KYIV: Ukraine accused Russian military of attacking civilian infrastructure in response to a rapid weekend offensive by Ukrainian troops that forced Russia to abandon its main bastion in Kharkiv region. Ukrainian officials said targets of retaliatory attacks included water facilities and a thermal power station in Kharkiv and caused widespread blackouts.

“No military facilities, goal is to deprive people of light and heat,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Twitter. Moscow denies its forces deliberately target civilians. Zelensky has described Ukraine’s offensive in northeast as a potential breakthrough in six-month-old war and said winter could see further territorial gains if Kyiv received more powerful weapons. In worst defeat for Moscow’s forces since they were repelled from outskirts of capital Kyiv in March, thousands of Russian soldiers left behind ammunition and equipment as they fled city of Izium, which they had used as a logistics hub.

Ukraine’s chief commander General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said armed forces had regained control of more than 3,000 square km since start of this month. Ukraine’s gains are important politically for Zelensky as he seeks to keep Europe united behind Ukraine supplying weapons and money even as an energy crisis looms this winter following cuts in Russian gas supplies to European customers.

Published in The Daily National Courier, September, 13 2022

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