At night, Kyiv is once again a city plunged into darkness, as electricity is strictly rationed. Here and there, in the backyards of buildings, you can hear the hum of a gasoline generator. If you look up at the darkened facades, you can see the glow of single lamps or garlands powered by electric generators. Others make do with the flickering light of a candle.
Moscow is intensifying its efforts this year, as it did in the first winter of the war, to plunge Ukraine into a cold hell. On Thursday, November 28, the Russian army fired 188 missiles and drones into the country, 114 of which were intercepted by anti-aircraft defense, according to the Ukrainian air force. They were mainly aimed at energy infrastructures. This was the second attack of this scale in November, and the 11th this year. One million Ukrainians woke up without electricity, according to regional authorities. Energy Minister German Galushchenko said Russia had dealt "a massive blow" to Ukraine's energy capacities.
The destruction of civilian energy infrastructure is a war crime for which the International Criminal Court (ICC) has already issued arrest warrants for Russian officials, first in March and then in June. This time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of using cluster bombs to undermine the energy sites and hamper the work of rescue and maintenance teams. A "despicable escalation," he said.
From Kazakhstan, where he is attending a regional summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the air raids on Ukraine were "a response" to Ukraine's use of American and British missiles against Russian territory. He also threatened to strike "decision-making centers in Kyiv" with the powerful Orechnik hypersonic missile, used for the first time on November 21 against the city of Dnipro. Putin had already suggested targeting military sites in Western countries supplying arms to Ukraine, pointing out that the missile's power, when used multiple times, is "comparable in strength to a nuclear strike."
Denouncing Putin's "readiness to kill and destroy," Zelensky warned that "Russian blackmail" would be met with a "tough response." He demanded new deliveries of air defense systems from Western countries. The Ukrainian president also linked the Russian attacks to the new political situation in the United States, saying that "Putin wants to escalate the situation now so that President Trump fails to end the war."
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