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Air-Raid Alerts Sound Across Ukraine As Fierce Fighting Rages In East

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service December 01, 2022

Air-raid alerts were issued across all regions of Ukraine in the early afternoon on December 1 as fighting raged in the eastern region of Donetsk while in the south, heavy Russian bombardment knocked out power again in the regional capital of Kherson, where power had only started to be restored after Russian troops fled the city across the Dnieper River.

"An overall air-raid alert is in place in Ukraine. Go to shelters," Ukraine's border service wrote on Telegram following warnings that Russia was preparing a new wave of missile and drone strikes.

German magazine Der Spiegel reported on November 30 that Russia may be preparing a new massive wave of attacks on Ukraine that would involve strategic bombers. Der Spiegel also published satellite images of the Engels-2 military airfield near the southwestern city of Saratov purporting to show Russian bombers.

"Current satellite images show unusual movement at a key Russian military airport. Experts see 'Engels-2' in high combat readiness and warn of a new powerful air raid on Ukraine," Der Spiegel wrote.

Across Ukraine, technicians were frantically working to restore electricity supplies heavily damaged by relentless waves of Russian bombardment that have left millions in darkness and cold at the onset of winter.

Donetsk, where Russian forces have been attempting to make further advances, remained the site of the heaviest fighting, the Ukrainian General Staff said on December 1, adding that Russian artillery pounded Ukrainian positions and several towns, including the flashpoint town of Bakhmut and nearby Soledar and Opytne.

Russian troops were building defense lines in the direction of the town of Lyman, the General Staff said. Fresh units as well as those that sustained losses "are being resupplied with personnel, ammunition, and fuel," it said.

The leader of Moscow-backed separatists in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, said in a post on Telegram on December 1 that Russia and Ukraine will each hand over 50 prisoners of war in the latest in a series of prisoner exchanges. Ukrainian officials have yet to confirm the swap.

On the southern front, the military said, Russian forces dug in on the left bank of the Dnieper River, taking up defensive positions, and trained tank, mortar, and artillery fire on the recently liberated city of Kherson, causing it to lose electricity again after technicians had restored it to more than half of the city's population.

Regional Governor Yaroslav Yanushevych said on December 1 in a statement on Telegram that energy workers were working to fix the problem.

In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian troops shelled the Nikopol region from artillery and rocket systems, destroying several houses, a gas pipeline, and an electric transmission line, said regional Governor Valentyn Reznichenko. No one was injured, he added in a message on Telegram.

Other battleground activity was reported in northeastern and central Ukraine, the military said.

The battlefield reports could not be independently verified.

The United States and other Western allies pledged more financial support and relevant equipment to boost Kyiv's energy resilience during a gathering of NATO foreign ministers in Romania on November 30.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference at the end of the meeting in Bucharest that Russia's strategy of targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure will not divide Ukraine's supporters.

Blinken said Russian President Vladimir Putin has focused "his ire and his fire" on Ukraine's civilian population, hitting infrastructure that provides heat, water, and electricity to Ukrainians.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on December 1 accused the United States and its allies of directly playing a role in the war by supplying weapons and training personnel to Ukraine with the aim of "destroying Russia as a player altogether."

He also defended the usage of air, drone and missile strikes to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure -- which Kyiv and the West have called war crimes.

Still, he said Russia remains ready to hold talks on settling the crisis. Ukraine has vowed not to negotiate with Moscow until all Russian troops have left its territory, which include the Crimean peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

With reporting by Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-forces-attack-east- strengthen-south-ukraine/32156801.html

Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.