Car lights near Maidan Square during a blackout after Russian missile strikes, Kyiv, Ukraine, December 17, 2022 (Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP)

Saturday’s Coverage: Ukrainians Withstand Another Russian Missile Attack

Source: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1514 GMT:

A Russian missile strikes killed four civilians, including a 1 1/2 year-old child and his parents, in a strike on Kryvyi Rih in south-central Ukraine on Friday, said Presidential advisor Darya Herasimchuk.

UPDATE 1311 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has reiterated his call for an international tribunal against “all those” involved in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as “it is not only about the leadership of the Kremlin”.

Zelenskiy told French TV channels, “The Kremlin and those who help the leadership wage war against Ukraine should be held accountable, which include propagandists and strategists who ‘imposed’ its ideology on society.”

On November 30, the European Commission set out plans for a UN-backed specialized court to prosecute Russian crimes of aggression.

Last week Zelensky urged the European Parliament to immediately launch the special tribunal.

UPDATE 0733 GMT:

In a lengthy examination of the failure of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, New York Times reporters begin with this snapshot of the state of Russian forces:

Fumbling blindly through cratered farms, the troops from Russia’s 155th Naval Infantry Brigade had no maps, medical kits or working walkie-talkies, they said. Just a few weeks earlier, they had been factory workers and truck drivers, watching an endless showcase of supposed Russian military victories at home on state television before being drafted in September. One medic was a former barista who had never had any medical training.

Now, they were piled onto the tops of overcrowded armored vehicles, lumbering through fallow autumn fields with Kalashnikov rifles from half a century ago and virtually nothing to eat, they said. Russia had been at war most of the year, yet its army seemed less prepared than ever. In interviews, members of the brigade said some of them had barely fired a gun before and described having almost no bullets anyway, let alone air cover or artillery. But it didn’t frighten them too much, they said. They would never see combat, their commanders had promised.

Only when the shells began crashing around them, ripping their comrades to pieces, did they realize how badly they had been duped.

Flung to the ground, a drafted Russian soldier named Mikhail recalled opening his eyes to a shock: the shredded bodies of his comrades littering the field. Shrapnel had sliced open his belly, too. Desperate to escape, he said, he crawled to a thicket of trees and tried to dig a ditch with his hands.

Of the 60 members of his platoon near the eastern Ukrainian town of Pavlivka that day in late October, about 40 were killed, said Mikhail, speaking by phone from a military hospital outside Moscow. Only eight, he said, escaped serious injury.

“This isn’t war,” Mikhail said, struggling to speak through heavy, liquid breaths. “It’s the destruction of the Russian people by their own commanders.”

UPDATE 0730 GMT:

Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko has posted on Telegram, “The capital’s heat supply system is fully restored. All sources of heat supply work normally.”

UPDATE 0723 GMT:

Moldova has temporarily banned six TV channels, all linked to politician and businessman Ilan Shor, for broadcasting “incorrect information” about the country and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Shor fled Moldova in 2019 after the election of President Maia Sandu.

Moscow, having threatened prison sentences of up to 15 years for reporting on the invasion, said Moldova’s action was “political censorship”.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Power has been restored to almost 6 million Ukrainians after the latest Russian missile barrage on Friday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address to the nation, “Repair work continues without a break after yesterday’s terrorist attack.”

Electricity was back in regions across Ukraine and in the capital Kyiv, where Mayor Vitali Klitschko said heating had resumed for 3/4 of residents.

But half of Kyiv Proince was still without power on Saturday, said Governor Oleksiy Kuleba, with snow and rain hindering repairs.

Russia fired 76 missiles on energy infrastructure and other civilian areas on Friday. Sixty were downed by Ukrainian air defenses.

The Russian Defense Ministry lied that the strikes were on military targets, “Military command systems, the military-industrial complex and their supporting energy facilities of Ukraine were hit with a mass strike with high-precision weapons.”

The Ministry did not the downing of almost 80% of the missiles. Instead, it maintained, “The target had been reached. All assigned objects were hit.”

It then put out more falsehoods, “As a result of the strike, the transfer of weapons and ammunition of foreign production was disrupted, the advancement of reserves to areas of hostilities was blocked and Ukrainian defense enterprises for the production and repair of weapons…were halted.”

In his address on Saturday night, Zelenskiy used the latest attacks to appeal for aid for even better air defense.

“Dear partners! Find an opportunity to give Ukraine reliable protection for our sky, a reliable air defense shield. You can do it. You can provide protection to our people – 100% protection from these terrorist Russian strikes.

When this happens, the main form of Russian terror – missile terror – will become simply impossible. And this will mean safety for Ukrainians, safety for millions of people, and a strategic restructuring of the entire military situation.

The fewer opportunities Russia has for terror, the more opportunities we will have to restore and ensure peace.