Russia's new commander in Ukraine says the situation in the southern Kherson region is “very difficult” as Kyiv forces wage an offensive to retake southern and eastern areas that Moscow illegally annexed last month.
"The situation in this area is difficult. The enemy is deliberately striking infrastructure and residential buildings in Kherson,” Russian air force General Sergei Surovikin told the state-owned Rossiya 24 television news channel on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
Surovikin’s comment seemingly acknowledged Russia’s plan to evacuate civilians ahead of Ukraine’s offensive to reclaim Kherson, one of four regions under Russian control.
He called Tuesday for an "organized, gradual displacement" of civilians from four towns on the Dnipro River, a 2,200-kilometer-long river that bisects Ukraine.
Regional head Vladimir Saldo told The Associated Press on Tuesday that residents of Berislav, Belozersky, Snigiryovsky and Alexandrovsky were to be moved across the Dnipro, away from Russian troops building “large-scale defensive fortifications.”
"The situation in the area of the 'Special Military Operation' can be described as tense," Surovikin said, according to Reuters.
Eight months ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered what he calls a "special military operation" because he said he wanted to ensure Russian security and protect Russian speakers in Ukraine. Ukraine and its allies accuse Moscow of an unprovoked war to grab territory from its pro-Western neighbor, Reuters reported.
Earlier Tuesday, Russian forces launched airstrikes on numerous Ukrainian cities, hitting energy facilities and cutting power and water supplies to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy characterized the Russian attacks on energy and critical infrastructure as “terrorist attacks” that eliminated any chance for peace talks with Putin. Zelenskyy said the attacks were aimed at driving the country into the cold and dark as winter approaches.
“Since Oct 10, 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country,” he tweeted Tuesday. “No space left for negotiations with Putin's regime.”
Russia and Ukraine held several rounds of talks in the first month after Moscow's February 24 invasion, but they collapsed. The Kremlin has said talks could only be possible if Ukraine meets Russian demands and accepts its takeover of Ukrainian territory, but Kyiv has rejected talks on such terms.
The mayor of Zhytomyr in western Ukraine said the entire city of 250,000 was initially without electricity and water after a double missile strike Tuesday on an energy facility there. Quick repairs restored power to some homes, but hours later about 150,000 residents were still without power.
Missile strikes also hit an energy facility in Kyiv and killed two people, while a strike severely damaged another energy plant in the south central city of Dnipro, Ukrainian authorities said. A regional Ukrainian governor in the eastern city of Kharkiv said that eight rockets fired from across the nearby border with Russia hit an industrial area.
A barrage of explosives-laden drone attacks Monday on Kyiv and the airstrikes on energy and water facilities appear to be aimed at diminishing the capability of the Ukrainian people to continue the fight against Putin’s eight-month invasion.
Ukraine says Russia is getting thousands of drones from Iran, although Tehran denies it is assisting Moscow. The Iranian-made Shahed drones that hit targets in Kyiv have also been widely used elsewhere in Ukraine in recent weeks.
An Associated Press photographer caught one of the Iranian drones on camera Monday, its triangle-shaped wing and pointed warhead clearly visible, though the Kremlin refused to confirm their use.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said that, in the past week alone, more than 100 self-destructing Iranian-made drones have slammed into power plants, sewage treatment plants, residential buildings, bridges and other targets in urban areas.
Britain’s defense ministry said Tuesday that in addition to the drone attacks, Russia has spent the past week using cruise missiles to carry out “a heightened tempo of long-range strikes against targets across Ukraine.”
"As Russia has suffered battlefield setbacks since August, it has highly likely gained a greater willingness to strike civilian infrastructure in addition to Ukrainian military targets,” the ministry said.
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
