President Volodymyr Zelensky has stated that Ukraine is switching to emergency shutdowns to stabilize its power grid in the wake of Monday’s Russian missile attacks.
According to him, numerous regions were affected, and local authorities warned that almost half of the Kyiv region would be without power in the next few days.
Monday’s attacks took the lives of four persons.
Overnight, more missiles struck vital infrastructure near the southern city of Zaporizhia, according to officials.
In a separate development on Tuesday, the governor of Russia’s Kursk region reported that an oil storage tank was set ablaze by a drone strike on an airstrip.
The online video depicts intense flames and dense black smoke emanating from the site.
Roman Starovoyt stated that there were no casualties, however, two local schools were shuttered for the day. He did not specify who might be responsible for the attack in the territory bordering Ukraine.
The energy minister of Ukraine stated that he intended to drastically alleviate the power shortfall caused by the most recent Russian strikes by Tuesday evening by reconnecting nuclear power plants to the grid.
Many sections of the country are currently experiencing snowfall and temperatures below zero, and millions are without electricity and running water. There are concerns that several individuals may succumb to hypothermia.
In a late-Monday video address, President Zelensky stated that 70 Russian missiles were launched that day, with the majority being intercepted.
Mr. Zelensky stated that “the largest number of shutdowns are in the regions of Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Khmelnytskyi, and Cherkasy,” which span the entire country.
However, he promised that the government “would do everything to restore stability.”
The Ukrainian leader stated that electrical supplies in neighboring Moldova were also disrupted, indicating that Russia’s activities posed “a threat not only to Ukraine but to the entire region.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense asserted that it had conducted huge, high-precision attacks against the Ukrainian military command and control systems and other targets.
The attacks on Monday were Russia’s ninth large-scale missile attack in eight weeks, and they came after days of repeated warnings that Moscow was plotting a new assault.
After a series of explosions at two military airfields deep within Russia, which Moscow claimed on Ukrainian drones intercepted by Russian air defenses, the attack eventually began.
According to the Russian defense ministry, three troops were killed and two aircraft were mildly damaged at airfields in the Ryazan and Saratov regions. Ukraine has not commented officially on the matter.
Hundreds of kilometers from Ukraine’s border, the two airfields hold Russian strategic bombers that have been used to launch missile attacks since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on February 24.
Tuesday, President Vladimir Putin presided over a meeting of Russia’s security council, which typically occurs on Fridays.
State television broadcast an excerpt from the Kremlin leader’s opening comments, in which he stated that the meeting’s topic would be state security.
Before the most recent Russian attacks, Kyiv officials were discussing a switch from highly disruptive emergency blackouts, which frequently run for several hours, to more manageable scheduled blackouts, which provide civilians with much-needed predictability.
Moscow has been bombarding Ukraine’s electricity grid since 10 October, following a series of crushing military defeats.
Some Western authorities have referred to the tactic as a war crime due to the extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Russia’s strategy of attacking electricity infrastructure is most likely intended to demoralize and terrorize the population rather than achieve any tangible military advantage.
