Russia destroys power and water infrastructure across Ukraine (wrapup)

Ukraine reported that nearly a third of its power plants had been destroyed by Russia over the past week as Moscow intensified its pre-winter campaign to target infrastructure, which the West claims is an intentional effort to disrupt and demoralize.

A number of people were killed when missiles hit power plants in a number of Ukrainian cities that are home to millions of people. Russia acknowledged attacking energy plants, but Ukraine claimed there had also been attacks on water infrastructure.

According to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president's office, "the situation is critical now across the country. The entire country needs to prepare for electricity, water, and heating outages."

When a Russian missile destroyed his apartment in the southern river port of Mykolaiv, at least one man perished.

The owner of a nearby flower shop damaged in the attack, Oleksandr, said, "They (Russians) probably take pleasure in this." They enjoy making us feel bad, and I believe they want us to bomb and shell their city structures, but we won't do that to set ourselves apart from them.

A strike on Kyiv reportedly claimed the lives of two more people.

Russian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy claimed that the country was still attempting to terrorize and murder civilians. He claimed on Twitter that 30% of Ukraine's power plants had been destroyed since October 10 and that this had led to widespread blackouts.

There have been reports of power outages in various locations throughout Kyiv, the Zhytomyr region to the west of the capital, and Dnipro, which is south of Mykolaiv but far from the front line where Ukraine is pressing Russian forces occupying its southeast.

Zelenskiy reiterated his refusal to engage in negotiations with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, whom he has charged with immorality.

He posted on the Telegram messaging app, saying, "The terrorist state will not change anything for itself with such actions." It will only confirm its murderous and destructive nature, for which it will undoubtedly be held accountable.

Zelenskiy has been derided by Putin as a puppet of Washington, which has provided Kyiv with security assistance worth more than $17.5 billion.

No information was immediately available regarding the total number of fatalities in Tuesday's attacks, which came after Russia sent swarms of drones to attack infrastructure in Kyiv and other cities, killing at least five people.

Moscow, which has pounded villages, towns, and cities across Ukraine during what it calls a "special military operation" needed to ensure its security against NATO by eliminating anti-Russian elements, denies purposefully targeting civilians.

The Russian defense ministry reiterated that it was carrying out attacks on military targets and energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine with high-precision weapons. This month, Russian troops were forced to retreat on two different fronts.

Both drones and missiles have been used.

'GENERAL ARMAGEDDON'

General Sergei Surovikin was appointed as the overall commander of Moscow's forces in Ukraine earlier this month by Russia. Surovikin served in Syria and Chechnya, where Russian forces used a brutal but effective scorched earth strategy to crush its enemies, razing entire cities to the ground.

Due to his alleged toughness, the Russian media gave him the moniker "General Armageddon," and his appointment was followed by the largest flurry of missile strikes against Ukraine since Moscow's invasion on February 24.

Putin claimed that those attacks were in retaliation for what he claimed was an attack by the Ukrainians on the bridge connecting Russia to Crimea, the peninsula it annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The bombing, for which Ukraine has not formally accepted responsibility, claimed at least three lives.

James Heappey, the minister for the British armed forces, claimed on BBC Radio that Surovikin was using a cruel and pointless tactic.

Heappey alleged that the new general in charge of the Russian operation was using some of his most potent and expensive weaponry against civilian targets hundreds of miles from the front line.

I can assure him that he will not succeed in his goal of inciting terror in order to weaken the will of the Ukrainian people.

DESTRUCTION

Two explosions rocked an energy facility in the city of Dnipro, a city of nearly 1 million people, causing serious damage, according to Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian presidential aide. The mayor of Zhytomyr, a city of 263,000 people, said Tuesday's attacks had cut off the power and water supply.

A Reuters witness heard explosions and observed smoke rising in the capital city of Kyiv. According to the Kyiv City Prosecutor's office, a Russian missile strike on an energy supply facility there resulted in two fatalities and one injury.

Additionally, there were reports of power facilities being targeted in Zelenskiy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih and in Kharkiv, a city with a pre-war population of 1.43 million people close to the Russian border.

A Reuters witness reported hearing three explosions in the early hours of Tuesday in Mykolaiv, a strategic port that Russia attempted to seize earlier in the conflict but was unsuccessful in doing so.

They claimed that a downtown building's one wing had been completely destroyed by a missile, leaving a sizable crater in its wake. A man's dead body was discovered being extricated from the wreckage by a fire crew.

Zelenskiy said, "I wonder what the Russian terrorists were fighting against at these absolutely peaceful facilities. In Mykolaiv, the enemy destroyed a residential building with S-300 missiles; one person died. There was also a strike at the flower market, the chestnut park.

On Tuesday, the governors of the Russian provinces of Kursk and Belgorod—which border Ukraine—reported cross-border shelling.

They claimed that two villages in Kursk were shelled, resulting in power outages, and a train station in Belgorod was shelled, resulting in the suspension of train service.