her, Russian President Vladimir Putin is waging an energy war. The best response to gas extortion is unity and empathy, added Von der Leyen.
He reported that compared to September last year, Russian gas supplies to the EU via pipelines fell by 80%. We did not give in to this blackmail, we resisted and we should be proud, said the president of the EC. Von der Leyen reported that these shocks lead to an increase in energy bills and a decrease in the competitiveness of European companies.
Among the possible solutions, von der Leyen indicated that EU countries buy gas together and share gas. He noted that there are still too few bilateral gas trading agreements between neighboring European countries, so the EU must introduce mandatory rules.
