Moscow’s response to the Ukrainian attacks on Kherson has been unleashed by the Ukranian military for refusing to leave the country
Russia said Thursday that it would help evacuated residents of Kherson to other parts of the country. The announcement came shortly after the head of the Moscow-backed administration in Kherson appealed to the Kremlin for help moving residents out of harm’s way, in the latest indication that Russian forces were struggling in the face of Ukrainian advances.
The Defense Ministry said Russian troops were withdrawn from more favorable positions in order to help the Ukrainians in the battle. The air force of the Ukrainian Government said that it moved into Lyman and the Ukrainian President’s chief of staff uploaded photos of a Ukrainian flag being flown on the outskirts.
Sitting was not an option for Putin, who was consumed with self-interest. He responded in the only way he knows how, by unleashing more death and destruction, with the force that probably comes natural to a former KGB operative.
Ukrainian troops hoist the country’s flag above a building in Vysokopillya, in the southern Kherson region, last month. The Ukrainian government says they have liberated hundreds of settlements since their counter-offensive began.
Combined attack from the Kupiansk and Kharkiv rebelliations and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on the Crimean peninsula
The leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, blamed the retreat, without evidence, on one general being “covered up for by higher-up leaders in the General Staff.” He called for “more drastic measures.”
Meanwhile, on the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula, the governor of the city of Sevastopol announced an emergency situation at an airfield there. Explosions and huge billows of smoke could be seen from a distance by beachgoers in the Russian-held resort. Authorities said a plane rolled off the runway at the Belbek airfield and ammunition that was reportedly on board caught fire.
The large-scale Russian bombardment struck several cities – including far reaches of western Ukraine close to NATO’s eastern flank – across the country almost simultaneously, propelling the conflict into a new phase and coming just as much of the country was starting to roar back to life.
The fighting has been focused on northern regions of the peninsula. Zelenskyy was upset by the attack in a Telegram post.
The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, said 24 civilians were killed in an attack this week on a convoy trying to flee the Kupiansk district. He called it “сruelty that can’t be justified.” 13 children and a pregnant woman were among the dead, he said.
The Security Service of Ukraine, the secret police force known by the acronym SBU, posted photographs of the attacked convoy. The truck which had been blown up was still in the bed, with burned corpses in it. Another vehicle at the front of the convoy also had been ablaze. Bodies lay on the side of the road or still inside vehicles, which appeared pockmarked with bullet holes.
Strikes hit multiple Ukrainian regions: A total of 84 cruise missiles were fired at Ukraine Monday along with a number of attack drones, Ukrainian officials say, adding that the military destroyed 56 of the Russian weapons. In at least eight regions and the city of Kyiv, more than 30 fires broke out in the critical infrastructure facilities that were mostly energy supply facilities. The attacks left at least 11 people dead and 64 injured.
The director-general of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Ihor Murashov, was seized by Russian forces in an attempt to secure Moscow’s hold on newly annexed territory.
Russia did not publicly comment on the report. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Russia told it that “the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was temporarily detained to answer questions.”
Repair work to fix infrastructure facilities across Ukraine is ongoing. Ukrenergo, the state-run energy operator, said in a statement that power plants were temporarily shut down in late November due to missiles sent by Moscow.
The region was annexed by Russia last month despite the fact that 20% is still under Ukrainian military control.
Since Biden was elected, the US has provided over $60 billion in aid, yet only Republicans opposed the most recent aid package.
Russian troops reclaimed control of Donetsk and Kherson after the Ukrainian attack on July 24, 2014 in a joint effort between Kyiv and Russia
Hours after the president of Ukranian announced that the country’s military had wrested control of three more villages from Russia in one of the regions annexed by Russia, the strikes came.
Governor Oleksandr Starukh wrote on his Telegram channel that many people were rescued from the multi-story buildings, including a 3-year-old girl who was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Rogov also said that Ukrainians “have concentrated significant number of militants in Zaporizhzhia direction” and that the risk of storming the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant “remains high”.
Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, plans to talk with Ukrainian officials about the Russian move. A secure protection zone around the facility has been set up after staff were taken by Russian troops, and some of them were injured in the fighting.
The leaders from more than 40 countries are in the Czech Republic to launch the European Political Community on Thursday to boost security and prosperity across the continent.
The territories that will be reclaimed are certain, and we will keep talking to residents who are eager to embrace Russia, said the Kremlin spokesman.
Although the borders of the areas Moscow claims are not clear, Putin has vowed to protect Russia’s territory with nuclear weapons.
Oleksii Hromov, a senior Ukrainian military official, said last week that Kyiv’s forces have recaptured some 120 settlements since late September as they advance in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson regions. On Wednesday, Ukraine said it had liberated more five settlements in its slow but steady push in Kherson.
The deputy head of the Ukrainian regional government says there are many wounded Russian soldiers in military hospitals and that the Russian medics don’t have enough supplies. Once they are stabilized, Russian soldiers are being sent to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
When Russian troops pulled back from the Donetsk city of Lyman over the weekend, they retreated so rapidly that they left behind the bodies of their comrades. Some people are still on the side of the road near the city.
Lyman sustained heavy damage both during the occupation and as Ukrainian soldiers fought to retake it. The elderly man who gave only his first name was among the residents who lined up for aid.
Zelenskyy’s Nightly Address to the Russians in Afghanistan: The Case of Donald Putin and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
“We want the war to come to an end, the pharmacy and shops and hospitals to start working as they used to,” he said. “Now we don’t have anything yet. Everything has been destroyed and pillaged.
In his nightly address, Zelenskyy warned the Moscow leadership that they have already lost the war that they launched on February 24.
Editor’s Note: Peter Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst, a vice president at New America, and a professor of practice at Arizona State University. Bergen is the author of The Cost of Chaos. The views he gives are his own. CNN has more opinion on it.
Donald Trump publicly stated on February 22, two days before Russia’s invasion, that Russian autocrat Putin was a genius and savvy for moving his troops in a way that would allow for an independent eastern region of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian counteroffensive has seized some key pockets of Russian-controlled territory such as the transportation hub city of Lyman, a development which has deepened the problems of Putin.
