Russia’s attacks against Ukrainian towns and infrastructure — which began in October, in retaliation for the advances in the Kiev counteroffensive — have experienced one of their hardest days this Wednesday, with at least a dozen fatalities. Different regions of the country have once again suffered massive bombardments and, once again, energy infrastructures have been the target of missiles, denounced the kyiv authorities. In addition to the dozen deaths in different regions, there have been power, water and mobile phone outages; and three of the nuclear power plants have had to be stopped.
The different alerts that arrive from practically the entire country indicate that, for the fifth time, the same script has been repeated. Russia launched it with the launch of projectiles on October 10 and 11 —after the sabotage of the Kerch Strait bridge, which links the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea with Russia— and has been repeating it until the worst of them all. , with a hundred missiles, on Tuesday, November 15, an attack that caused damage to up to 15 essential points for the supply of water and electricity to the population. That day, however, did not leave as many fatalities as this Wednesday. “The terrorist state continues to fight against civilians and civilian facilities,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday morning, when only the attacks in Zaporizhia and Kharkiv had taken place. Hours later, the Ukrainian president called for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council over the bombings.
The city of kyiv has been one of the targets and at least three people have died, according to military and municipal sources. The police have provided images of one of the places where a corpse appears at the time of being removed. An important part of the capital, which before the Russian invasion had three million inhabitants, has been left without water and electricity supply. The mayor, Vitali Klischko, has asked the citizens to supply themselves with water and has reported that the technicians are trying to repair the damage caused by the bombardment. Klischko has assured that of the 31 missiles launched on kyiv, the Ukrainian forces have managed to shoot down 21. A projectile has also hit a residential building in Vishgorod, on the outskirts of the capital, where medical and emergency services have been sent. , as a witness told EL PAÍS. The result is at least four deaths, according to sources from the Ministry of the Interior.
The decrease in power has forced an emergency disconnection of the Rivne, South Ukraine and Jemelnitsky nuclear power plants, according to the state company Energoatom. As for the one in Zaporizhia, it works off the grid, solely thanks to diesel generators, according to the same source.
One of the presidential advisers, Mikhailo Podoliak, has used black humor on Twitter referring to this new “massive attack”: “While someone is waiting for the results of the World Cup and the number of goals scored, the Ukrainians are waiting for another result: the number of intercepted Russian missiles”.
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While someone is waiting for World Cup results and the number of goals scored, Ukrainians are waiting for another score – number of intercepted Russian missiles. A new massive attack on 🇺🇦 infrastructure facilities is underground. In NASAMS, IRIS-T and Air Defense Forces we trust.
— Mihaylo Podolyak (@Podolyak_M) November 23, 2022
The problem is that, after the massive attacks launched by Russia since October, 50% of energy infrastructures have been damaged. Even before these bombings, there were widespread interruptions in the supply because the network is not capable of supporting the increase in consumption, since temperatures are dropping these days with the arrival of the first snow. Outages do not happen only in kyiv. The attacks on Wednesday have also left parts of other major cities like Kharkov, in the east, without power; Odessa, in the south; Lviv, in the west, and Chernihiv, in the north. Coinciding with the shelling in the early afternoon, the neighboring country of Moldova has also suffered a widespread blackout. The Telegram groups for which residents in different regions are organized also warn of blackouts and problems with mobile phones in Poltava, Vinitsia, Fremenchug, as well as in the city of Krivi Rih. In Dnipro, the lack of network power is also behind the problems of power outages and water.
Missiles hit a maternity hospital in Zaporizhia
The early morning began with attacks in the east of the country, in the Zaporizhia and Kharkov regions. A shell hit a Zaporizhia hospital there, killing a recently born baby, according to authorities. His mother and one of the doctors were injured. “Our hearts are full of pain: a baby, who has just come into this world, has been killed,” lamented the governor, Oleksandr Staruj, through his Telegram account. The impact partially destroyed the hospital located in Vilniansk, some 20 kilometers northeast of the center of the city of Zaporizhia, capital of this homonymous region that is partially in Russian hands. By late afternoon on Wednesday, all the regional districts had problems with the supply of electricity, water and communications through mobile phones.
Also at dawn two people were killed in the attack on a block of flats in the town of Kupiansk, east of the Kharkiv region. It is an enclave that was liberated from Russian occupation last September, but is still frequently attacked by invading troops.
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