Day 252 of Ukraine invasion: A trail of devastation, no end in sight

A series of missile strikes hit critical infrastructure of major Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv and Kharkiv, early on Monday, day 250 of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which entered its ninth month, with no end in sight. Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s power plants, posing threat of an imminent nuclear war.

When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, no one could foresee that it would drag on for months. The prolonged war has left a trail of devastation, particularly in Ukraine, and triggered a rise in fuels and food grains around the world.

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The global wheat prices have started to rise following Russia’s withdrawal from the UN-brokered Black Sea grain export deal on Saturday. Russia has suspended its involvement in the Black Sea Grain Initiative that was brokered in July and which allowed vital agricultural products to be exported from several Ukrainian ports.

A trail of devastation

Since February 24, an estimated 8 million people have been displaced in Ukraine as of October 18, 2022. The invasion has killed tens of thousands on both sides and triggered Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.

The barrage of latest Russian strikes knocked out water and power supplies in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and other cities to the northeast and south in apparent retaliation for what Moscow alleged was a Ukrainian attack on its Black Sea Fleet over the weekend. Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that part of the capital had been “cut off” by the strikes, which he said had hit critical infrastructure facilities. “There is no water supply in some areas,” he said.

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Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces carried out strikes with long-range high-precision air and sea-based weapons against the military command and energy systems of Ukraine. “The goals of the strikes were achieved. All designated targets were hit,” the ministry said in a statement. On Monday morning, loud explosions were heard across the Ukrainian capital as residents prepared to go to work. The emergency services sent out text message warnings about the threat of a missile attack, and air raid sirens wailed for three hours during the morning commute.

The Kremlin is taking revenge for military failures on peaceful people who are left without electricity and heat before the winter, Kyiv region Governor Oleksii Kuleba told news agencies. Kyiv Mayor Klitschko said 80 per cent of consumers in the city of 3 million people were left without water supplies because of the damage to a power facility.  Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Russian missiles and drones hit 10 Ukrainian regions and damaged 18 sites, mostly energy facilities.

In the eastern city of Kharkiv, two strikes hit critical infrastructure facilities, according to authorities, and the subway ceased operating. Critical infrastructure sites were also hit in the Cherkasy region southeast of Kyiv. In the Kirovohrad region of central Ukraine, the energy facility was hit, according to local authorities.

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In Vinnytsia, a missile that was shot down landed on civilian buildings, resulting in damage but no casualties, according to regional Governor Serhii Borzov. Some parts of Ukrainian railways were also cut off from power, the Ukrainian Railways reported.

The massive cost of the war

The Russia-Ukraine war has had a huge impact on prices of fuels and foodgrains in Europe as well as around the world. Natural gas prices have skyrocketed in the wake of the invasion as Russia has throttled back pipeline supplies to a trickle of what they were before the war. Europe has had to resort to expensive shipments of liquefied gas that come by ship from the US and Qatar to keep generating electricity and heating homes.

Inflation has hit a new record in the 19 countries that use the euro currency, fuelled by out-of-control prices for natural gas and electricity due to the war. Economic growth has also slowed ahead of what economists fear is a looming recession, largely as a result of those higher prices sapping Europeans’ ability to spend. The annual inflation reached 10.7% in October, the European Union’s statistics agency, Eurostat, reported on Monday. That is up from 9.9% in September and the highest since statistics began to be compiled for the eurozone in 1997.

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While liquid gas succeeded in filling Europe’s storage for the winter, the higher prices have made some industrial products such as steel or fertilizer expensive or simply unprofitable to make. Consumer spending power has been drained at shops and elsewhere as more income goes to pay for fuel and utility bills.

Resolution unlikely anytime soon

As the war enters its ninth month, there seems to be no solution in sight.  On Monday, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said the strikes and the decision to pull out of the Black Sea grain deal were responses to a drone attack on Moscow’s fleet in Crimea that he blamed on Ukraine. Putin told a news conference that Ukrainian drones had used the same marine corridors that grain ships transited under the UN-brokered deal.

Moscow called ship movements through the Black Sea security corridor “unacceptable”. In a statement, the Russian defence ministry said it wanted “commitments” from Ukraine not to use the Black Sea grain corridor for military purposes, adding “there can be no question of guaranteeing the security of any object” in the area until then.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on the other hand, said the Black Sea deal would be honoured and accused Russia of “blackmailing the world with hunger” – a claim Russia denies. Despite the fallout, 12 ships containing 354,500 tons of food, including grain, left Ukraine’s Black Sea ports on Monday, Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry said. This constituted a record volume of exports since the grain deal began, said a spokesperson for Odesa’s military administration quoted by Reuters. One of the vessels carrying 40,000 tons of grain was destined for Ethiopia, where “the real possibility of mass starvation” existed, the infrastructure ministry added.

Summit in Bali

On Monday, Ukraine also called on the G20 to expel Russia, urging it to revoke President Vladimir Putin’s invitation to a summit in Bali next month.  “With his hands stained in blood, he must not be allowed to sit at the table with world leaders,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said, after the Russian leader acknowledged ordering missile strikes.

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Meanwhile, the UN atomic watchdog has said inspections of two nuclear sites in Ukraine have begun at Kyiv’s request after Russia accused Ukraine that it was working on a so-called “dirty bomb”, the watchdog’s chief Rafael Grossi has said. “Director General Grossi said IAEA inspectors had begun – and would soon complete — verification activities at (the) two locations in Ukraine,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement, adding that Grossi would “later this week provide his initial conclusions” about the inspections.