With his allies expressing concern, and hundreds of thousands of citizens fleeing partial mobilization, an increasingly isolated Putin has once again taken to making vague and distorted speeches about his view of history.
(Indeed, his revisionist account defines his rationale for the war in Ukraine, which he asserts has historically always been part of Russia – even though Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union more than three decades ago.)
When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, they planned to install a puppet government and get out of the country as soon as it was feasible, as explained in a recent, authoritative book about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, “Afghan Crucible” by historian Elisabeth Leake.
During the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, the US was initially reluctant to escalate its support for the Afghan resistance, fearing a wider conflict with the Soviet Union. It took until 1986 for the CIA to arm the Afghans with highly effective anti-aircraft Stinger missiles, which ended the Soviets’ total air superiority, eventually forcing them to withdraw from Afghanistan three years later.
Many incoming missiles were shot down by the Ukrainian air defense systems provided by NATO, which makes the air defense systems more effective.
The Greatest Heroes: Putin and the Russian Revolution in 1917 and 1991 – a tragic example of the delusions and illusions of one individual
The withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1995 may have been the cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Russian loss in 1905 weakened the Romanov monarchy, so he must be aware of that. Czar Nicholas II’s feckless leadership during the First World War then precipitated the Russian Revolution in 1917. Subsequently, much of the Romanov family was killed by a Bolshevik firing squad.
More than seven months into the war, the “genius” myth has unraveled. During the past two weeks, at least 200,000 Russian men have voted with their feet to flee Putin’s partial mobilization order. They understand – despite the Herculean efforts of Putin’s propagandists – that this war is a bloodbath Russia is losing.
Freedman writes that Putin is “a tragic example of how the delusions and illusions of one individual can be allowed to shape events without any critical challenge. The autocrats who put their cronies into key positions, control the media to crowd out voices… are able to command their subordinates to follow foolish orders.
In 1917 and 1991 the Russian empire became dissolved after the fall of the Soviet Union due to a gamble by Putin.
The destruction of the Nikopol nuclear power plant in Enerhodar, Ukraine, following Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
The barrage continued on a day when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to human rights activists in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, an implicit rebuke to Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin, for his invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials said that the rockets at Nikopol caused damage to power lines and gas lines, as well as a raft of civilian businesses and residential buildings. Russia and Ukraine have been involved in a dispute over the past few months over firing at and around the nuclear plant. It is run by the pre-occupation Ukrainian staff.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog condemned the shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been disconnected from the Ukrainian power grid.
The International Atomic Energy Agency Director General said that the resumed shelling was irresponsible.
What Russian officials say: The plant can be put back into operation, said Vladimir Rogov, who is a senior pro-Russian official in the regional Zaporizhzhia government.
Crews restored power and cellular connection in Enerhodar, the city near Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that is currently under Russian control, a senior official said Sunday.
In a telegram Sunday, Rogov wrote that the water supply would be restored soon.
Orlov said “the Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly tried to deliver humanitarian supplies with food, hygiene products and so on to the city,” adding that Ukraine is “ready to organize prompt delivery and distribution of drinking water in Enerhodar” but that Russian forces have not let humanitarian aid through.
After the bombardment of Ukraine began on Monday, Mr. Putin said he had ordered it in retaliation for a truck-bombing that badly damaged the vital Kerch Strait Bridge connecting Russia to the occupied Crimea Peninsula. Moscow has tried to minimize the impact of the attack, but new satellite imagery suggests that it has, in fact, been substantial.
Surveillance video posted by Russian media shows a single truck driving from mainland Russia toward Crimea before a flash of light swallows he bridge. Photos posted by independent media outlets show at least three collapsed road spans resting crookedly on piers in the shallow water.
“We have already established the route of the truck,” he said, adding that it had been to Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia and Krasnodar — a region in southern Russia — among other places.
KamLAND and Moscow haven’t responded strongly to the attacks on Russian cities – even after the first Russian Prime Minister, Vasiliev Putin, he tweeted
Klitschko’s office says several residential buildings were damaged. He added that rescuers pulled 18 people from the rubble of one building and are looking for two more. Many of the city’s central streets are closed for emergency services to respond.
A woman and her husband were in a hallway of their apartment when they heard air raid sirens. The explosion shook the building and sent their possessions flying. Lazunko wept as the couple surveyed the damage to their home of nearly five decades.
About 3 kilometers (2 miles) away in another neighborhood ravaged by a missile, three volunteers dug a shallow grave for a German shepherd killed in the strike, the dog’s leg blown away by the blast.
Abbas Gallyamov, an independent Russian political analyst and a former speechwriter for Putin, said the Russian president, who formed a committee Saturday to investigate the bridge explosion, had not responded forcefully enough to satisfy angry war hawks. He said the response inspired the opposition while the loyalists were demoralized.
He said that it demoralizes them when the authorities say everything is going well and we’re winning.
Ukrainian protests against the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant lost in a massive air-strike explosion on Sunday
Hardwiring newly claimed territory with expensive, record-breaking infrastructure projects seems to be a penchant of dictators. Putin personally opened the bridge by driving a truck across it. One of the first things Beijing did after gaining control over Macau and Hong Kong was to connect the two territories with the worlds longest sea crossing bridge. The $20 billion, 34-mile road bridge opened after about two years of delays.
Crimea is a popular vacation resort for Russians. People trying to drive to the bridge and onto the Russian mainland on Sunday encountered hours-long traffic jams.
The key towns areneighboring towns on the front line. Soledar and Bakhmut, where extremely heavy fighting continues,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address Sunday.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant lost its last external power source early Saturday following shelling, but was restored to the grid by Sunday according to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Multiple explosions rocked Kyiv and several other Ukrainian cities reported blasts and power outages on Monday morning, as Russia lashed out with a massive wave of violent airstrikes that carried echoes of the initial days of its invasion.
