Russia attacks Ukraine’s power grid, gains ground in the east By Reuters

By Olena Harmash

KIEV (Reuters) – Russian missiles hit power lines in Ukraine on Friday, a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrapped up a tour of western capitals, as Kiev said an expected Russian offensive was underway in the east.

Ukraine’s air force said 61 of the 71 Russian missiles had been shot down. But Energy Minister German Galushchenko said Russia had attacked power facilities in six regions with missiles and drones, causing blackouts in most of Ukraine.

Russia has repeatedly attacked civilian infrastructure far from the front lines, leaving millions of Ukrainians without electricity, heat or water for days in the dead of winter.

The shelling has often followed battlefield or diplomatic advances in Ukraine.

This came as Zelenskiy wrapped up a tour of London, Paris and Brussels, where he was enthusiastically received but got no public promises of the fighter jets he was asking for.

Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 10 Russian missiles had been shot down over the Ukrainian capital after sirens blared during morning rush hour and weary civilians took shelter.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Ukraine lacked 44% of nuclear generation and 75% of thermal power capacity.

European Council President Charles Michel said the attacks constituted war crimes. “The EU and its member states stand behind Ukraine and all Ukrainians. And they will further speed up the supply of military equipment, including air defense,” he tweeted.

Russia denies attacking civilians and says the facilities it attacks support kyiv’s war effort.

Ukraine has been preparing for a new Russian offensive, believing that after months of setbacks, President Vladimir Putin wants to tout a battlefield success before the February 24 anniversary of the invasion.

Putin will give his long-delayed annual speech to parliament on February 21. That was the date last year when he recognized as independent parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine that were controlled by Russian-backed separatists, a prelude to the invasion.

The full capture of those provinces, among the four that Russia later claimed to have annexed, would allow Putin to claim that one of his top priorities had been achieved.

Moscow’s main recent focus has been the small town of Bakhmut, with a pre-war population of around 70,000 who have mostly fled, in the Donetsk strip out of Russia’s reach.

RUSSIAN ADVANCES

After months of static artillery battles known to both sides as the “meat grinder”, Russian forces have finally begun to encircle the city. His troops include Wagner’s private army which has conscripted tens of thousands of convicts with the promise of pardons if they survive.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said Wagner’s forces appeared to have advanced two to three kilometers around northern Bakhmut since Tuesday, fast progress in a battle in which front lines have hardly moved for months.

He said they were now threatening the main western access road to Bakhmut, although a Ukrainian military analyst said supplies were still arriving.

While Wagner has increased the number of prisoners, Russia’s regular army can now field many of the 300,000 or more men who enlisted in a forced mobilization late last year.

Britain also said Russian forces had made some progress near Vuhledar, a strategically important Ukrainian-held stronghold at the intersection of the southern and eastern fronts.

But the British report said limited Russian gains there likely came at a heavy cost in inexperienced units, including at least 30 Russian armored vehicles abandoned in a failed assault.

Ukrainian positions at Vuhledar have stood since the start of the war as a linchpin for the front lines, and this week’s assault has been called a costly fiasco by some pro-war Russian military bloggers. The Gray Zone, a semi-official Wagner Telegram channel, said that “a disaster is unfolding around Vuhledar, and it is unfolding again and again.”

Reuters was unable to verify the reports from the battlefield.

Moldova accused Russia of firing a missile through its airspace and summoned Moscow’s ambassador.

Ukraine plans its own major military counter-offensive in the coming months to retake more than nearly a fifth of the Ukrainian territory that Russia occupies.

But it seems likely that it will wait until it has received at least some of the new weapons, including hundreds of battle tanks and armored vehicles, recently promised by the West.

Off the battlefield, pressure was mounting for a complete ban on Russian athletes from the 2024 Olympics, with Lithuania saying 35 countries, including major sports powers the United States, Germany and Australia, would demand it.