Russians struggle to restore power to occupied city of Kherson

Russian-appointed authorities said they were working to restore some power in the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson after what they called a “terrorist attack” on power lines in Ukraine.

The southern city in the region, which Moscow illegally annexed in September, was cut off from power and water on Sunday after three power lines were damaged.

Kirill Stremsov, deputy head of the pro-Kremlin government in the partially occupied Kherson region, said on Monday that “electricity and connectivity are being partially restored” in major cities.

The attack allegedly took place on the Berislav-Kakhovka power line, and Russian state media said the Kakhovka hydropower plant was also damaged by the Ukrainian attack.

Ukrainian officials have not responded to the allegations.

Mr Stremusov has repeatedly called for the evacuation of civilians from Kherson, on the west bank of the Dnieper, to Russian-held territory on the east bank in response to a major Ukrainian counteroffensive to retake the strategic port. Thousands of people have left.

The Ukrainian counteroffensive has recaptured some 88 settlements in the region, or about 13 percent of the territory previously occupied by Russian forces.

Russian soldiers in plainclothes had moved into Kherson’s apartment, presumably in preparation for the urban battle, Ukraine’s presidential office said on Monday.

A Kherson resident told The Associated Press (AP) that Russian military personnel went door to door and were forced to leave immediately if the tenants could not prove ownership of the apartment.

Last month, Ukraine’s Southern Combat Command said Russian troops occupying the Kherson region had been deliberately cutting off electricity and water supplies and depriving people of internet access to force their evacuation.

However, on Monday, the region’s government in Russia said it would stop “civilian vehicles crossing the Dnieper by waterways and pontoon ferries”, citing “increased military danger”.

Last month, Russia focused on cracking down on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leading to nationwide power shortages and rolling blackouts.

Parts of the capital city of Kyiv and its surrounding areas experienced rotating power outages every hour.

Ukraine’s state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo on Monday announced further blackouts in the Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Sumy, Kharkov, Poltava and Zhitomyr regions.

To repair Ukraine’s beleaguered energy system, the country needs high-voltage transformers as well as power distribution and communications equipment, experts say.

Gennadii Riabtsev, principal investigator for energy security at the National Institute for Strategic Studies, told The Associated Press that “it’s about continuous delivery, not one-time delivery.”

The first deliveries of high-voltage transformers from the EU are expected in the coming weeks, but supply is not enough to significantly improve the situation, he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address that about 4.5 million people across the country were without electricity.

He appealed to Ukrainians to endure hardship, saying: “We have to get through this winter and spring is stronger than it is now.”

Despite Russia’s recent success in sabotaging critical Ukrainian infrastructure, Moscow’s battlefield and mobilization efforts are showing signs of faltering, with conscripted Russian troops reportedly expressing their dissatisfaction with the way the war is being fought.

One such report by Russian online news outlet Vyorstka said hundreds of newly recruited fighters were killed in Ukrainian shelling recently in Ukraine’s Luhansk region.

Survivors and their relatives told exit officers to abandon them on the front lines, and the entire battalion was equipped with three shovels to dig trenches.

The soldiers’ families recorded a video address to the governor of Voronezh province, who were reportedly relocated from the Russian region, pleading with him to keep them off the front lines.

Another video on social media showed dozens of mobilized reservists protesting at a camp in Russia’s central Tatarstan region, reportedly frustrated by a lack of equipment, ammunition and food. They shouted obscene words at one of their commanders.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said 80,000 mobilized reservists had been deployed to Ukraine of the more than 300,000 reservists called up since September 21, but only 50,000 of them were in “combat forces” .

Putin’s remarks came amid a growing number of media reports that the reservists who were transferred had little training or equipment and were quickly killed in battle in large numbers.

There are also reports that Russian professional soldiers suffered heavy losses.

Russian war correspondents say the marines of Russia’s Pacific Fleet have lodged a complaint with Primorye Governor Oleg Kozhemyako, lamenting the fleet’s “several attack on Ukraine’s hard-hit village of Pavlivka”. “Some 300 people were killed, wounded and missing” in four days. Disputed Donetsk region.

Mr Kozhemyako said he ordered military prosecutors to investigate the complaint and later said the group’s commander had confirmed “losses, but not as (large) as the complaints allege”.

Russian-installed officials accused Ukrainian troops of shelling the regional capital, also known as Donetsk, with Himar rocket launchers earlier on Monday.

The city’s Kremlin-backed mayor, Alexei Kulemzin, said a fire broke out in an administrative building on the Donetsk Railway, but it was contained. The city of Donetsk has been controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014.

On Ukrainian-held territory, Russian shelling over the past 24 hours has killed at least three civilians and wounded seven others, according to Ukraine’s presidential office.

The deputy director of the office, Kerilo Tymoshenko, said Russian attacks in the Zaporozhye region targeted civilian objects, including cultural centers, farmers’ warehouses and private homes.

He said the Zaporozhye region — also illegally annexed by Russia in September but not fully controlled by Russian forces — had been shelled 52 times in the past 24 hours, killing one person.

Two cities near the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant – Mahanec and Merov – were shelled by heavy Russian artillery and remain without power.