The emergency services said there was no power in parts of Kyiv, Lviv, Sumy, Ternopil and Khmelnytsky.
Russian rocket attack on a municipal mayor’s building: China and India condemn air strikes and “de-escalation of hostilities”
China and India also call for de-escalation: After the strikes, China expressed hope that the situation in Ukraine will “de-escalated soon.” India has said it is “deeply concerned” by the escalation of the conflict and said that “escalation of hostilities is in no one’s interest,” urging an “immediate cessation of hostilities” and return to the “path of dialogue. ” Other European leaders have also condemned the attack.
This week’s air strikes may point towards that endeavor; Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko told CNN that around 30% of energy infrastructure in Ukraine was hit by Russian missiles on Monday and Tuesday. The minister stated that this was the first time since the beginning of the war that Russia has attacked energy infrastructure.
Putin said in a brief television appearance on Monday that it was impossible to leave crimes unanswered. Russia will respond harshly to terrorist attacks on its territory if they continue and will correspond with the level of threats to the Russian Federation.
The rocket attack on the municipal mayor’s building caused significant damage. There were rows of blown-out windows in the building, which was filled with clouds of smoke. Cars nearby were burned out. There were no injuries or deaths immediately. Kyiv didn’t claim responsibility or comment on the attack.
For several hours on Monday morning Kyiv’s subway system was suspended, with underground stations serving as bunkers. Rescue workers attempted to pull people from the rubble of the air raid alert that was lifted at midday.
Ukrainian Attack on the Bridge: Putin’s Special Forces and the Status of the State of the Economic Security in the Context of the War in Ukraine
According to the Prime Minister of the Ukraine, as of 11 a.m. local time, there were 11 critical infrastructure facilities that have been damaged.
The Security Council of Putin held an operational meeting on Monday, after he called the blasts on the bridge a terrorist attack and said the organizers were Ukrainian special services.
The Russian-appointed head of annexed Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, said he had “good news” Monday, claiming that Russia’s approaches to what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine “have changed.”
“I have been saying from the first day of the special military operation that if such actions to destroy the enemy’s infrastructure had been taken every day, we would have finished everything in May and the Kyiv regime would have been defeated,” he added.
“”The enemy can attack our cities, but it won’t be able to break us. The occupiers will get only fair punishment and condemnation of future generations, and we will get victory,” wrote Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
NATO leaders have said they will stand behind Ukrainians regardless of how long the conflict lasts, but many European countries that depend on Russian energy face a crisis if there is not some signs of progress on the battlefield.
“Again, Putin is massively terrorizing innocent civilians in Kyiv and other cities,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said. “[The Netherlands] condemns these heinous acts. Putin doesn’t seem to comprehend that the will of the Ukrainian people is not negotiable.
The war is getting worse and, as always, civilians are paying the highest price, according to the UN Secretary-General.
Crime against Ukraine: A “gravity threat” to Ukraine’s public transport system and to Kiev’s National Philharmonic and Muscovite Musues
The G7 group of nations will hold an emergency meeting via video conference on Tuesday, the office of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz confirmed to CNN, and Zelensky said on Twitter that he would address that meeting.
“That’s not the kind of thing that the Russians can throw together in a couple days,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told CNN on Monday. This was not in response, but a continuation of Putin’s plans to targetUkrainian civilian infrastructure.
In Kyiv, Ukraine Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko says that at least two museums and the National Philharmonic concert halls sustained heavy damage. A nearby strike damaged the country’s main passenger terminal, delaying trains during this morning’s rush hour, according to Ukraine’s National Railway.
According to the head of the department of transport for the Dnipro city council, lots of public transport were operating in the city at the time of the crash. He added that the bus driver and four passengers had been taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
” It’s very difficult for me to find any logical explanation for their work since all of our transportation is only for civilians,” Makovtsev said.
Zelenskyy’s ‘Ignorance of the Planck Scale’ and its Implications on the Second World War, Revisited
An 81-year-old man, who used to be on his first floor balcony, looks out from the window just next to a bus stop. Shattered glass covered the ground below. He said he had been watering the plants on his balcony just minutes before the blast, but went to his kitchen to make breakfast.
He said the explosion blew open all of his cabinets and nearly knocked him to the ground. I would be on the balcony, full of glass, after just five minutes.
Our enemy believes that missile strikes are effective means of intimidation. They are not. They are war crimes. People are dying and getting injured. The missile terrorists must be brought to justice by the civilized world. And will do it. https://t.co/xXYn3okZOw
Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov wrote that they warned Zelenskyy that Russia hadn’t really started yet.
The Kerch Straight Bridge: A Critical Breakdown of Business Confidence and Self-Sovereignty During the 229th Day of War
Editor’s Note: Michael Bociurkiw (@WorldAffairsPro) is a global affairs analyst. He is currently a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a former spokesman for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He contributes to CNN Opinion. His own opinions are the focus of this commentary. CNN has more opinion.
In the wake of the explosion on the hugely strategic and symbolic Kerch Straight bridge over the weekend, there was a great deal of jubilation here in Ukranian, but fears of a Russian reprisal were never far away.
The significance of the strikes on central Kyiv, and close to the government quarter, cannot be overstated. Western governments should see it as a red line being crossed on this 229th day of war.
The area around my office in Odesa remained quiet during the air raid sirens, with there being reports that three missiles and five drones were shot down. Normally at this time of the day, nearby restaurants would be busy with customers and chatter of upcoming weddings and parties.
Russian attacks this week, combined with the ominous ring of the air raid sirens in Ukrainian cities, shattered the relative calm there.
Businesses have been told to shift work online as much as possible while millions of people will be spending a lot of the day in bomb shelters.
Just as many regions of Ukraine were starting to roar back to life, and with countless asylum seekers returning home, the attacks risk causing another blow to business confidence.
For Putin, the symbolism of the only bridge linking mainland Russia and Crimea cannot be overstated. That the attack took place a day after his 70th birthday (the timing prompted creative social media denizens to create a split-screen video of Marilyn Monroe singing ‘Happy Birthday, Mr President”) can be taken as an added blow to an aging autocrat whose ability to withstand shame and humiliation is probably nil.
