War in Ukraine | Russian attacks cause widespread power cuts in the West

(Kyiv) New Russian attacks on infrastructure in Ukraine have caused widespread power cuts in the west of the country, hundreds of kilometers from the front line, Ukrainian authorities said on Tuesday.

During the night from Monday to Tuesday, a Russian drone struck an “electrical infrastructure site” in Ternopil, a city with more than 220,000 inhabitants, its mayor, Serguiï Nadal, said on Telegram.

“Part of the city is without electricity,” he added, calling on residents to stock up on water and charge their phones.

This city was hit on Monday by another drone attack, which killed a civilian and injured at least three, and experienced major power cuts in November that left thousands of people without power.

Another night attack by Moscow targeted the neighboring region of Rivne during the night from Monday to Tuesday, the regional administration said on Telegram.

“Energy infrastructure was targeted,” said regional governor Oleksandr Koval. The strike did not cause any injuries, he added, without giving details of the damage.

Western Ukraine has been relatively unscathed since the Russian invasion began in February 2022, but Moscow has recently intensified its strikes on the country’s entire energy infrastructure, in a bid to disrupt the supply of electricity during the winter and undermine the morale of Ukrainians.

According to experts, Russia is trying in particular to destroy power transmission lines from power plants located in the west of the country to the East.

The Ukrainian Air Force, for its part, indicated that Moscow had attacked Ukraine with 28 drones overnight, 22 of which were shot down.

Ukrainian army says it stopped Russians from crossing river in east

Ukraine said on Tuesday it had prevented the Russians from crossing the Oskil River near the town of Kupiansk in the east of the country, a natural barrier which acts as a natural demarcation in this area, at a time when Moscow’s forces are eating away at terrain at other locations on the front.

“As a result of a successful operation, the enemy was destroyed. The right bank of the Oskil River is under the control of Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian army general staff said in a statement.

According to the army, Russian troops, more numerous, “crossed” the river in the Kharkiv region (Northeast) and tried to create “a bridgehead” on its eastern bank near the village of Novomlynsk, nearby of Koupiansk, before being pushed back by the Ukrainians.

Russia has not commented on these statements. The Russian Defense Ministry, for its part, limited itself to saying that its troops “had improved their tactical position” near the town of Kupiansk, without giving further details.

The Ukrainian army did not specify when these operations took place, but Ukrainian military bloggers who follow the fighting on a daily basis recently reported that the Russians managed to cross Oskil near Novomlynsk around November 24.

The creation of a Russian bridgehead in this area could further complicate the defense of Kupiansk, an important railway junction located around twenty kilometers to the south.

470 kilometers long, the Oskil (Oskol in Russian) has its source in the Russian region of Kursk, bordering Ukraine, before joining the Siversky Donets river in the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, where Kyiv’s troops are positioned on its western bank and those of Moscow, on the eastern bank.

The town of Kupiansk, which had 24,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion launched almost three years ago, was occupied by Moscow forces in the first days of the war, then recaptured by the Ukrainian army during its counterattack. -blitz offensive in fall 2022.

The Russian army also claimed Tuesday the conquest of two villages in the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk (East) and Zaporizhia (South), where its troops, more numerous than those of Kyiv, are on the offensive and gaining ground. across the entire front at a speed not seen since March 2022.

In a statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had captured the town of Romanivka, in the Donetsk region, about 9 kilometers south of the important town of Kurakhové, and that of Novodarivka. , located further south, in the Zaporizhia region.