War in Ukraine: after hundreds of Russian strikes, the energy system on the verge of collapse

On the night of November 16 to 17, the Ukrainian populations suffered one of the most massive Russian air attacks targeting its energy network. More than a hundred missiles and drones hit the country. Victims are reported in Lviv, Kherson, Zaporizhia, the suburbs of kyiv and Odessa. Concern is growing among populations on the eve of winter, as power and heating have had to be cut off in several regions.

The increase in attacks by the Russian army on thermal power plants and essential crossing points of the electricity network has in fact already seriously weakened the country's energy capacity. According to Ukrainian journalistic sources, half of the electricity production sites are now out of use. On kyiv's side, a ceasefire and the launch of a negotiation process to stop the war therefore seem more necessary than ever.

Olaf Scholz spoke with Vladimir Putin

This need to move towards peace by rediscovering the paths of diplomacy has become so marked that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, seems to have himself returned from “ peace through strength » which he presented, until recently, to public opinion and to his NATO allies as the only viable strategy. “ We must do everything to ensure that this war ends next year. We must end it by diplomatic means “, he said on Saturday November 16 in an interview on Ukrainian public radio. He also mentioned a situation “ really complicated » on the eastern front, where the Russian army continues to advance.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also hit the headlines this weekend by making a phone call to Vladimir Putin to ask him to demonstrate that Russia would be “ ready for serious negotiations with Ukraine with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace.”

The German leader's intervention is certainly based primarily on internal considerations on the eve of early elections in the face of public opinion worried about a warlike escalation and which is increasingly critical of military support. granted by Berlin to kyiv. If Zelensky now wants a diplomatic solution, he obviously did not appreciate the chancellor's effort in this direction, believing that he risked opening “Pandora's box” of bilateral arrangements between imperial powers. Western countries and the Kremlin Tsar.