The explosion lit up social media in a way like a Christmas tree. Many shared their sense of jubilation via text messages.
Infighting in Kiev During the Ukrainian Invasion: An Interaction Between Russia, the Kremlin, and the State of Emergency Services
It was also an act of selfish desperation: facing increasing criticism at home, including on state-controlled television, has placed Putin on unusually thin ice.
Before Monday’s strikes, the Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, had told Ukrainian journalist Roman Kravets in late August that, “by the end of the year at the minimum we have to enter Crimea” – suggesting a plan to push back Russian forces to pre-2014 lines, which is massively supported by Ukrainians I’ve spoken to.
What is crucially important now is for Washington and other allies to use urgent telephone diplomacy to urge China and India – which presumably still have some leverage over Putin – to resist the urge to use even more deadly weapons.
In addition, defense systems are needed to protect the energy infrastructure around the country. With winter just around the corner, the need to protect heating systems is urgent.
The time has also come for the West to further isolate Russia with trade and travel restrictions – but for that to have sufficient impact, Turkey and Gulf states, which receive many Russian tourists, need to be pressured to come on board.
Anything short of these measures will only allow Putin to continue his senseless violence and further exacerbate a humanitarian crisis that will reverberate throughout Europe. A weak reaction will be viewed as a sign that the Kremlin is still weaponizing energy, migration and food.
At least 19 people were killed and 105 others were injured in Russian missile attacks across Ukraine on Monday, according to preliminary data, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service said Tuesday.
There were at least 30 fires which broke out in the capital, and in 12 regions, according to the emergency services.
Russian missiles damaged a glass-bottomed footbridge in Kyiv that is a popular tourist site, tore into intersections at rush hour and crashed down near a children’s playground on Monday. In places that cut off water supplies and transport in strikes that recalled the terror suffered by civilians during the invasion, power failures rolled around the country, but they have largely ebbed in recent months.
Many city dwellers who spent months in the subways turned into air raid shelters were deprived of the semblance of normal that they had come to know and love.
Putin’s message to Ukraine: “It is up to Putin to protect us!” Kirby told CNN during the rush-hour attack on Ukraine
The message was obvious for the world to see. Putin does not want to be humiliated. He will not admit defeat. And he is quite prepared to inflict civilian carnage and indiscriminate terror in response to his string of battlefield reversals.
The targets on Monday had little military value and, as a result, reflected the need to find new targets for Putin because of his inability to defeat Ukraine on the battlefield.
The bombing of power installations by the Russian President appeared to be a sign that the Russian President will ruin the lives of people as winter sets in.
President Joe Biden Monday spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and offered advanced air systems that would help defend against Russian air attacks, but the White House did not specify exactly what might be sent.
John Kirby, the coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, suggested Washington was looking favorably on Ukraine’s requests and was in touch with the government in Kyiv almost every day. “We do the best we can in subsequent packages to meet those needs,” he told CNN’s Kate Bolduan.
Kirby wasn’t able to say if Putin was changing his strategy from a losing battlefield war to a campaign to attack civilians and damage Ukrainian infrastructure because he didn’t know whether it was a trend that was already in the works.
It was something that they had been planning for a long time. Kirby did not say that the explosion on the bridge might have accelerated some of their planning.
It would be consistent with the resume of the general in charge of the war who served in Chechnya and Syria. In both places, Russia indiscriminately bombarded civilian areas and razed built-up districts and infrastructure and is accused of committing serious human rights violations.
The rush-hour attacks in Ukraine may be the beginning of a new pivot in the conflict.
Retired Lt. Col Alexander Vindman, former director for European Affairs on the National Security Council, said that by attacking targets designed to hurt Ukrainian morale and energy infrastructure, Putin was sending a message about how he will prosecute the war in the coming months.
“So imagine if we had modern equipment, we probably could raise the number of those drones and missiles downed and not kill innocent civilians or wound and injure Ukrainians,” Zhovkva said.
The lesson of this horrible war is that everything Putin has done to fracture a nation he doesn’t believe has the right to exist has only strengthened and unified it.
The mother of three told Anderson Cooper she was angry at the return of violence to the lives of Ukrainians from the new wave of Russian terror.
“This is just another terror to provoke maybe panic, to scare you guys in other countries or to show to his own people that he is still a bloody tyrant, he is still powerful and look what fireworks we can arrange,” she said.
We need to get it done as quickly as possible because after Russia is defeated, we will have our peace back here.
Russia’s state media has maintained for months that the country was only hitting military targets in Ukraine, while millions of civilians have suffered.
On Monday, state television not only reported on the suffering, but also flaunted it. It showed plumes of smoke and carnage in central Kyiv, along with empty store shelves and a long-range forecast promising months of freezing temperatures there.
This week, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told the international community just how much money his country currently needed to rebuild and keep its economy afloat: $57 billion. He gave that figure to the boards of governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Mr. Zelensky said that $17 billion would be needed to rebuild schools, hospitals, transport systems and housing, with $2 billion going toward expanding exports to Europe and restoring Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Five days after the bombing, there are hundreds of cargo trucks backed up and waiting for the ferry to take them to Russia. The images, captured on Wednesday by Maxar Technologies, show a big backup at the port in Kerch and a line of trucks miles away at an airport that is apparently being used as a staging area.
The long lines for the ferry crossing had been made worse by the security checkpoints established after the bridge explosion, said an analyst at the International Crisis Group.
The Crimean Bridge: When a Russian Force Designed to Attack on a Guarded Structure in Ukraine, According to Podolyak
But Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says Ukrainian intelligence believes that Russian forces planned the attack as a pretense to escalate the war in Ukraine.
The bridge incident gave the Russian military an alibi for all of its losses in southern Ukraine, according to Podolyak.
Speaking after an awards ceremony for “Heroes of Russia,” he addressed the group of soldiers receiving the awards. He said of the attacks, “yes, we are doing it. Who started it?
