Russian forces struck several areas in eastern and southern Ukraine early Sunday as utility crews scrambled to restore power, water and heating with the onset of snow and frigid temperatures, while civilians continued to leave the southern city of Kherson because of the devastation wreaked by recent attacks and of fears of more ahead.
With persistent snowfall blanketing the capital, Kyiv, Sunday, analysts predicted that wintry weather — bringing with it frozen terrain and grueling fighting conditions — could have an increasing impact on the conflict that has raged since Russian forces invaded Ukraine more than nine months ago.
Both sides were already bogged down by heavy rain and muddy battlefield conditions, experts said.
After a blistering series of Russian artillery strikes on infrastructure that started last month, workers were fanning out in around-the-clock deployments to restore key basic services as many Ukrainians were forced to cope with only a few hours of electricity per day — if any.
Ukrenergo, the state power grid operator, said Sunday that electricity producers are now supplying about 80% of demand, compared to 75% the previous day.
The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank that has been closely monitoring developments in Ukraine, said reporting from both sides indicated that heavy rain and mud have had an impact — along with wider freezing expected along the front lines in the coming days. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Russian Defence Ministry Press Service via AP |
Russian forces are striking Ukraine with Cold War-era nuclear missiles – with the nuclear warheads removed, crucially – according to British intelligence.
“Russia is likely removing the nuclear warheads from aging nuclear cruise missiles and firing the unarmed munitions at Ukraine,” the Ministry of Defence (MoD) claimed in its Saturday update on the course of the Russo-Ukrainian war, citing “[o]pen source imagery show[ing] wreckage of an apparently shot-down AS-15 KENT air launched cruise missile (ALCM), designed in the 1980s exclusively as a nuclear delivery system.”
AS-15 “Kent” is the NATO reporting name for what Russia refers to as the Kh-55, with the MoD suggesting that even without its nuclear payload “an inert system will still produce some damage through the missile’s kinetic energy and any unspent fuel” — although they added that it “unlikely to achieve reliable effects against intended targets” in this disarmed state.
“Russia almost certainly hopes such missiles will function as decoys and divert Ukrainian air defences,” the British suggested — an errant Ukrainian air defence missile is believed to have struck Poland in recent weeks, killing two civilians in the NATO country — but that “[w]hatever Russia’s intent, this improvisation highlights the level of depletion in Russia’s stock of long-range missiles.” --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:
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