Russia carried out the most massive airstrike against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure today since the start of the war with the launch of more than 90 missiles, and it did so at the height of the G20 summit in Bali and after the humiliating withdrawal of its Army from the north of the Kherson region.
Alarm bells began to sound in the kyiv, Lviv, Chernigov, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Poltava, Sumi, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Volhynia, Khmelnitsky and Kirovogrado regions.
almost a hundred missiles
According to Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat, Russia launched more than 90 missiles from the Caspian Sea and the Rostov regionplus about ten Iranian Shahed kamikaze drones.
The number of missiles exceeds the 80 that Russia fired in the first massive attack on October 10 against the power grid in retaliation for the attack on the Crimean bridge.
The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, stressed in a video that also today most of the missiles They were directed against the energy infrastructure.
“It is clear what the enemy wants. He will not achieve his goal, ”he stressed. “We will repair everything, we will survive everything,” she promised.
Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko assured that “this is the most massive bombardment against the energy system since the beginning of the war“, on February 24.
The deputy chief of staff of the Ukrainian Presidency, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, indicated that most of the impacts were registered in the center and north of Ukraine.
More than 7 million consumers without electricity
Despite the fact that the anti-aircraft defenses shot down 73 missiles, according to Ignat, 15 energy infrastructures were damaged.
“The situation is critical,” said Tymoshenko, who explained that more than 7 million consumers are without electricity. The operator of the electricity transmission system, Ukrenergo, was forced to carry out emergency blackouts to balance the network.
In the capital, half of the consumers are without electricity. Three residential buildings in the central Pechersk district were hit by missiles, kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, noting that at least one person was killed in the attack..
The mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, specified that 80% of the city has been left without electricity and there is no hot water either.
“There are power cuts” also in Kharkov, confirmed the governor of that northeastern region, Oleg Synegubov.
“Does anyone seriously think that the Kremlin really wants peace? He wants obedience. But at the end of the day, the terrorists always lose”, tweeted the presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, who considered that the Russian attack responds to the “powerful speech of the president” in the G20.
The adviser to the Presidency, Mykhailo Podolyak, stressed that the bombardment in the middle of the summit supposes “Russia’s humiliation of all the leaders who supported the idea of ’dialogue’ with the aggressor.”
Zelenski warned during his telematic speech before his counterparts gathered in Bali that no one should ask his country to accept commitments on its sovereignty, territory and independence.
In the same way, Ukraine will not accept a “Minsk-3” Agreement that “Russia would immediately violate” as it did with the previous two on the cessation of hostilities in Donbas that were signed in the Belarusian capital in 2014 and 2015, he said.
“To liberate all our land from the Russians, we will still have to fight a little more.“, he pointed.
Zelensky’s Decalogue
The president nevertheless presented a decalogue for peace that is based on radiological and nuclear safety, food and energy security, the release of prisoners and deportees, implementation of the UN Charter, restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine and restoration of order world.
It also demands the withdrawal of Russian troops and the cessation of hostilities, restoration of justice, immediate protection of the environmentthe prevention of escalation with effective security guarantees for Ukraine and the confirmation of the end of the war in writing.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who replaced President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit and left Indonesia today before the meeting ended, described Zelensky’s proposals as “unreal and inadequate”.
The fighting continues
Meanwhile, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, assured that “the objectives of the Russian Federation will be achieved through its special military operation” as Moscow calls the war in Ukraine.
“We will fight as long as we have the strength to do so,” the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhnyi replied, including the liberation of the left bank of the Dnieper River in Kherson and the entire Donbas.
The pro-Russian administration of New Kakhovka, located on the left bank for the time being, already abandoned that city today in the face of intense bombing by the Ukrainian Army.
According to the spokeswoman for the Southern Command of Ukraine, Nataliya Gumenyuk, the Russian troops have had to retreat between 15 and 20 kilometers on the left bank of the Dnieper.
Russian rocket would have hit the border between Poland and Ukraine
The Polish Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has urgently summoned the Polish National Security Commission after reports emerged in the media that a Russian rocket could have hit the border between Ukraine and Poland.
According to said information, two rockets fell in the city of Przewodów in the province of Lublin (east) and caused the death of two people.
The spokesman for the Polish Government, Piotr Müller, announced to the press this afternoon in Warsaw the meeting of the Commission of the Council of Ministers for National Security and Defense Affairs and urged the media not to publish “unconfirmed information”.
“Any information presented to the Commission today will be communicated to the public afterwards to the extent possible,” he added, adding that the decision to call the meeting was taken together with Polish President Andrzej Duda.
MORE NEWS:
EFE International news agency based in Madrid and present in more than 110 countries.