The Russia-bound lanes were shown in new photos that were posted on social media Wednesday. That side of the bridge reopened to traffic only hours after the blast.
The Bellingcat analyst said that there was no evidence of blast damage to the bridge, rejecting a popular theory that a naval operation destroyed it.
Ukraine has not taken credit for the blasts, though many in the country celebrated it as a Ukrainian victory due to the bridge’s strategic and symbolic value to Russia.
FSB published a video of an “examination of the truck” and its “X-ray”, which allegedly shows explosives. Where on the “x-ray” another axle with wheels and a frame disappeared, the FSB does not specify ???? OnKbOndxVO is the picture.
The Ukrainian journalists pointed out that the two images posted by the Russian state media was different, as there was a different truck in both of them.
He says the Crimean bridge is designed to have a single section of road floating above several piers and detached from other sections. When there is a single span that falls in the water, it pulls other spans with it.
Barr believes that the truck was loaded with compounds that burnedhot enough to ignite a passing fuel train as it traveled on a parallel rail bridge, severely damaging it.
Mika Tyry, a retired military demolition specialist, told YLE, Finland’s national broadcaster, that the flames and sparks are consistent with a thermite bomb. Russia’s military has been known to use thermite, though Ukraine could have recovered the substance from unexploded Russian munitions.
“It’s a successful attack on a guarded structure, with advanced explosives, and timed with the train,” Barr says. That is suggestive of a planned military operation, not a lone actor or other group.
Not for the first time, the war is teetering towards an unpredictable new phase. “This is now the third, fourth, possibly fifth different war that we’ve been observing,” said Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme.
With the cold months nearing and likely bringing a slowdown in ground combat, experts say the next weeks of the war are now expected to be vital, and another potential spike in intensity looms over Ukraine as each side seeks to strike another blow.
It means that the stakes of the war are getting higher, as winter approaches. Giles said that Russia would like to keep it up. The recent successes of the Ukrainians have sent a message to the Kremlin. Giles said that they were able to do things that took them by surprise.
These counter-offensives have shifted the momentum of the war and disproved a suggestion, built up in the West and in Russia during the summer, that while Ukraine could stoutly defend territory, it lacked the ability to seize ground.
The Russians are trying to avoid a fall in their frontline before winter sets in, says the senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“If they can get to Christmas with the frontline looking roughly as it is, that’s a huge success for the Russians given how botched this has been since February.”
If a significant blow is scored in Donbas, it will send another powerful signal, and Ukraine will be eager to improve on its gains, as well as the impact rising energy prices will have on Europe.
“There are so many reasons why there is an incentive for Ukraine to get things done quickly,” Giles said. The winter energy crisis in Europe, and energy infrastructure and power being destroyed in Ukraine itself, will be a test of resilience for the western backers of the country.
Western assessments suggest that Moscow may not have the capacity to keep up with Russia’s bombardment, even though experts believe that it won’t form a recurrent pattern.
“We know – and Russian commanders on the ground know – that their supplies and munitions are running out,” Jeremy Fleming, a UK’s spy chief, said in a rare speech on Tuesday.
“Russia’s use of its limited supply of precision weapons in this role may deprive Putin of options to disrupt ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensives,” the ISW assessed.
Justin Bronk, a military expert with the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), agreed with that assessment, telling CNN that, “Ukrainian interception success rates against Russian cruise missiles have risen significantly since the start of the invasion in February.”
“The barrage of missile strikes is going to be an occasional feature reserved for shows of extreme outrage, because the Russians don’t have the stocks of precision munitions to maintain that kind of high-tempo missile assault into the future,” Puri said.
Russian troops in Belarus, the first convoys of regional forces, and the onset of a new challenge for Russia: what is next for Ukraine?
Russian troops began arriving in Belarus Oct. 15, which Minsk said were the first convoys of almost 9,000 service members expected as part of a “regional grouping” of forces allegedly to protect Belarus from threats at the border from Ukraine and the West.
“The reopening of a northern front would be another new challenge for Ukraine,” Giles said. He said that it would give Russia a new route into the Kharkiv oblast which is currently in the hands of Ukrainians.
Now Zelensky will hope for more supplies in the short-term as he seeks to drive home those gains. The leader has sought to highlight Ukraine’s success in intercepting Russian missiles, saying more than half of the missiles and drones launched at Ukraine in a second wave of strikes on Tuesday were brought down.
Ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in the Belgian city, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Ukraine needs more systems to be able to stop missile attacks.
Ukraine “badly needed” modern systems such as the IRIS-T that arrived this week from Germany and the NASAMS expected from the United States, Bronk said.
The coming weeks are therefore crucial both on the battlefield, as well as in Europe and around the globe, experts suggest. “As ever, where Putin goes next depends on how the rest of the world is responding,” Giles said. “Russia’s attitude is shaped by the failure of Western countries to confront and deter it.”
Russia felt a conflict on its own territory in the middle of the war in southeastern and easternUkraine, as bombs were set off in a Russian border region and in the offices of Russia’s puppet government.
11 people were killed and fifteen others were wounded when two men shot at the Russians and then killed themselves, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.
The mayor’s office in the eastern city of Donetsk was damaged when a rocket hit it, and the pro-Kremlins blamed the Ukrainian government for the strike.
The Ukraine Counteroffensive: Russian Embedding of Ukrainian Soldiers in France, and Implications for Humanitarian Rights and the Study of War
Zelenskyy said Russia would give pardons and pay to convicts in return for their help with its front-line troops.
Zelenskyy’s office said that Moscow was shelling the east on Sunday and that there was still fighting in the Kherson region.
— France, seeking to puncture perceptions that it has lagged in supporting Ukraine, confirmed it’s pledging air-defense missiles and stepped-up military training to Ukraine. The defense minister of France stated that up to 2000 Ukrainian soldiers could be embedded with military units in France, and that they would be training on equipment supplied by France.
According to The Institute for the Study of War,Moscow has conducted massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians, which it said likely amount to ethnic cleansing.
