Russia has attacked Ukraine’s cities and energy infrastructure with missiles and “kamikaze” drones in the 34th week of the war, killing dozens and leaving several towns without power.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday said 30% of Ukraine’s power stations had been destroyed in drone strikes since October 10, resulting in “massive blackouts” across the country. He urged Ukrainians to use less electricity in the evenings.
The mayor said four people were killed when a drone crashed into a residential building in Kyiv on Monday. Vitali Klitschko said Russia launched 28 drones during the attack and five explosions were heard in the city.
Ukrainian authorities say the drones are made by Iran and they have urged Tehran to stop supplying them to Russia. Iran has declined to supply the drones and Russia has not commented. Moscow denies targeting civilians.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on the EU to impose Iran sanctions.
“Just last week, the Russian Federation attacked more than a hundred Iranian kamikaze drones targeting residential buildings, power stations, sewage treatment plants, bridges and playgrounds in several cities. of Ukraine,” he said on Monday. “Dozens of people, including children, were killed and injured. We call on Tehran to immediately stop supplying any weapons to Russia.”
Ukraine’s air force says it has shot down 223 drones since they first appeared in the country on September 13.
Defense Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov Russia estimates that Russia still has a stockpile of about 300 drones and plans to buy “several thousand more”.
Ukraine has accused Russia of increasing its use of drones as its stockpile of precision missiles is running low. Reznikov publishes stockpile data showing that Russia has fired two-thirds of its most sophisticated missiles into Ukraine and has about 600 remaining.
According to US intelligence, Russia has also buy shells from North Korea to replenish their dwindling reserves.
Outrage and asking for help
The Russian air campaign prompted the Estonian parliament to declare Russia a “terrorist state”. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure a “war crime”.
The hailstorm that devastated Ukrainian cities also accelerated the delivery of air defense systems and prompted pledges to deliver new weapons from allies.
Air force spokesman Yuri Ignat said: IRIS-TILLION The German-supplied air defense system has been integrated into the Ukrainian air defense system and is operational.
Reznikov The first National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) promised by the US will arrive in Ukraine this month.
UK says it will send Ukraine hundreds AMRAAM . missile for American launchers while France promised Ukraine Crotale A short-range, low-altitude air defense system that is effective against aircraft and missiles.
US President Joe Biden announced a transport weapons worth $725 million. This package includes vehicles and ammunition, including multiple HIMARS rocket launchers.
Ukraine and its allies are also beginning to consider more comprehensive and permanent air defense solutions.
Chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark MilleyThe United States is considering creating integrated air defense systems for specific regions of Ukraine, including short, medium and long-range air defense systems. “The combination of all these means will allow us to close our airspace to Russian aircraft,” Milley said.
Yuryi Zozulya, an adviser to the mayor of Kyiv, said British and Canadian scientists are working on a protective dome to keep drones away from the Ukrainian capital. He said: “It will take about two years to complete but parts of it are already operational.
Russian stories
Russia has escalated its targeting of cities across Ukraine following the October 8 bombing of the Kerch Bridge, which connects Ukraine’s occupied Crimean Peninsula with Russia.
Maxim Alyukov, a research fellow at the Russian Institute at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera that the attack on the bridge, a symbol of Russian prestige, affected President Vladimir Putin, in tandem with demands of Russian nationalists and hardliners.
“The pro-war communities and military reporters on Telegram and to some extent, the hosts and participants of political talk shows were furious,” Alyukov said. “And although they were radicalized before, pushing the government to announce the mobilization and even use of nuclear weapons after the Kerch Bridge attack, on state television there was a story used that… ‘we are very humane and don’t target civilian infrastructure and power plants, and we should probably rethink our strategy. ‘ After the Kerch Bridge, they started saying, “We’re fully engaged now.”
Alyukov said that civilian or civilian infrastructure is considered crucial to Ukraine’s war effort in order to justify its being a Russian target.
“The media was using certain terms even before the current attack on Kyiv – “critical infrastructure” and “decision centres”, meaning administrative buildings like parliament, government, security services, etc,” Alyukov said.
“The current [after the Kerch Bridge attack], they use these terms to mean that this infrastructure is crucial to the Ukrainian war effort,” he said. “They try to avoid using the word civilian.”
Preparing for the Kherson evacuation
On the ground, Russian forces made little progress in the 34th week of the war. The main area where Russian forces regularly conduct attacks is around Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, where Wagner Group mercenaries are said to be heavily involved in the fighting.
Russian forces have been trying to capture the eastern transportation hub for months. The fighting there didn’t stop. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has published a number of seconds of video from the battlefields around Bakhmut show trenches between pitted red soil and bare trees.
“There are very complex, heavy battles going on there, [where] the enemy mustered his strongest force,” Serhiy CherevatySpokesperson for the eastern Ukrainian forces.
At Kherson to the south and Kharkiv to the north, Russian forces have been trying to thwart Ukrainian attacks since August.
Russia’s Tass news agency reported that Russian defense forces prevented Ukrainian forces from breaking through Zherebets River in the Stelmakhovka and Makeevka regions as they attempted to advance towards Svatove in the Luhansk region.
Russia also said it repelled a Ukrainian attack on Bruskinskoye, Koshara and Piatykhatky on the west bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson.
Local Russian officials speak in a defensive tone. “Our army is ready to repel all these attacks, standing to the end because the Kherson region is an official subject of the Russian Federation,” said Kirill Stremousov, deputy governor of the government created by Russia. in Kherson said.
Kherson is one of four regions of Ukraine that Russia unilaterally annexed on September 30, although only partially controlled.
Moscow is preparing to help the inhabitants of the occupied part of Kherson evacuate to Russia in a sign that its ability to hold its territory is waning.
Zelenskyy said the armed forces of Ukraine have recapture 1,620 settlements across the country since the beginning of the war.
