Russia pummels town that came to Kyiv’s aid

After sharing its electricity with Ukraine’s capital, Zhytomyr has felt the Kremlin’s wrath with two Russian missiles slamming into its only power station.

Firefighters appear on the scene to put out a fire after a kamikaze drone attack in Kyiv on October 17. Picture: Getty Images

It may only be a fraction of the size of Kyiv, but it was Zhytomyr that stepped forward to share its electricity when cruise missiles knocked out power in the capital last week.

On Tuesday it was Zhytomyr’s turn to feel the Kremlin’s wrath when two Russian missiles slammed into its only power station, in a graphic demonstration of Moscow’s campaign of reprisals across Ukraine.

Zhytomyr’s population of 260,000 emerged from basements and bomb shelters on Tuesday morning to discover a city without power or water, its hospitals running on emergency diesel-power generators as rescue workers rushed to the site of the attack.

Traffic lights fell black and trams stood still in their tracks. The autumn sunshine, at least, was golden. Zhytomyr had seen little of the war since its opening weeks, in February and March, when it came under sustained rocket fire that destroyed a school.

It was different then, Vitaly Bunechko, the head of the military administration said, when Russia still had salvos of munitions to fire at Ukraine and confidence in its victory. “There were rockets all the time, indiscriminately,” Mr Bunechko said. “Now they are trying to save their missiles for our power supplies.”

Zhytomyr had seen little of the war since its opening weeks, in February and March, when it came under sustained rocket fire. Picture: AFP

Most of the power facilities Russia hit on the eighth day of its sustained assault on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure were in its larger towns and cities.

They included Kyiv, where two people died in a missile strike on a power station on the west bank of the Dniper River, and shell-shocked Mykolaiv, close to the southern front near Kherson, where one man was killed in his home. Zhytomyr lies 145km west of Kyiv, linking it across the plains with western Ukraine, along a historic route running all the way to Warsaw. A transportation hub, it is also the town that lends Kyiv power should it lose it.

On Tuesday the capital returned the favour. “Kyiv has agreed to lower its consumption to help Zhytomyr while we restore power,” Mr Bunechko said, as engineers worked at the plant. “We understand that the Russians are trying out this new strategy. We have to keep ahead of what they are trying.”

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, warned that attacks even on such a small city as Zhytomyr could disrupt the larger network keeping the vast country powered. “The situation is critical across the country because our regions are dependent on one another,” he told Ukrainian television.

Diesel-powered generators were powered up to keep the Zhytomyr’s hospital’s running, including the maternity hospital where labour and newborn wards have been moved into a bomb-proof bunker.

Anastasia, 22, who came to Zhytomyr a week ago after fleeing the Russian-occupied city of Kherson, expressed resignation that the conflict had followed her. “Of course we understand what they are trying to do,” she said. “They want to demoralise people and break their spirit. We have to stay strong.”

Russia had been open about its deliberate campaign to strike Ukrainian infrastructure targets, just as President Vladmir Putin boasted last month he could freeze Europe into submission by cutting Russian energy supplies. In Vladivostok last month, he said that “as in the famous Russian fairytale, we would sentence the wolf’s tail to be frozen”.

Pro-Russian Telegram channels, many of which turned gloomy during Ukraine’s northeastern offensive recapturing land in Kharkiv, erupted at news of the outages, goading Moscow to keep going until the entire grid was destroyed.

“Let’s hope that constant strikes on Ukraine will turn them into Eskimos!” one user gloated. “The light should disappear forever, not for just three hours,” another wrote, “or until the liberation of the city from the Nazis,” using the slur Mr Putin had used to justify his invasion of Ukraine.

Another believed that the new strategy could turn the tide of the conflict after Russia’s failure to stop the Ukrainian advance in Kharkiv. “If it lasts until the weekend at least – the effect will be amazing!” they wrote. “And at the front, everything will turn in the opposite direction. It’s already there. And if you increase the blows on the weekend, they will float!”

A man fills jerry cans with fuel on October 18 in Kozacha Lopan, Kharkiv oblast, Ukraine after Russian attacks on power stations caused widespread blackouts. Picture: Getty Images

Many of the same Telegram accounts have previously egged on Mr Putin’s weaponisation of energy supplies to send prices rocketing in Europe. “We can help Europe save energy too,” one joked, echoing Mr Putin’s threat to launch nuclear attacks on the West.

In Berlin, Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary-general, pledged that within days the alliance would deliver new air defence systems, including ones to defend against the explosive drones that assaulted Kyiv on Monday. “The most important thing we can do is deliver on what allies have promised, to step up and deliver even more air defence systems,” Mr Stoltenberg said.

Iran denies supplying Russia with the kamikaze drones but western intelligence officials believe it has delivered 2500 and plans to supply Moscow with more advanced missile systems, despite the threat of more sanctions.

Many Ukrainians were surprised that Russia had not seriously targeted its infrastructure before. Power, water and telecommunications all held up even as Russia was attempting to capture Kyiv in February. Intelligence officials believe such networks were left intact because of Moscow’s mistaken belief it could simply topple Mr Zelensky and take over the government.

The attacks on infrastructure follow the appointment of a notorious commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, General Sergei Surovikin, who conducted scorched-earth campaigns in Syria and Chechnya.

– The Times