First responders and residents assess damage from Russia’s attack on Mykolaiv, Ukraine, November 17, 2024

Saturday’s Coverage: Russia Cuts Off Gas Supplies Via Ukraine

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1034 GMT:

The toll has risen to seven killed and 17 wounded from this morning’s Russian missile and drone attacks across Ukraine.

Fatalities are reported in the Mykolaiv, Lviv, Odesa, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Critical infrastructure facilities, including a thermal power plant, were hit in the Vinnytsia, Odesa, and Volyn regions. There are power outages and emergency shutdowns.

Air defenses downed 102 of 120 missiles and 42 of 90 Iran-type attack drones. Another 41 drones were lost to electronic counter-measures, and two flew towards Russia or occupied areas of Ukraine.

UPDATE 0752 GMT:

Referring to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s call with Vladimir Putin on Friday, Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has posted about Russia’s massive attack on Sunday:

UPDATE 0740 GMT:

US President Joe Biden has urged China’s leader Xi Jinping to dissuade North Korea from expanding its support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a discussion on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Biden noted that China’s “publicly-stated position with respect to the war in Ukraine is there should be no escalation, no broadening the conflict”.

“The introduction of [North Korean] troops runs foursquare against that,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said.

Sullivan added that Biden pointed out China “does have influence and capacity, and should use it to try to prevent a further escalation or further expansion of the conflict with the introduction of even more DPRK forces”.

In his nightly video address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky summarized his conversation with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday of the Scholz-Putin conversation:

This is exactly what Putin has long sought. It is critical for him to weaken his isolation, as well as Russia’s isolation, and to hold mere talks that will lead nowhere. He has been doing this for decades.

Ukraine intelligence says North Korea is supplying Russia with long-range rocket and artillery systems. Some have been moved to the Kursk region in western Russia, part of which has been controlled by Ukraine since August 6.

The assessment finds North Korea has provided around 50 domestically-produced 170mm M1989 self-propelled howitzers and 20 updated 240mm multiple launch rocket systems.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia is carrying out a massive missile and drone attack across Ukraine on Sunday morning.

Loud explosions were reported in Kyiv between 6:30 and 7:15 a.m. Blasts were also heard in the cities of Kropyvnytskyi, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Cherkasy, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Kryvyi Rih, Odesa, and Zaporizhzhia.

Emergency power outages have been implemented after Russia targeted “power generation and transmission facilities throughout Ukraine”, said Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko.

At least two civilians were killed and six injured, including two children, in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine.

Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said falling drone debris set an apartment in a five-story residential building on fire in the Pechersk neighborhood. One person was hospitalized, and one other received medical treatment at the scene.

The missiles were the first fired on Kyiv in more than 2 months, as Moscow had been relying on intense drone assaults.

Ukraine’s military said the cruise, ballistic, and hypersonic missiles were launched from the Black Sea and from Russia’s Astrakhan and Krasnodar regions. Tu-95 strategic bombers took off from the Olenya airfield in the Murmansk region and from the Engels airbase in the Saratov region.

In Poland, the military’s Operational Command scrambled fighter jets to protect airspace: “Ground-based air defense and radar reconnaissance systems have reached the highest state of readiness.”