Russian forces struck Kyiv’s critical infrastructure in the early hours of Monday, causing power outages and interruptions to the water supply in some areas of the city, the Ukrainska Pravda website reported.
Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging service: "Part of the capital has been left without power as a result of strikes on critical infrastructure facilities.”
He added: “There is no running water in several of the city’s districts. All services are at work. More details later," as cited by Ukrainska Pravda.
A total of seven or eight explosions were heard in Kyiv at 8 a.m. local time on Monday, the kyivindependent.com website reported.
Strikes on cities across Ukraine
Meanwhile, air-raid alerts were announced throughout Ukraine on Monday morning, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
There were two explosions in the western city of Lviv, as well as strikes on the northeastern city of Kharkiv, the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, the central provinces of Vinnytsia, Cherkasy and Poltava and other regions, according to PAP.
Russia fired a total of 55 missiles at Ukraine in the Monday morning barrage, kyivindependent.com reported, citing Ukraine's Air Force.
In Zaporizhzhia, Russian missiles hit several critical infrastructure facilities, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
Oleksandr Starukh, who heads the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, said on Telegram: "Around 08:00, the enemy carried out missile strikes on Zaporizhzhia. Early reports indicate the missiles were air-launched.”
He added: “Critical infrastructure facilities have been damaged. Power outages might occur."
The official added, as cited by Ukrainska Pravda, that as of 8.40 a.m., there were no casualties and rescue services had been dispatched to the scenes of the attacks.
Emergency blackouts
As a result of Russia’s massive attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, emergency power outages were introduced in Ukraine on Monday, Ukrainska Pravda also reported.
Kyrylо Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Office of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, announced on Telegram: "Important! Due to massive shelling of critical infrastructure, emergency power outages are being introduced."
Tymoshenko added that some Russian rockets were shot down by Ukraine’s air defences, but others hit their targets; technical crews were working on the ground to repair the damage, as cited by Ukrainska Pravda.
On the battlefield, Ukrainian troops "conducted further offensive operations in northeastern Ukraine, and Russian forces continued to set conditions for a withdrawal from Kherson” in southern Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War reported.
Meanwhile, Russia announced plans "to supply 500,000 tons of grain to the 'poorest countries' following its withdrawal from the deal that allowed Ukraine to export its grain," the ISW added on Sunday.
Putin to continue conventional military operations in Ukraine: ISW
In its latest analysis of the war in Ukraine, published on Sunday night, the Washington-based think tank also wrote that “Russian President Vladimir Putin will most likely try to continue conventional military operations in Ukraine to hold currently occupied territories, gain new ground, and set conditions for the collapse of Western support for Ukraine that he likely expects to occur this winter.”
According to the US analysts, “Putin has likely not abandoned hopes of achieving his maximalist aims in Ukraine through conventional military means, which he is pursuing in parallel with efforts to break Ukraine’s will to fight and the West’s will to continue supporting Kyiv.”
The ISW assessed that Putin "is unlikely to escalate to the use of tactical nuclear weapons barring the sudden collapse of the Russian military permitting Ukrainian forces to make uncontrolled advances throughout the theatre.”
The US experts said: “Such a situation is possible but unlikely. Putin is extraordinarily unlikely to seek direct military conflict with NATO.”
At the same time, Putin "is very likely to continue to hint at the possibility of Russian tactical nuclear use and attacks on NATO,” in a bid “to break Western will to continue supporting Ukraine,” the US think tank said.
The ISW added that its forecast was based on two assessments: “First, that Putin is setting conditions to continue throwing poorly prepared Russian troops directly into the fighting in Ukraine for the foreseeable future rather than pausing operations to reconstitute effective military forces. Second, that Putin’s theory of victory relies on using the harsh winter to break Europe’s will.”
Monday is day 250 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Source: PAP, understandingwar.org, pravda.com.ua, kyivindependent.com