President Volodymr Zelenskyy said Russia fired at least 85 missiles on Tuesday, “most of them at our energy infrastructure” and knocked out power in several cities. “We are working, we will restore everything. We will survive everything,” the president said. The energy minister said it was the “most massive” bombing of power facilities in the nearly nine-month Russian invasion. The barrage of attacks came as leaders of the Group of 20 nations met in Bali for a summit dominated by Moscow’s war on Kyiv. It also followed days of euphoria in Ukraine after one of its biggest military successes in the nearly nine-month Russian invasion – the recapture of the southern city of Kherson last week. As battlefield casualties mount, Russia has increasingly resorted in recent months to targeting Ukraine’s power grid, knocking out power in several sectors. Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from Kyiv, said the latest attacks are a clear attempt by Russia to “weaponize” the coming winter by leaving people in the cold and dark. “The temperature is set to minus six [degrees Celsius – 21 Fahrenheit] later this month,” Hull said. On Tuesday, more than a dozen Ukrainian regions reported attacks, which hit areas of cities including Kyiv, Lviv and Rivne in the west, Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the northeast, Kryvyi Rih, the home of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Poltava in the center, Odessa in the south and Zhytomyr in the north. In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said authorities found a body in one of three residential buildings that were hit and said about half of the capital was without power. Lviv’s mayor said power had been cut in the city, and Kharkiv’s mayor Ihor Terekhov said critical infrastructure had been damaged there as well. “There are problems with the energy supply. Overground electric transport and the subway have stopped,” Terekhov wrote on Telegram. Rivne Governor Vitaly Koval said there were rocket attacks but did not report any casualties in his city. Neighboring Moldova was also affected by the attacks. It reported massive power outages after the raids knocked out a key power line supplying the small nation, an official said. Earlier on Tuesday, Zelensky told world leaders that there would be no respite in Ukraine’s campaign to expel Russian troops from his country. “We will not allow Russia to wait it out, build up its forces and then start a new round of terrorism and global destabilization,” he said in a video speech at a summit of G20 major economies in Indonesia. After the barrage of Russian attacks, Andriy Yermak, the president’s chief of staff, tweeted: “Russia responds to @Zelenskiy’s strong speech at #G20 with a new missile attack. Does anyone seriously believe that the Kremlin really wants peace? He wants obedience. But at the end of the day, terrorists always lose.” Russia responds to @ZelenskyyUa’s strong speech at the #G20 with a new missile attack. Does anyone seriously believe that the Kremlin really wants peace? He wants obedience. But at the end of the day, terrorists always lose. — Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) November 15, 2022 Tuesday’s attacks came as authorities were already working furiously to get Kherson back on its feet and begin investigating alleged Russian abuses there and around it. The city’s remaining 80,000 residents are without heat, water or electricity and are short of food and medicine. The head of the UN human rights office’s monitoring mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, on Tuesday denounced a “terrible humanitarian situation” there. Speaking from Kyiv, Bogner said her teams were trying to travel to Kherson to try to verify allegations of nearly 80 cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention. Ukraine’s National Police chief Igor Klymenko said authorities are to begin investigating reports from residents of Kherson that Russian forces have set up at least three alleged torture sites in now-liberated areas of the greater Kherson region and that “our people can to have been held and tortured there.” Zelensky likened the recapture to the Allied landings in France on D-Day in World War II, saying both were milestone events on the road to eventual victory. However, large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine remain under Russian control, and Zelensky warned of possible bleaker news ahead. “Everywhere, when we liberate our land, we see one thing – Russia leaves behind torture chambers and mass graves… How many mass graves are there in the territory that still remains under Russian control?” Zelensky asked.
