Russia-Ukraine War at a Glance: What We Know on the 297th Day of the Invasion | Russia
Russia shot more than 70 missiles in Ukraine on Friday in one of its biggest attacks since the start of the war, cutting off power in the second-largest city and forcing Kyiv to implement nationwide emergency blackouts, Ukrainian officials said. Three people were killed when an apartment block was attacked in central Kryvyi Rih and another was killed in shelling in Kherson in the south, they said. Officials stationed by Russia in occupied eastern Ukraine said 12 people had been killed by Ukrainian shelling.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia still had enough missiles for several more massive attacks. and again urged the Western allies to supply Kyiv with more and better air defense systems. “Whatever the Moscow rocket worshipers count on will not change the balance of power in this war,” he said in an evening speech.
The mass strikes appeared to be a continuation of the Kremlin’s attempt to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Ukraine’s state energy company Ukrenergo said power consumption had been reduced by 50% as a result of the attacks. The company said that Russia had attacked thermal power plants, hydroelectric plants and main grid substations. Ukrenergo said it will take longer to repair the national grid and restore power than after previous Russian missile attacks, with priority given to “critical infrastructure facilities”.
Power infrastructure was affected across the country, leading to complete blackouts in the central and eastern Kharkiv regions of Ukraine. and Poltava. Nine power plants in the country were damaged by strikes on Friday, the Ukrainian energy minister, Hermann Halushchenko, said. The mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, said the missile attacks caused “colossal” damage to infrastructure and left the city without electricity, heat and water. A senior Ukrainian presidential official said emergency power outages were taking place in all the country.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said late Friday that only a third of its residents had heat and water and 40% had electricity.. The subway system, a crucial transportation artery, remained closed, he added.
The Kyiv city administration said the Ukrainian capital had withstood “one of the biggest rocket attacks” launched by Russian forces since they invaded Ukraine nearly 10 months ago. The administration said that the Ukrainian air defense forces shot down 37 of “about 40” that entered the airspace of the city. There were water cuts in all districts, Klitschko said.
At least eight people were killed and 23 wounded by Ukrainian shelling in Ukraine’s Russian-controlled Luhansk region, Russia’s state-run Tass news agency reported on Friday, citing an unnamed source in the emergency services. The shelling destroyed a building in the town of Lantrativka and some people were trapped under the rubble, Tass said. The head of the “people’s militia” in Luhansk also claimed that there were civilian casualties. as a result of the Ukrainian shelling in the city of Svatove Friday morning.
The White House has said that the next security assistance package for Ukraine was drawing near and that it was expected to include more air defense capabilities For the country. The Russian Foreign Ministry warned this week that if the US were to deliver sophisticated Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, those systems and any accompanying aircrew would be a legitimate target for the Russian military. Washington rejected the threat.
EU states should jointly buy weapons to replenish stocks after supplying Ukraine, the bloc’s defense agency said, warning that the United States may not always be able to protect Europe from threats. “Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine demonstrates our capacity deficiencies,” said Jiří Šedivý, executive director of the European Defense Agency. the agency was in talks with European arms companies about increasing production, he said, as well as with countries about joining together to buy equipment and ammunition.
European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said she welcomes the EU leaders’ agreement on the ninth package of sanctions against Russia. EU leaders agreed on Thursday to provide 18 billion euros in financing to Ukraine next year, as well as a new package of sanctions, which will appoint nearly 200 more people and ban investment in Russia’s mining industry, among other steps. the kremlin He said he would study the last package of the EU sanctions and then formulate your response.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday. The Kremlin said Putin gave “fundamental assessments” of the conflict in Ukraine during the call, at Modi’s request. Indian leader’s office was quoted as saying that he had reiterated his call for dialogue and diplomacy as the only way to advance in the conflict.
Putin will visit Belarus for talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday. The couple will discuss Russian-Belarusian integration “as well as current issues on the international and regional agenda,” said the Kremlin. Putin and Lukashenko will hold a one-on-one meeting in which they will “prioritize security issues and exchange views on the situation in the region and the world,” the Belarusian state news agency Belta said, without mentioning Ukraine.
Senior Ukrainian officials say Putin is preparing for a major new offensive in the new year, despite a series of humiliating battlefield setbacks for Russia in recent months. In an interview with the guardian, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov, He said that while Ukraine could now successfully defend against Russian missile attacks targeting key infrastructure, including the power grid, evidence was emerging that the Kremlin was preparing a new broad offensive.