Russia strikes power plants as Ukrainian forces extend gains

Bloomberg

Russia hit power plants deep behind Ukrainian lines, causing blackouts across the northeast of the country as Kyiv’s forces pressed a lightning offensive that’s reversed months of Moscow’s advances.
More than 30 settlements, including Kramatorsk and Dnipro, suffered Russian missile and air strikes over the past day, Ukraine’s General Staff said in its regular update on Facebook Monday. Kharkiv was one of at least two power plants struck by rockets.
Russia has suffered a major and unexpected strategic setback in Ukraine that could potentially mark a turning-point in the conflict, said two people close to the Defense Ministry and security services in Moscow. The war is now in its 29th week after President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, accused Russia in a tweet late on Sunday of “sending missiles to attempt to destroy critical civilian infrastructure,” in an apparent response to Kyiv’s liberation of territory that had been occupied by Russian forces.
The strikes hint at efforts to retaliate after a sudden breakthrough by Ukraine’s forces that sent Russian troops fleeing and put Moscow on the defensive. Ukraine’s top commander said that 3,000 square kilometers of lost territory have been returned to Kyiv’s control since the beginning of September.
Putin’s spokesman brushed off the Russian retreat in the northeast. The Ukraine offensive “will continue until the goals that were originally set are achieved,” Dmitry Peskov said. Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov announced that he was sending a new detachment to fight in Ukraine.
But with a lack of manpower and rapidly depleting equipment likely to become a growing concern for Russia’s forces, the risk is that Ukraine could try to cut off the Kremlin’s overstretched forces in the south and threaten Crimea, the person close to the Defense Ministry said.

Power Cut
Putin annexed the Black Sea peninsula in 2014 but it is relatively lightly defended, the person said. In a bid to raise the stakes, Russia will most likely escalate attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, the person close to the security services said.
On Sunday night, utility Ukrenergo reported damage from Russian “projectiles” to power-grid facilities in Ukraine’s northeast. A power and heat plant in Kharkiv region was damaged causing power cuts in several regions, including Poltava, while Kharkiv’s governor said that most of the region had been cut off. As of Monday morning, power had been restored in 80% of the Kharkiv region, while supply was resuming in Poltava.
Meanwhile, as a result of the recent losses, the Kremlin has put off referendums planned in the coming months annexing Ukrainian territory in the Donbas regions of Luhansk and Donetsk and the southern provinces of Kherson and Zaporozhzhia, two separate people familiar with the matter said.
Those losses accelerated over the weekend as Ukraine exploited a collapse of Russian defenses in the Kharkiv region bordering Luhansk and Donetsk, which includes Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv.