Russian air strikes have targeted Ukraine’s energy facilities again as the first snow of the season fell in Kyiv, a harbinger of the hardship to come if Moscow’s missiles continue to take out power and gas plants as winter descends.
Separately, the United Nations announced the extension of a deal to ensure exports of grain and fertilisers from Ukraine that were disrupted by the war. The deal was set to expire soon, renewing fears of a global food crisis if exports were blocked from one of the world’s largest grain producers.
Even as all sides agreed to extend the deal, air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine on Thursday (November 18). At least four people were killed and more than two dozen others wounded in the drone and missile strikes, including one that hit a residential building, authorities said.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin’s forces have suffered a series of setbacks on the ground, the latest being the loss of the southern city of Kherson. In the face of those defeats, Russia has increasingly resorted to aerial onslaughts aimed at energy infrastructure and other civilian targets in parts of Ukraine it does not hold.
Thursday’s salvo appeared to be on a lesser scale than the nationwide barrage of more than 100 missiles and drones that knocked out power to 10 million people earlier this week. Tuesday’s strikes were described by Ukraine’s energy minister as the biggest barrage yet of the nearly nine-month-old invasion against the battered power grid.
It also resulted in a missile landing in Poland, killing two people. Authorities are still trying to ascertain where that missile came from, with early indications pointing to a Ukrainian air defence system meant to counter the Russian bombardment.
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda on Thursday visited the site where the missile landed and expressed understanding for Ukraine’s plight. He said: “It is a hugely difficult situation for them and there are great emotions, there is also great stress.”
In eastern Ukraine, Russia “launched a massive attack on gas production infrastructure”, state energy company Naftogaz head Oleksiy Chernishov said in a statement. He provided no details.
Russian strikes also hit the central city of Dnipro and Ukraine’s southern Odesa region for the first time in weeks. And critical infrastructure was also hit in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv, in the area of Izyum, wounding three workers, the regional administration said.
The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, called the strikes on energy targets “naive tactics of cowardly losers” in a Telegram post on Thursday. He wrote: “Ukraine has already withstood extremely difficult strikes by the enemy, which did not lead to results the Russian cowards hoped for.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address that 10 million people in Ukraine were without power on Thursday as well, mainly in the Kyiv, Odesa, Sumy and Vinnytsia regions. Ukraine had a pre-war population of about 40 million.
Zelensky earlier posted on Telegram a video that he said was one of the blasts in Dnipro. The footage from a vehicle dashcam showed a fiery blast engulfing a rainy road.
“This is another confirmation from Dnipro of how terrorists want peace,” Zelensky wrote, referring to the Kremlin’s forces. “The peaceful city and people’s wish to live their accustomed lives.
“Going to work, to their affairs. A rocket attack!”
Elsewhere, a Russian strike that hit a residential building killed at least four people overnight in Vilnia in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia. Rescuers combed the rubble for any other victims, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior official in the Ukrainian presidential office.
The war’s impact has been felt far beyond Ukraine, perhaps most significantly in global food markets. Ukraine and Russia are among the world’s largest exporters of grain, and Russia is also a significant producer of fertiliser.
There were concerns in recent days about the fate of a UN and Turkey-brokered deal meant to address disruptions to those exports that was set to expire on Saturday. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres confirmed it had been extended for four months.
In addition to securing the safe passage of Ukrainian exports, Guterres said in a statement the UN is also “fully committed” to removing obstacles that have impeded the export of food and fertiliser from Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed the extension, and Zelensky called it a “key decision in the global fight against the food crisis”.
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