Putin says strikes, pulling out of grain deal are response to Crimea fleet attack
A barrage of Russian missiles has struck hydroelectric plants and other critical energy and water infrastructure across Ukraine. Russia said it hit military and energy infrastructure targets, but Ukraine said its military facilities were not targeted.
Large parts of Kyiv were left without power or water. The Ukrainian capital’s mayor said 40% of residents did not have water, with 270,000 apartments without power as of Monday evening.
Twelve grain export ships left Ukraine despite Russia’s decision to pull out of the Black Sea grain deal, Ukraine’s minister of infrastructure said. The UN also confirmed the first of 40 planned ship inspections was completed in Istanbul waters.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said the strikes and the decision to pull out of the Black Sea grain deal were responses to a drone attack on Moscow’s fleet in Crimea that he blamed on Ukraine. Putin told a news conference on Monday that Ukrainian drones had used the same marine corridors that grain ships transited under the UN-brokered deal.
Moscow called ship movements through the Black Sea security corridor “unacceptable”. In a statement, the Russian defence ministry said it wanted “commitments” from Ukraine not to use the Black Sea grain corridor for military purposes, adding “there can be no question of guaranteeing the security of any object” in the area until then.
The UN disputed Moscow’s claim that a civilian cargo ship carrying Ukrainian grain may have been involved in a drone strike against Russia. The UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said no such ships were in the Black Sea’s designated “safe zone” corridor at the time Russia said the attack had taken place.
France is working towards allowing Ukrainian food exports to go through land routes rather than the Black Sea.
Russia dismissed reports that its agents hacked Liz Truss’s phone and gained access to sensitive information.
Norway put its military on a raised level of alert to enhance its response to the war in Ukraine, though the prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, said no direct threat of invasion was detected from Russia.
Afghan special forces soldiers are being recruited by the Russian military to fight in Ukraine, three former Afghan generals have told the Associated Press. They said the Russians wanted to attract thousands of the former elite Afghan commandos into a “foreign legion” with offers of $1,500 a month and promises of safe havens for themselves and their families.
Also on Monday, the Russian defence ministry said Moscow had completed the partial military mobilisation announced by Putin in September and no further call-up notices would be issued.
A 40% cut in deliveries of Russian natural gas is hitting Moldova’s ability to provide sufficient electricity for its 2.5 million people, the deputy prime minister of the small ex-Soviet state has said.
