Since early October, Russia has been launching numerous large-scale missile bombardments on Ukraine's energy infrastructure on a weekly basis. As damage mounts and a bitter winter approaches, each assault has a greater impact than the one before it.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy predicted further attacks this week that might be just as devastating as last week's, the worst one yet that left millions of people without heat, water, or power, in a video message.
Zelenskyy issued a warning to the people of Ukraine, saying they should brace themselves for another dreadful week of cold and darkness and that additional Russian strikes on infrastructure would continue until Moscow ran out of missiles.
"We understand that the terrorists are planning new strikes. We know this for a fact," Zelenskyy said. "And as long as they have missiles, they, unfortunately, will not calm down."
The assaults, which Russia acknowledges target Ukrainian infrastructure, are a war crime, according to Kyiv, because they are meant to hurt civilians. Although Moscow maintains that its goal is not to harm people, it warned last week that their suffering would continue until Ukraine acceded to its demands, which it did not specify.
As millions of people in and around the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv suffered from disruptions to electricity supply and central heating caused by the waves of Russian air attacks, snow fell and temperatures hovered around freezing.
A Ukrenergo statement claimed that when snowy winter weather set in, power units at many power plants had to undergo emergency shutdowns, and the demand for electricity has been increasing. "Once the causes of the emergency shutdowns are eliminated, the units will return to operation, which will reduce the deficit in the power system and reduce the amount of restrictions for consumers," it said.
In its evening briefing on Monday, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that Russia continued to heavily shell the important targets Bakhmut and Avdiivka in the Donetsk province and attacked the area near Kupiansk and Lyman, both of which Kyiv just retook. According to the report, Kherson, which Moscow abandoned earlier this month, and other towns on the west bank of the Dnipro River were being extensively shelled by Russian soldiers on the southern front.
In order to supply Russian forces entrenched there, a rail bridge north of the city of Melitopol, which is seized by Russia in the south, was alleged to have been demolished by Ukrainian forces.
