Russia tightens Ukraine energy squeeze; launches evacuation
Russian missile strikes and shelling of energy utilities left more Ukrainian villages, towns and parts of two cities without power on Wednesday, authorities said, tightening an energy squeeze that threatens misery for millions in winter.
A nearly two-week barrage of Russian attacks with missiles, self-destructing explosive drones and other weaponry on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure comes as Russian forces are being forced back on the ground.
In Kherson, among the first Ukrainian cities seized by Russian forces in the February invasion, Moscow-installed authorities are bracing for a Ukrainian assault to take it back, telling residents to expect shelling and to evacuate. Text messages Wednesday urged people to leave the southern city, Russia’s state news agency reported.
Moscow-backed authorities have said evacuations from occupied territories are voluntary. But in many cases, the only routes out for evacuees are to Russia.
In a rare acknowledgment of the pressure that Ukrainian troops are exerting on the ground, Russia’s new invasion commander, Gen. Sergei Surovikin, on Tuesday described the situation for Russian forces in the Kherson region as “very difficult.”
Kherson is one of four partly or fully occupied regions that Russia illegally annexed last month, in an effort — widely condemned and rejected by Western nations — to cement its land grabs.
Proving incapable of holding all the territory it seized and struggling with manpower and equipment losses, Russia has stepped up bombardments from the air.
The scorched-earth campaign targeting Ukrainian power plants and other key infrastructure contrasts with Kremlin tactics in the invasion’s opening stage when Russian commanders had seemingly sought to spare some utilities they perhaps thought they might later need, had they not been beaten back.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted Tuesday that nearly a third of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed since Oct. 10, causing “massive blackouts” nationwide.
Later Tuesday, in his nightly video address, Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to make “a very conscious” effort to save power, speaking before another night where substations and other infrastructure were pounded. Zelenskyy said switching off appliances and doing other things to save power during hours of peak consumption help “the entire country.”
Agencies