War in Ukraine: what to remember on the 257th day of the Russian invasion

Nicolas Tonev with AFP 06:59, November 07, 2022

Hit by gunfire, the power lines from the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam no longer supply Kherson with electricity or water.

This city in southern Ukraine now looks like a ghost town awaiting the fate reserved for it by the soldiers of each camp.

In the region, the mystery continues to thicken on the strategy of the men of Vladimir Putin and on that to come of the Ukrainian troops.

Information to remember:

• This is the first known power and water cut in Kherson.

• More than 4.5 million Ukrainians were without electricity on Sunday evening.

• Russia has destroyed around 40% of Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

A ghost town awaiting its fate

On the Russian side, widespread looting is organized.

If the soldiers were first used in private homes, as is the practice of the Kremlin army, it is now the Russian authorities themselves who are organizing a massive theft of the history of the region: the regional archives, museums are looted, with the aim of appropriating the past and relics including that of Grigori Potemkin, a lover of the great Empress Catherine II who had suggested that he annex the Crimea.

An exemplary hero for Vladimir Putin.

At the same time, the population is evacuated at the rate of several thousand people per day, while the Russian soldiers, still more than 10,000, would fortify their positions.

On the side of the Ukrainian army, with strikes on the Kakhovka dam, it would use for the first time a tactic of destruction of the civil infrastructure to weaken the opposing position.

This does not bode well, especially since the mass departure of civilians leaves the field open to the military to use all possible weapons in the defense or conquest of the city.

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Kherson is the main Ukrainian city taken by Russian forces since February.

Ukrainian troops have been closing in for several weeks.

Since the start of the conflict, the Ukrainian military has very rarely touched the civilian energy infrastructures that the Russians have seized, targeting instead the supply lines of the Russian army.

Russia, for its part, has destroyed about 40% of Ukraine's energy infrastructure in recent weeks with the help of missiles and suicide drones, which have caused power and water cuts in many places, including the capital Kyiv.

More than 4.5 million Ukrainians without electricity on Sunday evening

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a television interview on Sunday that he could not rule out a total blackout scenario in his city.

“We calculate different scenarios in order to resist and be ready,” he says.

More than 4.5 million Ukrainians were without electricity on Sunday evening, most of them in kyiv and its region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily address, acknowledging a "very difficult" situation.

The national electricity company Ukrenergo plans a new "energy deficit" for Monday and rotating cuts from 6 a.m. until the evening.

“Consumption should be reduced by 30%” to stabilize the network, explained Ukrenergo.

Volodymyr Zelensky said "to be aware that the terrorist state (Russia) is concentrating forces and means for a possible repetition of massive attacks on our infrastructures, in particular energy", and accused Iran of providing for this missiles in Moscow.

He said he discussed Sunday with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, how to "increase the pressure" on Tehran, whose "complicity with Russian terrorism must be punished".

Kakhovka dam hit by Ukrainian missile

Also on Sunday, the Kakhovka dam, located 60 km as the crow flies from Kherson and under Russian control, was hit by a Ukrainian missile, without causing any death or injury, according to the Russian occupation authorities.

The Ukrainian general staff assured for its part that in Kakhovka, "an attack (Ukrainian) was carried out against a building housing up to 200 enemy soldiers" and that the Russians "carefully hide the consequences of this attack" .

The Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, built along the Dnieper, notably supplies water to the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014 by Moscow.

Quoted by the Russian agencies, Ruslan Agaev, representative of the administration installed by Moscow in Nova Kakhovka, the village where this work is located, assured that the strike "did not cause critical damage".

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The risk of strikes on this strategic installation has been brandished since October by the Ukrainians and the Russians, who accuse each other of endangering the lives of "thousands" of inhabitants in this part of the region where kyiv troops have been advancing since september.

The Ukrainian president had accused Moscow two weeks ago of having "undermined the dam", one of the largest in Ukraine.

“Lies”, reacted the Russian occupation authorities.

Over the past three days, the Russian occupation authorities have carried out "evacuations" of civilians in the villages around the site in the face of a "possible missile attack" on the dam, the destruction of which would lead to "the flooding of the left bank " of the Dnieper, according to local authorities.

kyiv has repeatedly condemned these "deportations" of inhabitants of the region to territories less exposed to fighting, even to Russia itself.

25-year-old Taiwanese volunteer against Russian forces killed in action

On the ground, a 25-year-old Taiwanese volunteer against Russian forces was killed in action, the first known casualty from Taiwan since the start of the invasion of Ukrainian territory, the Foreign Ministry said in Taipei. .

In the Sumy region (north-east), a 62-year-old woman was killed and another woman injured in sustained daytime Russian bombardments on Vorozhbyanska, which included destroying electricity, gas and railway infrastructure, wrote on Twitter regional governor Dmytro Zhivitsky.

In the Donetsk region (east), "violent Russian attacks are underway (...) The enemy is suffering heavy losses but (...) continues to lead his mobilized soldiers and mercenaries to death", affirmed Ukrainian President.

Traveling to Bahrain, Pope Francis said he prayed on Sunday for "Ukraine so martyred and for this war to end", after more than eight months of conflict which left tens of thousands dead.