At least nearly a dozen people have died since Friday in their clashes in eastern Ukraine, near Crimea, and in Russia itself.
By Stefan J. Bos
Ukraine was struggling Saturday with a new wave of rolling blackouts after relentless Russian attacks on energy infrastructure that started three months ago. Officials say the attacks took out half the country’s power generation capacity.
Ukraine’s Air Force did that in its eighth major attack on energy facilities overnight; Russia fired 16 missiles and 13 Shahed drones.
While Kyiv claimed its air defenses intercepted 12 of the 16 missiles and all 13 drones launched by Russia, there was still extensive damage.
State-owned power grid operator Ukrenergo said the strikes damaged equipment at facilities in southeastern Zaporizhzhia, injuring two workers and the western Lviv region.
Yet, with no significant changes reported at the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, both sides aim at infrastructure targets.
Moscow’s overnight attack on Zaporizhzhia and Lviv follows Ukrainian military strikes on three oil refineries in southern Russia overnight into Friday.
In addition, Russian authorities said a man was killed in Ukrainian shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine.
However, the Western NATO military alliance is concerned that Russia’s attacks on Ukraine will intensify with the support of several Asian countries, said Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Putin’s visits to North Korea demonstrates and confirms the very close alignment between Russia and authoritarian states like North Korea, but also China and Iran. And this also demonstrates that our security is not regional. It’s global,” he explained.
“What happens in Europe matters for Asia, and what happens in Asia matters for us,” Stoltenberg added.
But these words have done little to end the rising death toll, with the governor of eastern Ukraine’s partly occupied Donetsk region saying Saturday that Russian attacks had killed five people and wounded seven the previous day.
In the Russia-controlled part of the region, the Moscow-installed governor said three people were killed, and four were injured in shelling by Ukrainian forces Saturday morning.
Kyiv also said a policeman was killed in the partly occupied region of Kherson near the occupied Crimea peninsula as a result of a Russian drone attack on a checkpoint. And with the war far from over, more deaths and destructions were expected.