Russian attacks hit ‘critical infrastructure’ in Ukraine capital Kyiv

KYIV – Russia’s latest attacks hit “critical infrastructure” in Kyiv and private houses surrounding the region on Monday, Ukrainian authorities said, adding that air defence systems destroyed about 15 drones directed at the capital.

Kyiv and surrounding areas came under attack again early on Monday, with the Ukrainian capital’s military administration saying

nine Iranian-made Shahed drones were shot down in Kyiv’s airspace.

“Air defence systems are at work in the region,” Mr Oleksiy Kuleba, governor of the Kyiv region said on Telegram. “Stay in shelters and safe places until the alarm is over. Take care of yourself and loved ones.”

Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that preliminary information suggested there were no deaths or injuries from the attack, and that medics were working at the sites of the strikes in the Solomyanskyi and Shevchenkivskyi districts of the capital.

Mr Kuleba said that infrastructure and private houses were damaged by the night drone attacks.

Air raid sirens were blasting off most of the night into Monday in Kyiv and the region around it, with the sky declared clear at 5.50am local time.

Ukraine is bracing for the

possibility that Russia will sharply escalate the war in a winter offensive

as Moscow tries to turn the tide on the battlefield and limit political backlash at home, a senior adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday.

Despite suffering severe setbacks over the first 10 months of war, the Russian military is now laying plans for mass infantry attacks akin to the tactics employed by the Soviet Union during World War II, Mr Mykhailo Podolyak said in written responses to questions.

His comments came as Ukraine’s top military and political leaders have been warning that Russia is massing troops and armaments to launch a renewed ground offensive by spring that likely would include a second attempt to seize Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.

Ukrainian officials have said they based their assessments of Russia’s war aims on the findings of their military and foreign intelligence agencies and after consultations with allies.

Mr Podolyak said Ukraine was taking the risk of a fresh Russian offensive seriously and emphasised that its allies should understand this, too. As Western governments plan for future weapons transfers to Ukraine, he suggested, the equipment should match the future threats.

Mr Zelensky said Ukraine was ready for all possible defence scenarios against Moscow and its ally Belarus, as Russian President Vladimir Putin headed to Belarus and Russian troops stationed there prepared to conduct exercises.

Officials in Kyiv have warned for months that neighbouring Belarus could join Russian forces and serve again as a launching pad for a new attack to form a second front in the months-long war.

“Protecting our border, both with Russia and Belarus – is our constant priority,” Mr Zelensky said after a meeting on Sunday of Ukraine’s top military command.

“We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios.”

Mr Putin heads to Belarus on Monday for his first visit in three and a half years with the Kremlin describing it as a broad “working visit” with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Belarus – one of Russia’s closest allies - allowed its territory to be used as a launchpad for Moscow’s Feb 24 invasion of Ukraine, but has not joined the fighting directly.

Mr Lukashenko has said repeatedly he has no intention of sending his country’s troops into Ukraine.

Whatever Mr Lukashenko might be persuaded to do for Russia“this will not help them, just like all the other sick ideas in this war against Ukraine and Ukrainians”, Mr Zelensky said.

Russian troops that were moved to Belarus in October will conduct battalion tactical exercises, the Russian Interfax news agency reported, citing the Russian defence ministry.

It was not immediately clear when and where in Belarus the exercises will be conducted.

Mr Zelensky on Sunday again called for Western nations to beef up Ukraine’s air defences after weeks of Russian air strikes targeted the country’s energy network as a freezing winter settles in.

Mr Zelensky said

power had been restored to three million more Ukrainians in the past 24 hours

following a massive missile attack on electricity infrastructure on Friday that killed three people and damaged nine power facilities.

“Electricity supplies have been restored to a further three million Ukrainians,” he said. “Plus six million yesterday. That means after the terrorist strikes on Friday, we have results already for nine million of our people.”

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.

Mr Zelensky told Ukrainians the armed forces were holding firm in the town of Bakhmut – scene of the fiercest fighting in the country for many weeks as Russia attempts to advance in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

“The battlefield in Bakhmut is critical,” he said. “We control the town even though the occupiers are doing everything so that no undamaged wall will remain standing.”

Mr Denis Pushilin, Russian-installed administrator of the portion of the Donetsk region controlled by Moscow, said that Ukrainian forces shelled a hospital in the Donetsk city, killing one person and injuring several others. NYTIMES, REUTERS