Vlad Putin seriously hammered civilian facilities in Ukraine overnight on Saturday. Reports of a “massive” Russian attack using missiles and drones note that the main target was power and gas infrastructure. At least 10 people were confirmed as casualties when explosions detonated in “the capital, Kyiv, as well as multiple targets in several regions including Donetsk, Lviv and Odesa.”
Significant Ukraine damage
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed in a statement that “the co-ordinated assault overnight on Saturday was largest of its kind since early September.”
According to DTEK, the nation’s largest private energy company, their thermal energy plants had suffered “significant damage.” That means their customers are in the dark.
State-owned energy operator, Ukrenergo, is announcing they must enforce “restriction measures” for the whole of Ukraine, starting Monday, November 18. Around 120 missiles and 90 drones came screaming in without warning.
“Peaceful cities, sleeping civilians” and “critical infrastructure” were targeted, Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha confirms.
The Russian defense ministry is gloating that “it had hit all its targets.” The whole idea is causing a long, cold winter for their adversaries in Ukraine.
The Russians admit their attack was on “essential energy infrastructure.” It may serve civilians but it’s also “supporting the Ukrainian military-industrial complex.” That makes the civilian targets fair game.
Heat and water supplies
Oleh Kiper, governor of the Odesa region, told the press “there had also been disruptions to heat and water supplies.” The water system is coming back online steadily but heat is a whole different story.
Meanwhile “Hospitals and other critical infrastructure were operating using generators.” Resident’s of the Ukraine living further east in the city of Mykolaiv aren’t phased one bit.
Vitaliy Kim is “the region’s leader.” He told a crew from BBC that they’re used to a whole lot worse. They’ve been blasted regularly for months. “People are in a good shape and want to defend themselves. We do not want to lose our homes.”
The Russian troops who’ve been there don’t want to go back to their own. Once they saw how much different life is on the Ukraine side of the border, the desertion rate quadrupled.
On Sunday, in Kyiv, residents are picking up the pieces, literally. They’re cleaning up “fragments from intercepted missiles and drones.” In general, there was a lot more litter than damage. This round has been declared “the eighth large-scale one targeting Ukraine’s energy facilities this year.” That’s not good, DTEK relates.
Their plants “had been attacked more than 190 times since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.” Saturday night’s assault “could signal another concerted Russian attempt to deplete the power grid as winter arrives, causing yet another difficult winter.“
