War in Ukraine: new salvo of Russian missiles on the country, more power cuts

Anti-aircraft sirens sounded across Ukraine.

The country suffered Monday a new deadly salvo of Russian missiles, causing new power and water cuts in a country already in energy crisis, Moscow having made these infrastructures its priority target in the middle of winter.

But Ukrainian air defenses shot down "most of the Russian missiles", according to President Zelensky.

The strikes come on the same day as the entry into force of the mechanism to cap the sale price of Russian oil decided by the West, who are thus trying to dry up Moscow's manna to finance its military effort.

Monday morning, the Kremlin had warned that this new sanction would have “no impact” on its offensive.

Vladimir Putin appeared on television driving a car to cross the Crimean Bridge, a key infrastructure that connects Russia to this Ukrainian peninsula annexed in 2014 by Moscow.

An explosion that the Kremlin blamed on Ukraine severely damaged it in October.

A call to stay safe

“Ukraine suffers an eighth massive missile attack by a terrorist state.

Unfortunately, there is already damage to the energy infrastructure”, indicated the Ukrainian operator Ukrenergo, calling on the population to stay “in shelter”.

Since the fall, and a series of humiliating setbacks, the Russian army has stepped up strikes against Ukrainian energy installations, so much so that most of the civilian population has electricity for only a few hours a day.

Early Monday afternoon, the head of the military administration of Kryvyi Rig, in central Ukraine, indicated that "part of the city is without electricity" and that "several boilers and pumping stations are disconnected", which should affect the water and heating supply.

Operators in Odessa, a major port in the south of the country, and in Sumy, in the northeast, reported water and power cuts respectively.

Electricity was also cut off in Mykolaiv, in the south, according to Mayor Oleksandre Sienkevich.

Deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram that the strikes left at least two people dead and three injured, including a child.

The Kyiv region governor said 40% of the city is without electricity and some infrastructure was affected but there were no "critical consequences", according to Reuters.

“We have wood”

Even before the new strikes, the national operator Ukrenergo had described Monday as "difficult" the situation regarding electricity supplies.

In Borodianka, a town northwest of kyiv covered in snow and ice, large tents equipped with wood-burning stoves have been set up to allow the population to warm up or cook when the power fails.

"The electricity is cut for four hours, sometimes six hours", testifies one of its inhabitants, Serguiï, before tearing the pages of an old book to make a firelighter.

Next to it, a bearded man chops wood with a hatchet, while a woman rolls dough to make stuffed buns.

The fire hums, a samovar is placed on the stove to heat the water.

“The plan is simple: we have wood and we sit down here,” resumes Serguiï.

But he fears even longer cuts which would be "very hard, especially for children".

Repeated Russian strikes on energy infrastructure raise fears of a new wave of refugees fleeing darkness, Russian missiles and the cold.

A huge cluster of rockets

In a sign of the suffering endured by Ukraine for months, the chief of staff of the Ukrainian presidency, Andriï Yermak, posted on Twitter a photo showing a huge pile of Russian rockets and missiles which fell on the second city of Ukraine, Kharkiv (northeast).

“Here is the cemetery of the missiles that fell on Kharkiv.

This is only a small sample of the projectiles that Russia fired into Ukrainian territory,” he said.

The fighting also continues to rage on the long front line.

The cemetery of missiles that fell onto 🇺🇦 Kharkiv.

It's only a small batch of the projectiles that Russia has fired on the 🇺🇦 territory.

We need a comprehensive solution to close the sky.

Photo: Konstantin and Vlada Liberov.

pic.twitter.com/UPt8hyJCzB

— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) December 5, 2022

The Ukrainian army thus announced on Monday that it had repelled several attacks during the previous 24 hours, in particular in the Bakhmout sector, in the east, where Moscow's forces are on the offensive.

This city, which the Russians have been trying to conquer since the summer, has been ravaged by the clashes, with many buildings reduced to piles of rubble.