Ukraine reports 'massive attack' on its energy infrastructure

Photo: Genya Savilov Agence France-Presse Destruction in Borodyanka, kyiv region, on November 7

Agence France-Presse in kyiv

Published at 0:44

• Europe

Ukraine reported early Thursday a “massive attack” on its energy infrastructure and said it had had to cut power, particularly in kyiv, at a time when Moscow is intensifying its military pressure on the country following the election of Donald Trump.

With temperatures hovering around 0°C, “once again the energy sector is under massive attack from the enemy,” the Energy Ministry said on Facebook.

Emergency power cuts have been implemented in kyiv, Odessa and Dnipro, the operator DTEK said.

A nationwide air raid alert has been issued, with the Ukrainian Air Force reporting missile strikes targeting the regions of Odessa (south), Kirovograd (centre), Kherson (east) and Mykolaiv (south).

On Tuesday, Russia announced a “response” to two new Ukrainian strikes using American ATACMS missiles against his territory the previous days.

Russia has been pounding civilian areas across Ukraine since the start of its invasion of the country in February 2022 and has stepped up its strikes as winter approaches, targeting energy infrastructure in particular.

For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have destroyed 25 Ukrainian drones overnight over the Bryansk region, close to Belarus, Crimea and the Rostov region (south).

On the front lines, Moscow is racking up territorial gains against a weakened Ukrainian army, less than two months before the US president-elect takes office.

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On Wednesday, the administration of outgoing President Joe Biden called on kyiv to lower the minimum age for military mobilization to 18 instead of 25 years currently to compensate for the lack of soldiers in the face of the advance of Russian forces on the ground.

This call comes at a time when Donald Trump could adopt a new approach and push kyiv to negotiate with Moscow.

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Crisis “existential”

A senior official in the current U.S. administration said Wednesday on condition of anonymity that Ukraine faces an “existential” recruitment crisis, with a dwindling pool of volunteers facing an enemy with larger and better-equipped forces.

“The truth is that Ukraine is not mobilizing and training enough troops to replace battlefield losses and sustain itself in the face of Russian forces,” he said.

kyiv has already lowered the minimum age for military service this year from 27 to 25. The White House said Wednesday that U.S. military aid would not be conditioned on a further reduction.

“We will absolutely continue to send weapons and equipment to Ukraine. We know that’s vital. But so is the human resources,” White House spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

Donald Trump for his part announced on Wednesday the appointment of ex-general Keith Kellogg, 80 years old, who has called on kyiv to make several concessions, as envoy to end the war between Ukraine and Russia.

“Together, we will obtain peace through strength and we will make America and the world safe again! “, the president-elect wrote in a post on his Truth Social network.

A vocal critic of the billions of dollars the United States has provided to Ukraine, Donald Trump promised to resolve the war between kyiv and Moscow before he was even sworn in in January — without ever explaining how.

In a memo published in April, Mr. Kellogg stressed that “any future U.S. military aid will require Ukraine to participate in peace talks with Russia.”

He also called for “postponing Ukraine’s NATO membership for an extended period” in order to “convince [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to participate in peace talks.”

Russia is benefiting from the help of North Korea in its current breakthrough, which U.S. officials say has deployed thousands of troops and is supplying Moscow with weapons.

In this context, South Korea and Ukraine have agreed to share information on North Korean troop deployments in Russia, Seoul announced on Wednesday.