Russia hit Ukraine’s energy facilities with its largest-ever missile salvo, hitting targets from east to west and causing widespread power outages.
President Volodymr Zelenskyy said Russia fired at least 85 missiles on Tuesday, “most of them aimed at our energy infrastructure” and caused power outages in many cities.
“We are working, will restore everything. We will survive anything,” the president said.
His energy minister said it was the “biggest” bombardment of energy facilities during Russia’s nearly nine-month invasion.
A series of attacks came upon the leaders of the Group of 20 countries met in Bali for a summit dominated by Moscow’s war in Kyiv. They also follow the days of euphoria in Ukraine following one of the country’s biggest military successes in Russia’s nearly nine-month invasion — last week’s recapture of Ukraine. southern city of Kherson.
As battlefield losses mount, in recent months Russia has increasingly targeted Ukraine’s power grid, blacking out power in some areas, seemingly to weaponize winter’s approach by leaving the people in darkness and cold.
On Tuesday, more than a dozen Ukrainian regions reported attacks, hitting several cities including Kyiv, Lviv and Rivne in the west, Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city in the northeast, Kryvyi Rih, the home town of Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Poltava in the center, Odesa in the south and Zhytomyr in the north.
In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said authorities had found a body in one of three residential buildings hit by lightning and said about half of the capital had no electricity.
The mayor of Lviv said the city was without power and Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said vital infrastructure there was also damaged.
“There is a problem with the power supply. Electric traffic on the ground and metro has been stopped,” Terekhov wrote on Telegram.
Rivne Governor Vitaliy Koval said there had been rocket attacks but reported no casualties in his city.
Neighboring Moldova was also affected. An official said they had reported widespread power outages after the attacks knocked out a vital power line supplying the small country.
Earlier on Tuesday, Zelenskyy told world leaders there would be no respite in Ukraine’s campaign to drive Russian troops out of his country.
“We will not allow Russia to wait, build up its forces and then start a new series of global terror and destabilization,” he said in a video speech linked to the summit of the Russian Federation. major G20 economies in Indonesia.
After a series of Russian attacks, Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to the president, wrote on Twitter, “Russia responds to @Zelenskiy’s powerful speech at #G20 with a new missile attack. Does anyone seriously think that the Kremlin really wants peace? It wants to obey. But at the end of the day, the terrorists always lose.”
Russia responds @ZelenskyyUapowerful speech of #G20 with a new missile attack. Does anyone seriously think that the Kremlin really wants peace? It wants to obey. But at the end of the day, the terrorists always lose.
– Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) November 15, 2022
Tuesday’s attacks come as authorities are doing their best to get Kherson back on his feet and begin investigating allegations of Russian abuse there and surrounding areas. The city’s remaining 80,000 residents have no heat, water or electricity, and lack food and medicine.
The head of the UN human rights office’s monitoring mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, on Tuesday condemned a “catastrophic humanitarian situation” there.
Speaking from Kyiv, Bogner said her teams are looking to go to Kherson to try to verify allegations of nearly 80 cases of forced disappearances and arbitrary detention.
The head of Ukraine’s National Police, Igor Klymenko, said authorities will begin investigating reports from Kherson residents that Russian forces have set up at least three alleged torture sites in the the now liberated area of the wider Kherson area and that “our people could have been detained and tortured there.”
Zelenskyy likened the recapture to the Allied landings in France on D-Day in World War II, saying both were landmark events on the road to eventual victory.
But much of eastern and southern Ukraine remains under Russian control, and Zelenskyy warned of worse news ahead.
“Where, when liberating the land, we all see the same thing – Russia left behind torture chambers and mass burials… How many mass graves on the territory are still under Russian control?” Zelenskyy asked.