It referenced statements made this week by Russian authorities that claimed that “several thousand” children from a southern region occupied by Moscow had been placed in rest homes and children’s camps amid the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The original remarks by Russia’s deputy prime minister, Marat Khusnullin, were reported by RIA Novosti on Friday.
Russian authorities have previously admitted to placing children from Russian-held areas of Ukraine, who they said were orphans, for adoption with Russian families, in a potential breach of an international treaty on genocide prevention.
Pro-Kremlin fighters are accused by the Ukrainian military of violating an international humanitarian law by evicting civilians from occupied territories to house officers in their homes. It said that there were evictions in the eastern Luhansk region. It didn’t provide evidence for its claim.
According to pro-Kremlin posts on social media, a Russian commander wanted for his part in the downing of the Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine has been deployed to the front. Posts by Maksim Fomin and others said Igor Girkin, also known as Strelkov, has been given responsibility for an unspecified Russian front-line unit.
Girkin has been on an international wanted list over his alleged involvement in the downing of Kuala Lumpur-bound flight MH17, which killed 298 people. The verdict in the trial of a high-profile suspect is expected in November.
Recently, Girkin’s social media posts have lashed out at Moscow’s battlefield failures. The Ukrainian defense intelligence agency will give a $100,000 reward for his capture.
Anton Gerashcenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Internal Ministry, reported attacks on infrastructure near the city’s main rail station, but lines were operating as normal midmorning Monday.
The chief-of-staff for Zelenskyy called on the west to provide more air defense systems for Ukraine. “We have no time for slow actions,” he said online.
Iran acknowledged for the first time providing some drones to Russia months before the war in Ukraine but denied continuing to supply them, on Nov. 5. Zelenskyy disagreed that Iran was lying because Ukrainian forces shoot down Iranian drones at least ten times a day.
The photo of the bomb labeled “Geran-2” was posted on his website but was removed after commenters criticized him for agreeing with Russian policy on Iranian drones.
Ukraine is still under control: the European Union’s top diplomat predicts a “concrete evidence” of Iran’s involvement in Ukraine
The foreign ministers of the European Union are going to Luxembourg. Before the meeting, Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, told reporters that the bloc would look into “concrete evidence” of Iran’s involvement in Ukraine.
The attack on energy infrastructure in the Kamianske district of the Dnipropetrovsk region caused “fire” and “serious destruction,” according to regional military official Valentyn Reznichenko.
“Currently, all services are working on eliminating the consequences of shelling and restoring electricity supply. Each region has a crisis response plan,” Shmyhal added.
“We ask Ukrainians, in order to stabilize the energy system, to take a united and conscious approach to economical consumption of electricity. Especially during peak hours.
Ukraine’s state energy supplier Ukrenergo said the power grid in the country remains “under control,” adding that repair crews are working to curb the consequences of the attacks.
Shmyhal’s announcement came as the country faced attacks on critical energy facilities.
Nuclear deterrence exercises will be held by NATO. NATO insists the “Steadfast Noon” drills are a regular annual training activity and warns Russia not to use nuclear weapons on Ukraine.
The Crime against Crimea: State of Ukraine (with an Appearance by the General Assembly on Oct. 12) and CNN’s David Andelman
Russian agents detained eight people on Oct. 12 suspected of carrying out a large explosion on a bridge to Crimea, including Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian citizens.
The General Assembly expressed its condemnation of Russia’s move to annex four regions of Ukraine. Four countries voted together with Russia in favor of the resolution by Ukraine, while 35 abstained.
Past recaps can be found here. You can find more context and in-depth stories here. In the afternoon, listen to NPR’s State of Ukraine show for more updates.
Editor’s Note: David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN, twice winner of the Deadline Club Award, is a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, author of “A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen” and blogs at Andelman Unleashed. He formerly was a correspondent for The New York Times and CBS News in Europe and Asia. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.
He is looking to distract his nation from the obvious fact that he is losing on the battlefield and not achieving his objectives.
Emmanuel Macron and the EU plan to prolong the nuclear war: a conference call to resolve disagreements between European Union and the Kremlin
The ability to continue depends on a number of variables, ranging from availability of critical and affordable energy supplies for the coming winter to popular will across a broad range of nations.
European Union powers agreed on a plan to tame energy prices early Friday morning, following sanctions on Russian imports and the Russian government’s cutting of natural gas supplies.
These include an emergency cap on the benchmark European gas trading hub – the Dutch Title Transfer Facility – and permission for EU gas companies to create a cartel to buy gas on the international market.
While French President Emmanuel Macron waxed euphoric leaving the summit, which he described as having “maintained European unity,” he conceded that there was only a “clear mandate” for the European Commission to start working on a gas cap mechanism.
Still, divisions remain, with Europe’s biggest economy, Germany, skeptical of any price caps. Energy ministers need to work out details with Germany about how caps would encourage higher consumption.
These divisions are all part of Putin’s fondest dream. Manifold forces in Europe could prove central to achieving success from the Kremlin’s viewpoint, which amounts to the continent failing to agree on essentials.
Germany and France are at odds over many of these issues. The conference call was arranged to try to reach some sort of compromise.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/opinions/putin-prolonge-war-ukraine-winter-andelman/index.html
Prolonging the War in Ukraine: When Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi arrives in Italy to confront Putin and his ally Vladimir Putin
And now a new government has taken power in Italy. She became Italy’s first female prime minister on Saturday, attempting to brush aside the post-fascist aura of her party. One of her far-right coalition partners meanwhile, has expressed deep appreciation for Putin.
In a secretly recorded audio tape, Berlusconi said he returned Putin’s gesture with bottles of Lambrusco wine and added that he knew him as a peaceful and sensible person.
The other leading member of the ruling Italian coalition, Matteo Salvini, named Saturday as deputy prime minister, said during the campaign, “I would not want the sanctions [on Russia] to harm those who impose them more than those who are hit by them.”
