Firefighters try to extinguish a blaze after a Russian missile strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, November 15, 2022 (CNBC)

Thursday’s Coverage: Ukrainians Attack Another Russian Airbase — Reports

Source: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1927 GMT:

Russian businessman Dmitry Sytii — a close ally of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group mercenaries — has been wounded in an assassination attempt in the Central African Republic, according to the local Russian Embassy.

Sytii officially works as the head of the Russian House culture centre in the CAR capital Bangui. He was sanctioned by the US in September 2020 for hislinks to Wagner, which has more than 1,000 fighters in the CAR.

Prigozhin, a long-time ally of Vladimir Putin, said Sytii received a mailed parcel which detonated in his hands.

He claimed, without any evidence, that France oversaw the assassination attempt, asking the Russian Foreign Ministry to declare Paris a state sponsor of terrorism.

The French Foreign Ministry denied involvement.

UPDATE 1919 GMT:

Ukraine State energy company Ukrenergo has lifted the state of emergency declared when Russian strikes reduced capacity by 50% (see 1347 GMT).

UPDATE 1916 GMT:

The death toll from this morning’s Russian missile strikes on Kryvyi Rih in south-central Ukraine has risen to three.

Another 13 civilians were injured, including four children — a 3-year-old girl and boy and a 7-year-old girl and boy.

UPDATE 1347 GMT:

Ukraine State energy operator Ukrenergo has cautioned, “Considering this is already the ninth wave of missile strikes on energy facilities, the restoration of power supply may take longer than before.”

Priority will be given to “critical infrastructure facilities” including hospitals, water supply, heat supply, and sewage treatment.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov says Ukraine’s second-largest city is without power, heating and water after strikes on three facilities caused “colossal damage” to infrastructure.

However, power has been restored in much of Kyiv:

UPDATE 1341 GMT:

Ukrainian air defences downed 60 of 76 Russian missiles this morning, says the head of Ukraine’s armed forces, Gne. Valery Zaluzhny.

Zaluzhny said Russia fired 72 Kalibr cruise missiles and 4 X-59 guided air missiles from the Caspian and Black Seas.

UPDATE 1126 GMT:

Ukraine’s State energy company Ukrenergo has declared an emergency situation after a loss of more than 50% of capacity from Russian strikes this morning..

Ukraine Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said nine generating facilities were damaged.

A spokesman for the Ukraine military said 37 of about 40 Russian missiles fired on Kyiv were downed by air defenses. Dnipropetrovsk Governor Valentyn Reznichenko said 10 missiles were shot down over the region in central Ukraine.

UPDATE 0912 GMT:

An 8-year-old boy was killed this week by a land mine in Kherson city in southern Ukraine, officials said on Thursday.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said this week that Kyiv needs help clearing mines and unexploded ordnance from more than 67,000 square miles of Ukraine, following liberation of areas from Russian invaders.

“This is the form of Russian terror that will have to be countered for years to come,” Zelensky said. “Terrorists deliberately try to leave behind as many death traps as possible.”

UPDATE 0859 GMT:

Ukrainska Pravda reports that Russia fired 72 missiles this morning.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the President’s office, confirmed that energy facilities in several regions were struck. Emergency blackouts have been implemented.

Dnipropetrovsk Governor Valentyn Reznichenko has confirmed that two people were killed when a residential building in Kryvyi Rih was struck. Five others, including two children, were injured.

Emergency services are working to free residents trapped under rubble.

UPDATE 0848 GMT:

In their latest attacks on Kherson city, liberated last month, Russian forces have killed four civilians.

Thirty shells were fired on the city on Thursday. Nine civilians were injured.

The latest Russian attacks across the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine have killed seven civilians and injured seven.

UPDATE 0818 GMT:

The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution criticizing the Russian occupation of Crimea.

The resolution passed 82-14 with 80 abstentions.

The text reiterated previous resolutions since 2016 on Russian human rights violations in Crimea, condemned the Russian use of Crimea for aggression against the rest of Ukraine, challeing Vladimir Putin’s “annexations” of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in southern Ukraine.

The General Assembly condemns the incitement of hatred against Ukraine and Ukrainians, as well as the spread of disinformation, which justifies the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, including through the education system.

Other passages criticized Russia’s arbitrary detentions, forced displacements and disappearances, and “filtration” procedures from interrogation to deportation to Russia, including of children.

UPDATE 0800 GMT:

Russian missiles are landing across Ukraine.

Local officials said critical infrastructure has been hit in Kharkiv in the northeast and Odesa in the south.

Power is out in the Sumy region in the north and in Poltava city in the center. In the city of Kryvyi Rih, a residential building has been struck, and officials fear victims are in the rubble.

In Kyiv, there are explosions in the northeast of the capital in the Desna area, site of a major power plant. Blasts are also reported in the southwestern district of Holosiivskyi and the eastern districts of Desnyanskyi and Dniprovskyi.

Energy company DTEK said emergency power outages will be introduced in Kyiv. Water supplies have been disrupted in every district because of damage to energy infrastructure, explained Mayor Vitaly Klitschko.

UPDATE 0755 GMT:

The US Senate has approved another $800 million in military aid for Ukraine.

A bill for $858 billion in US defense spending extends extends the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative “to pay industry to produce weapons and security assistance to send to Ukraine, rather than drawing directly from current US stockpiles of weapons”.

The US has authorized almost $20 billion in military assistance for Kyiv since Vladimir Putin’s invasion began on February 24.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukrainians have gone to air raid shelters after Russia fired another barrage of up to 60 missiles.

Officials including Vitaly Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine, reported the assault on Friday morning.

“A part of them is already over northern Ukraine,” Kim wrote on Telegram.

Air raid sirens sounded just after 8 a.m. in Kyiv and much of the country.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the President’s office, wrote, “Do not ignore air raid alerts, remain in shelters,” and the Interior Ministry’s Anton Geraschenko tweeted:

Hoping to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Russia has fired waves of missiles — the largest more than 100 — and Iran-supplied drones at civilian sites since October 10.

The assaults knocked out half of the energy grid at one point, but have had diminishing effect. In the last missile barrage on December 5, Ukrainian air defenses downed almost 90% of the more than 70 fired. All 13 drones launched on Wednesday failed to reach targets.

See also Ukraine War, Day 294: Russia’s Failed Drone Attack on Kyiv

Ukraine War, Day 286: Russia’s Missile Attack is Blunted…and Its Airfields Are Struck