At 2.16 p.m. on 10 October there was an air raid warning on the city of Kiev again. Putin stated during the Russian Security Council meeting: ‘In the morning a massive attack with high-precision weapons was carried out on the Ukrainian infrastructure: energy infrastructure, military command and communications (…) in the event of the continuation of Ukrainian terrorist attacks on Russian territory, our response will be tough and in scale will correspond to the level of threats’.
Moscow, one can summarise by reading between Putin’s words, says it has responded to attacks by Kiev in the Donbass, city centres and, most recently in Crimea, where two bridge spans were destroyed. And certainly the attacks on Nord Stream 1 and 2, which Moscow says were carried out by the West, and the death of Dar’ja Dugina, Alexander Dugin’s daughter, must also be included in this response.
With yesterday’s attacks, it can ultimately be said that Russia’s Special Operation, which envisaged not attacking critical Ukrainian infrastructures but supporting the self-demolition of the Donbass, territories currently annexed to Russia by referendum not recognised by the Western world, is over. Among the attacks in Kiev, one of the bullets fell very close to Zelensky’s office, 2.5 km from Bankova Street on Volodymyrska Street. Another shot fell very close to the Ukrainian SBU office.
As of 15.00 on 10 October, almost the whole of Lviv is without electricity, trams and trolleybuses do not work, but the whole of Ukraine is paying for the attack: the power supply is interrupted in almost the whole country; in 8 regions there are problems with the water supply, in the regions of Kiev, Chernihiv, Cherkasy and Zhytomyr an emergency shutdown programme has been introduced, said the Prime Minister
The Russian social sphere described the 10 October bombing of Ukraine as follows: ‘On the morning of 10 October, the RF armed forces launched massive missile attacks throughout Ukraine. In addition to the headquarters and command posts of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Security Service of Ukraine and the National Guard, objects of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure came under systemic attack.”
It goes on to say: ‘Neither the nuclear power plant nor the hydroelectric power plant was hit by anyone. On the map we displayed all significant substations and thermal power plants with thermal power plants, as well as 330kV high voltage lines on the territory of Ukraine. Some of the objects (as well as lines with 750kV substations) were deliberately omitted, otherwise the map would have been as overloaded as possible. We focused on 330kV: because of the blow, they were the first to suffer’.
The Russian social sphere claims to have recorded the following attacks: Kyiv: Kyiv CHPP-3, Kyiv CHPP-5, Substation 110 Vokzalnaya, Darnytska CHPP. No attacks were recorded at Brovary SS, Severnaya SS and Kyiv CHPP-6. Either they were not included in the list of objects for fire damage or the Ukrainian air defence systems were partially functional.
Rivne: Rivne 330 kV substation – a hit on the object caused an overload of 110 kV substations and a power outage in the city.
Khmelnitsky: Khmelnitskaya 330/110 kV substation – as there is no electricity in the entire city, only the 330 kV substation could be affected, which caused the closure of the Rakovo, Stara, Thermoplast, Ozernaya, Dubovo substations and the Grechany traction substation.
Ternopil: Ternopil 330/110/35 kV substation – there is no electricity in the entire city, 110 kV Zagreblya substation, Ternopil support, Galician, Promyshlennaya, Plotycha, concrete products are fed from it.
Sumy: 330kV Konotop substation – the strike caused power outages throughout the region.
Kharkiv: there is no electricity, water, communications throughout the city, the metro is at a standstill.
This could mean the simultaneous shutdown of the Zalyutino, Kharkovskaya, Losevo substation, as well as Kharkovskaya CHPP-5, Zmievskaya TPP, Chuguevskaya CHPP-2. But due to the lack of communication in the region, it is not yet possible to confirm the decommissioning of all facilities.
Kryvyi Rih: Kryvyi Rih TPP, one of the largest in Ukraine.
Zhytomyr: Zhytomyr 330/110 kV substation
Lviv: Lviv CHPP-1
Ivano-Frankivsk: Burshtynska TPP
Vinnytsia: train delays are recorded, which could be evidence of the failure of individual traction substations. But there is no information on this in open source.
The attacks caused shock among the Ukrainian population. The failure of some key facilities of the Ukrainian energy network caused an overload of the entire energy system of Ukraine: nuclear power plants could not cope with the load.
As for the Kerch bridge, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Khusnullin said that the damage to the pillars of the Crimean bridge will be repaired by the end of the week. The delivery of the equipment required for the imminent repair of two spans of the bridge on the automotive part of the Crimean bridge has already begun. The schedule for dismantling the damaged spans will be presented in the next three days. In general, the system has already entered the mode of eliminating the consequences of the terrorist attack and there is no particular doubt that it will try to eliminate the consequences of the terrorist attack as soon as possible.
It is also worth noting that trucks cannot cross the Crimean bridge. There will be ferries. Car traffic continues. There are no problems with the distribution of petrol in Crimea, reports the social sphere.
Graziella Giangiulio
