Third wave of Russian shelling blitz begins in Ukraine

A third wave of Russian missile attacks consisting of approximately 100 shells was launched against Ukraine today. Kyiv has taken a direct hit, with three blocks of flats on fire in the district of Pechersk in the city centre. Other explosions have also been confirmed in Lviv, Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Zhytomyr, Kryvyi Rih and Rivne, and some cities have been cut off from electricity. Critical infrastructure and power plants appear once again to be Russia’s main target. The Ukrainian government has already declared that emergency power cuts must be implemented across the whole country.

Most of the missile hits have been reported in central Ukraine and the north of the country. President Zelensky’s office has described the situation as ‘critical’. Massive power outages were also reported across Moldova after Russia struck a key power line responsible for transporting electricity into the country from Ukraine.

In the previous two waves of Russian attacks, carried out in October, dozens of missiles were fired and about half shot down by the Ukrainian air defence. Today, 70 out of 100 missiles were intercepted. Nevertheless, even intercepted missiles have to land somewhere. Having failed to hold the city of Kherson (Russia is now starting to evacuate from areas even on the right bank of the Dnipro river) and with his army on the run, Putin is left with no option but these missile attacks. The Kremlin’s strategy will be to subject Ukraine’s civilian population to electricity and heating outages in the winter.

In Bali, Sergei Lavrov right now is settling down to a G20 summit with other world leaders. Many have been critical of Russia at the summit and even Chinese leader Xi Jingping has called for Ukraine’s borders to be respected. Xi and French President Emmanuel Macron have asked for a ceasefire in Ukraine and for the resumption of peace talks. The Russian missiles raining down on Ukraine shows just how little Russia now cares about the norms of civilised debate or its status as a pariah state. This missile attack is Putin’s response to Zelensky’s peace deal, offered today at the G20 – to Kyiv, his answer is crystal clear.