KYIV | Russia claimed responsibility for new “massive” strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure on Tuesday, for which the G7, meeting urgently, promised to “hold Russian President Vladimir Putin to account”.
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Already on Monday, Russian bombardments on a scale unmatched for months had hit Kyiv (for the first time since June 26) and other cities in Ukraine, killing at least 19 people and injuring 105 and sparking an international outcry.
On Tuesday, Russia, which has suffered many military setbacks recently, continued its firing, on a smaller scale, striking in particular very far from the front the energy installations in western Ukraine.
In a virtual meeting with the G7, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked him to help him create an “air shield” over Ukraine, warning that “the Russian leader, who is at the end of his reign, still has means of escalation”, according to the English text of his speech released by the Ukrainian presidency.
Deploring in a press release “the Russian strategy of deliberate escalation” and its “irresponsible nuclear rhetoric”, the G7 condemned “in the most vehement possible way” these “indiscriminate attacks against innocent civilian populations” which are “a crime of war”, promising to “hold President Vladimir Putin to account”.
Warning in Belarus
The G7 also warned Belarus that the creation of a joint military force between Moscow and Minsk constitutes “the most recent example of (its) complicity” with Russia in the war against Ukraine. Mr. Zelensky called on the seven richest countries for an international observation mission on the border between Ukraine and Belarus.
On Tuesday, Minsk assured that the joint Russian-Belarusian force was “purely defensive”. The only ally of Moscow in this war, without however having sent his troops to Ukraine, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko justified the initiative by accusing Kyiv of preparing an attack against his country.
In Ukraine, the city of Zaporijjia (south), close to the front and pounded by the Russians in recent weeks, suffered on Tuesday, according to the Ukrainian authorities, a salvo of 12 S-300 missiles on “civilian” infrastructure, killing one person. .
New deadly Russian strikes hit the Zaporizhia region on Tuesday evening, according to the deputy head of the presidential administration Kiril Tymoshenko. “Russian terrorists (…) bombed Orikhiv and Stepnogirsk”, killing seven and injuring seven, he tweeted.
Bombings also caused “severe destruction” on energy installations in the Dnipro region, depriving power to “many villages”, according to the regional governor.
Kyiv was spared. But the electricity operator serving the capital, DTEK, announced that, due to a lack of power, “from Tuesday” regular power cuts would affect different districts, as winter approaches and Ukrainians fear water shortages. , heating and electricity.
The Ukrainian government has called on the population to “limit” their electricity consumption.
Moscow: objective “achieved”
In Moscow, the Ministry of Defense welcomed that these “massive strikes” against “targets of military command and the energy system of Ukraine” had “achieved their objective”.
The bombardments were on a smaller scale than on Monday, when dozens of missiles, rockets and drones fell on Ukrainian military, energy and communication infrastructure, but also on civilian sites (university, playground, parks, pedestrian bridge in Kyiv…)
Retaliation for the attack, “terrorist” according to Vladimir Putin, which damaged on Saturday the bridge connecting Russia to Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014. Highly symbolic and strategic, this road and rail viaduct is used for Russian supply in southern Ukraine where Kyiv forces are conducting a counter-offensive.
The attack on the bridge came after a series of Russian military setbacks in northeastern, eastern and southern Ukraine.
A sign of these difficulties, Vladimir Putin ordered the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists in September, causing the massive departure of Russians from the country.
Westerners had already reaffirmed their support for Kyiv after Monday’s wave of bombings, Joe Biden promising “advanced systems” of air defense, just like Germany.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg saw it on Tuesday as “a sign of weakness, because Russia is losing on the battlefield.”
The Atlantic Alliance has “doubled” its presence in the Baltic and North Seas to “more than 30 ships” after the recent sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, Stoltenberg added.
On the same day, “in view of the violence of the fighting in Ukraine”, France announced the forthcoming dispatch of armored infantry and Leclerc tanks and a doubling of its military personnel to Romania, to reinforce the local mission of NATO.
78 civilians exhumed
In eastern Ukraine, in the Donetsk region, authorities announced on Tuesday that they had exhumed the bodies of 78 civilians in two towns recently reconquered by Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said some bodies showed signs of “violent death”, two being charred, in Sviatorguirsk. In Lyman, some 110 graves were counted, from which 44 bodies were immediately exhumed, including those of “a one-year-old child and his entire family”.
Ukraine has accused the Russian forces of numerous abuses, discovering during Russian retreats the graves of killed civilians or victims of torture or summary execution. Moscow systematically denies.
In Russia, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, bordering Ukraine, accused Kyiv on Tuesday of carrying out a strike on an electrical installation in Chebekino, seven kilometers from the Ukrainian border, which deprived of power “more than 2,000 inhabitants” without causing any casualties.
Nuclear danger, again
In St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin spoke on Tuesday with Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), apparently without much result.
The Russian President said he was “open to dialogue” about the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia (southern Ukraine), which has been militarily controlled by Russia since March, while Mr. Grossi reiterated his call to set up “a zone of protection”.
“We must do everything in our power to prevent a nuclear accident” which would affect Ukraine and beyond, he urged in a press release, pointing to an “increasingly dangerous situation (… ) with frequent military attacks that threaten nuclear security”.
For months, Russians and Ukrainians have accused each other of shooting in the area and risking causing a nuclear accident.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has called for a ceasefire “as soon as possible” between the belligerents. A meeting between the Russian and Turkish presidents is scheduled for Thursday in Kazakhstan, on the sidelines of a regional summit.
Both Moscow and Kyiv believe that negotiation is impossible.