At the same time, Poland and Hungary, longtime ultra-right-wing soulmates united against liberal policies of the EU that seemed calculated to reduce their influence, have now disagreed over Ukraine. Poland has taken deep offense at the pro-Putin sentiments of Hungary’s populist leader Viktor Orban.
Kevin McCarthy, the House GOP leader, who could become Speaker of the House if Republicans take control of it, said in an interview that people are going to be sitting in a recession. They just won’t do it.”
The progressive caucus called on Biden to negotiate with the Russians to end the conflict while its troops are still occupying vast swaths of the country.
Hours later, caucus chair Mia Jacob, facing a firestorm of criticism, emailed reporters with a statement “clarifying” their remarks in support of Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also called his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba to renew America’s support.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/opinions/putin-prolonge-war-ukraine-winter-andelman/index.html
Putin’s War with the West: Pressure on the Russian Military-Industry Complex from the State Department to the Luxembourg-Brazil High-Tech Hub
There’s an incentive for Putin to prolong the war as long as possible to allow the forces in the West to kick in. A long, cold winter in Europe, persistent inflation and higher interest rates leading to a recession on both sides of the Atlantic could mean irresistible pressure on already skeptical leaders to dial back on financial and military support.
The support they received in the form of arms, materiel, and now training for Ukrainian forces has aided their battle against the weaker and disorganized Russian military.
At the same time, the West is trying to change Russia’s behavior. Last Thursday, the State Department released a detailed report on the impact of sanctions and export controls strangling the Russian military-industrial complex.
The report said that the production of hypersonic missiles was halted due to lack of necessary semi-conductors. Aircraft are being cannibalized for spare parts, plants producing anti-aircraft systems have shut down, and “Russia has reverted to Soviet-era defense stocks” for replenishment. The Soviet era ended more than 30 years ago.
Putin has also tried, though he has been stymied at most turns, to establish black market networks abroad to source what he needs to fuel his war machine – much as Kim Jong-un has done in North Korea. The United States has discovered and sanctioned a vast network of these shadow companies and individuals that are centered in hubs from Taiwan to Luxembourg to source high-tech goods for Russia.
The Justice Department had announced charges against companies and individuals for trying to smuggle high-tech equipment into Russia.
Russia’s cyber attacks are likely to have more to do with the question of how putin has not been seen on the battlefield, as reported by a senior US official
Experts that spoke to CNN say Russia’s cyberattacks are likely to have more to do with the question of why they have not been seen on the battlefield.
The senior US official said that after the attack on the bridge in October, Putin was trying to go for a big, showy public response to the attack and it took many months to plan.
But officials tell CNN that Ukraine also deserves credit for its improved cyber defenses. The same group of Russian military hackers who caused the country’s electricity grid to go out in 2015 and 2016 attempted to hack power substations in April.
Four officials from one of Ukraine’s main cyber and communications agencies — the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection (SSSCIP) — were killed October 10 in missile attacks, the agency said in a press release. The four officials did not have cybersecurity responsibilities, but their loss has weighed heavily on cybersecurity officials at the agency during another grim month of war.
Zhora told CNN that they should not discard the chance that Russian hacking groups are working on some high-complexity attacks. It is unlikely that all Russian military hacks and government controlled groups are out of business.
The western official said that the success in cyberspace wouldn’t be measured by a single attack but by the cumulative effect of the attack on the Ukrainians.
In 2017, as Russia’s hybrid war in eastern Ukraine continued, Russia’s military intelligence agency unleashed destructive malware known as NotPetya that wiped computer systems at companies across Ukraine before spreading around the world, according to the Justice Department and private investigators. The incident disrupted Maersk and other multinational companies and cost the economy billions of dollars.
In that operation, Ukrainian software was identified, infiltrating it and injecting malicious code to weaponize it, said Matt Olney, director of threat intelligence and interdiction.
“All of that was just as effective as the end product was,” said Olney, who has had a team in Ukraine responding to cyber incidents for years. “And that takes time and it takes opportunities that sometimes you can’t just conjure.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/05/politics/russia-cyber-attacks-missiles-ukraine-blackouts/index.html
Russia and the cyber crisis: a global view of cyber attacks and the U.S. mid-term results on Ukraine’s energy security
Zhora, the Ukrainian official who is a deputy chairman at SSSCIP, called for Western governments to tighten sanctions on Russia’s access to software tools that could feed its hacking arsenal.
Tanel Sepp, the ambassador-at-large for cyber affairs, believes it’s possible the Russians could use a “new wave” of cyberattacks.
“Our main goal is to isolate Russia on the international stage” as much as possible, Sepp said, adding that the former Soviet state has not communicated with Russia on cybersecurity issues in months.
America’s mid-term election results this week will be watched by Ukraine after some Republicans warned that funding for the country could be affected if they win control of the House of Representatives.
Turkish President and Swedish Prime Minister will meet on Tuesday. Erdogan insists Sweden must meet certain conditions before it can join NATO.
The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday is scheduled to discuss an International Atomic Energy Agency report, in which Ukraine is expected to be on the agenda.
A top Ukrainian official said the attacks on the country’s energy grid amount to genocide. The prosecutor-general of Ukranian made some comments in a conversation with the BBC last month.
Russian withdrawal from the Kherson West Bank after drone attacks on its Black Sea ships on Nov. 2, 2006: Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted by the United Nations
On Nov. 2, Russia rejoined a UN brokered deal to safely export grain and other agricultural goods from Ukraine. Moscow had suspended its part in the deal a few days prior after saying Ukraine had launched a drone attack on its Black Sea ships.
$400 million in additional security aid was announced by the Pentagon on November 4.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his country would be withdrawing from the west bank of the Kherson region.
The president talked about the appearance of Ukrainian flags in the city even before the military arrived, saying, “I am happy to see how people, despite all the threats, despite the repressions, abuse of the occupiers, kept Ukrainian flags, believed in Ukraine.”
Zelensky expressed his gratitude to the military units involved in the operation — “absolutely everyone, from privates to generals, the Armed Forces, intelligence, the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Guard — all those who brought this day closer for Kherson region.”
