KYIV/BERLIN, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Russia bombarded Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in waves on Tuesday, knocking out power to swathes of the country with dozens of missiles and hundreds of drones, a week before US-brokered peace talks were due to resume.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said at least 33 people had been killed on Monday when Russia twice bombed a school being used for aid distribution in the village of Komyshuvakha, near the front line in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. About 50 people were still believed to be buried under the rubble, he said.
Russian officials said Ukraine had set fire overnight to a major oil refinery in the city of Yaroslavl.
The attacks, less than two days after the end of a brief humanitarian truce in the Russian-controlled town of Oleshky agreed with the help of US first lady Melania Trump, did not bode well for the talks that the US has scheduled for Abu Dhabi on November 10-11.
Moscow said its forces had targeted Ukrainian military units in areas around Komyshuvakha and two other settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region. It said in a statement on Tuesday that up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed, while 15 vehicles and an electronic warfare station were also destroyed.
At a press conference in Berlin with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Zelenskiy said the attack showed that Moscow was intent on killing people instead of building on the humanitarian ceasefire in and around Oleshky.
FLURRY OF MEETINGS TO INCLUDE UKRAINE, ALLIES, US, RUSSIA
Germany has become Ukraine’s largest supporter in its war against Russia’s invasion since Donald Trump returned to the US presidency last year and withdrew US financial support.
Merz said the talks were “the right step” to help bring fighting to an end, and that Europe must be part of the process.
“But I would also say it is important for Russia to finally engage in serious negotiations on a ceasefire and a subsequent peace agreement,” he added. “I have not seen any sign of this so far.”
Ahead of those talks, the European Commission said it would host a meeting on Ukraine on Wednesday with the US, NATO and European allies, as well as Ukraine itself. Zelenskiy said they would discuss a “prosperity plan” and security guarantees for Ukraine. The transatlantic alliance said it would host further consultations on Thursday.
Zelenskiy said Russia had launched 289 drones, 17 ballistic missiles and 59 cruise missiles overnight, hitting power plants and substations from the Black Sea port of Odesa in the south to Rivne in the west.
Ukraine’s largest private generating company, DTEK, said three of its five thermal power plants had been knocked offline.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, writing on Telegram, described the situation with power in the city as “extremely difficult.”
Russia, he said, was “continuing to destroy Ukraine’s unified energy system”, damaging generating capacity and transmission lines. And facilities in and around Kyiv had been damaged in recent days, prompting the introduction of emergency power cuts.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal, writing on Telegram after meeting Western ambassadors, said Russian forces had deployed three drones in the direction of a substation vital to the operations of the Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant.
These actions, he said, “create a threat not only to Ukraine but also to nuclear safety throughout Europe.” Khmelnytskyi is one of Ukraine’s four nuclear plants, including the Zaporizhzhia station, under Russian control from the early weeks of the February 2022 invasion.
With memories still fresh of last winter’s bitter cold, when Russian strikes left millions without power and heating for days at a time, many Ukrainians fear the months ahead, as several cities already suffer long outages.
“This winter is going to be very hard,” said Olha Hyria, a 49-year-old resident of Dnipro in central Ukraine.
“Russia is striking power plants, heating plants, and that means this winter is going to be very difficult.”
In Dnipro, two people were killed and about 20 wounded in the attacks, regional officials said.
Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi said a train station, passenger carriages and locomotives had also been hit.
RUSSIAN STRIKES COINCIDE WITH US ELECTIONS
“It is very telling that all of this is happening on the day of the US congressional elections,” said Zelenskiy, appealing to allies for additional air defences. “The Russians believe that America will not notice this signal from them. But such terror must be noticed and stopped.”
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its troops had struck electricity facilities in several regions that supply power to military factories and the Ukrainian army.
In more than four years of war, Russia has repeatedly targeted the Ukrainian energy system, destroying generation, distribution and heating facilities. The attacks have worsened each year as winter approaches. This year, Ukraine has stepped up its strikes on Russian oil refineries.
Ukrainian officials said the overnight onslaught was one of the largest of the war, causing power cuts across the capital Kyiv and at least six other regions, and disrupting water supplies and transport in the capital.
(Reporting by Olena Harmash in Kyiv and Sergiy Chalyi in Dnipro, Additional reporting by Lina Golovnya and Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Peter Graff, Kevin Liffey, Ron Popeski and Sanjeev Miglani)
