Photo by Marie Rouilly on Unsplash
On 21 September, the Russian Air Force launched its first attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in a long time. Kyiv came under attack – at least 20 missiles were shot down in the airspace around the Ukrainian capital. As a result of the strike on Rivne, the city briefly lost electricity – the breakdown was quickly eliminated. Air defence systems destroyed 36 of 43 X-101/X-555 and X-55 cruise missiles. As anticipated, Russia is beginning a new phase of its campaign of terror against Ukraine’s energy sector – this year’s first attack on Ukrainian substations occurred much earlier than last year. This actualises additional air defence supplies on the eve of another hard winter that Ukrainians will have to endure.
The Russians are working on new routes to attack Ukrainian infrastructure. During the latest missile strike, cruise missiles manoeuvred over Ukraine for a long time in an attempt to exhaust air defences and hit the targets set by the operators. Another war crime of the Russian Federation has again affected Ukrainian civilians: as a result of a Russian missile hitting a hotel in Cherkassy, dozens of guests are under the rubble, fragments of downed missiles triggered fires of housing infrastructure in Kyiv – at the time of writing about seven injured Kyiv citizens, among them – a 9-year-old child. Russian missiles killed 3 residents of Kherson, which has been continuously shelled from the Russian-occupied territory of Ukraine. This attack confirms that Putin will intensify missile strikes in the coming winter season, similar to his tactics for the same period last year and that he is already preparing for it.
Russian war crimes claim the lives of Ukrainian civilians every day. Putin is the epitome of a war criminal committing genocide against Ukrainians on the basis of their nationality. The timely provision of additional air defence systems to the Ukrainian Armed Forces is extremely important: the lives of its citizens depend on the quality protection of the skies over Ukraine in the coming winter.
