Zelenskiy says about 4 million people without power after targeted Russian attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his forces would not yield “a single centimetre” in fighting for control of eastern Donetsk region after earlier insisting that restoration of Ukrainian territory and compensation from Russia were conditions under which peace talks could take place. “The activity of the occupiers remains at an extremely high level – dozens of attacks every day,” Zelenskiy said. “They are suffering extraordinarily high losses. But the order remains the same – to advance on the administrative boundary of Donetsk region. We will not yield a single centimetre of our land.”
The Ukrainian president said about 4 million people were without power in 14 regions plus the capital, Kyiv, but on a stabilisation rather than an emergency basis. Russian missile and drone attacks have targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for weeks as winter approaches when temperatures can drop as low as -20C.
The Ukrainian military accused Russian troops of continuing to loot and destroy infrastructure in Kherson, where a showdown has been looming for weeks in the only regional capital Russia has captured since its invasion. “On 7th November, a convoy of trucks passed over the dam of the Kakhova hydroelectric station loaded with home appliances and building materials,” a statement said. Russian forces were dismantling mobile phone towers and taking away equipment, it said.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Russia was preparing new fortified lines deep inside territory it controls “to forestall any rapid Ukrainian advances in the event of breakthroughs”. This involved installing concrete barriers known as “dragon’s teeth” to stop tanks, including near Mariupol in the south to help safeguard Russia’s “land bridge” to occupied Crimea even if Moscow loses other territory.
Zelenskiy called on Tuesday for an extension to the Black Sea grain export deal that lifted a Russian blockade of three major Ukrainian ports and eased a global food crisis. The accord, brokered by Turkey and the UN in July, expires on 19 November and looked in jeopardy in October when Russia briefly suspended its participation before rejoining. Ukraine also wanted the grain export deal expanded to include more ports and goods, and hoped a decision to renew the pact for at least a year would be taken next week, the deputy infrastructure minister said in a Reuters interview.
Pro-Kremlin forces in Russia are hoping that the Republicans win control of Congress, an outcome they believe could mean the Democratic president, Joe Biden, finds it harder to get military aid packages for Ukraine approved. But for now, few in Moscow expect the bipartisan US political consensus on Ukraine to crack, whatever the result of Tuesday’s midterm elections.
Zelenskiy urged the US to stay united in its support and for US politicians to maintain “unwavering unity” and follow Ukraine’s example “until peace is restored”.
The US and Russia will soon hold talks on resuming suspended nuclear arms control inspections that had been put on hold during the Covid-19 pandemic and languished after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the state department spokesman Ned Price said. Negotiations on the inspections would take place “in the near future” under the terms of the New Start treaty and would not include any discussion of the conflict in Ukraine.
Zelenskiy has told world leaders they will not be able to tackle the climate crisis unless Russia’s invasion of his country ends. “There can be no effective climate policy without the peace,” he said in a video address at the Cop27 UN climate summit in Egypt.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will join next week’s G20 summit “if the situation is possible”, his Indonesian counterpart, Joko Widodo, who is hosting the meeting, said on Tuesday, adding that Putin could attend virtually instead. On Monday the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Putin would decide by the end of the week whether he would attend.
Zelenskiy will take part in the G20 meeting in Bali, most probably attending virtually, his spokesman has told Suspilne, the Ukrainian public broadcaster. Previously the Ukrainian position was that Zelenskiy would not appear if Putin did.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