The threat of mines would lead to stabilization measures. “The occupiers left a lot of mines and explosives, in particular at vital facilities. He said that they would be clearing them.
“Our defenders are followed by police, sappers, rescuers, power engineers … Medicine, communications, social services are returning. … Life is returning,” he said.
The Syrian War on Crime: The Case of Prime Minister Putin in the Region of Snihurivka, Molderovskiy
Officials also on Friday warned displaced residents to hold off on returning to their homes in the newly retaken areas of Kherson, saying, “It’s too dangerous here now.”
In neighboring Mykolaiv region: The head of the regional military administration of Mykolaiv visited the small city of Snihurivka Friday to discuss “the restoration of life in the liberated territories of the region.”
“Despite the fact that the relevant services have already started (removing mines in) the liberated territories, I warn local residents to be careful,” Kim added.
Poland is facing repercussions of these attacks, not the only bordering country. Although the Polish incident attracted much attention, Russian rockets knocked out power in neighboring Moldova, which is not a NATO member.
Whatever the exact circumstances of the missile, one thing is clear. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg accused Russia of continuing their war against Ukraine.
Beyond the recent missile attacks lies a long list of horrors thatPutin has launched that has driven his nation further from the civilized powers that he once sought to join.
His forces have planted mines in vast stretches of territory in Kherson from which they’ve recently withdrawn – much as the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia stretching back to the 1970s. Indeed, Cambodian de-mining experts have even been called in to assist with the herculean task facing Ukraine in 2022. At the same time, Russian armies have also left behind evidence of unspeakable atrocities and torture, also reminiscent of the Khmer Rouge.
That said, a growing number of Russian soldiers have rebelled at what they have been asked to do and refused to fight. The Defense Ministry of the UK believes that Russian troops may shoot at retreating soldiers.
Indeed a hotline and Telegram channel, launched as a Ukrainian military intelligence project called “I want to live,” designed to assist Russian soldiers eager to defect, has taken off, reportedly booking some 3,500 calls in its first two months of activity.
Diplomatically, Putin finds himself increasingly isolated on the world stage. He was the only head of state to stay away from a session of the G20, which Zelensky dubbed the “G19.” Though Putin once lusted after a return to the G7 (known as the G8 before he was ousted after his seizure of Crimea), inclusion now seems but a distant dream. Russia’s sudden ban on 100 Canadians, including Canadian-American Jim Carrey, from entering the country only made the comparison with North Korea more striking.
Above all, many of the best and brightest in virtually every field have now fled Russia. This includes writers, artists and journalists as well as some of the most creative technologists, scientists and engineers.
One leading Russian journalist, Mikhail Zygar, who has settled in Berlin after fleeing in March, told me last week that while he hoped this is not the case, he is prepared to accept the reality – like many of his countrymen, he may never be able to return to his homeland, to which he remains deeply attached.
An update on Russian strikes in the epoch of war: Ukrenergo shutdown and the nuclear power plant shutdown in Mykolaiv
Rumbling in the background is the West’s attempt to diversify away from Russian oil and natural gas in an effort to deprive the country of material resources to pursue this war. Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission told the G20 that they have realised that it was an unsustainable dependency and want reliable and forward-looking connections.
Moreover, Putin’s dream that this conflict, along with the enormous burden it has proven to be on Western countries, would only drive further wedges into the Western alliance are proving unfulfilled. On Monday, word began circulating in aerospace circles that the long-stalled joint French-German project for a next-generation jet fighter at the heart of the Future Combat Air System – Europe’s largest weapons program – was beginning to move forward.
Also, Ukraine intentionally disconnected three nuclear power plants from the national electricity grid as a precautionary measure in response to the Russian strikes, the energy company Ukrenergo said.
After a brief emergency shutdown, the nuclear reactors have been turned back on, but were still not reconnected to the national grid, the company added.
Vitaliy Kim, the military administrator in the southern area of Mykolaiv, said the nuclear plant has been turned off and there is a risk of a reactor shutting down.
Ukrainian officials stress that the power cuts have the cascading effect of turning off the heat and water in many cases. Adding to the troubles, the water in the pipes could freeze.
President Maia Sandu wrote about Russia on Facebook, saying that her people couldn’t trust a regime that left them in the dark and cold.
Zelenskyy’s address to the Russian military in Kiev: “Who is not supplying water to Donetsk?” Putin told the Kremlin
Ukraine is scrambling to prepare for the winter. In a Tuesday night video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had set up 4,000 centers to take care of civilians if there were power cuts.
He said they will provide heat, water, phone charging and internet access. Many will be in schools and government buildings.
Speaking after an awards ceremony for “Heroes of Russia” at the Kremlin, he addressed a group of soldiers receiving the awards, clutching a glass of champagne.
At the awards ceremony, Putin continued to list alleged aggressions: “Who is not supplying water to Donetsk? It is an act of genocide not to give water to a million people.
Russia said that a airfield in the region of the Czech Republic and Slovakia was targeted in a drone attack. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has not commented on recent explosions which are deep within Russia. Officially, the targets are well beyond the reach of the country’s declared drones.
He ended his off-the-cuff comments by suggesting that people do not mention water being cut off from the city. “No one has said a word about it anywhere. At all! Complete silence.
Local Russian authorities in Donetsk — which Putin claimed to annex in defiance of international law — have reported frequent shelling of the city this week.
President Vladimir Putin made rare public comments specifically addressing the Russian military’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure Thursday, while clutching a glass of champagne at a Kremlin reception.
He said in his appearance in the Kremlin that “Who is not supplying water to Donetsk?” on Thursday. It’s an act of genocide to not supply water to a million people.
Weather-induced damage to consumer goods in electricity and water distribution networks, and its correlation with the energy-loss of wire arrays in residential distribution networks
“The pace of restoration [to household consumers] is slowed down by difficult weather conditions,” it said, with the damage “made worse by the freezing and rupture of wires in distribution networks.”