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by John Helmer, Moscow 
  @bears_with

On Sunday afternoon the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that a massive strike of air and sea-launched missiles and drones have struck and destroyed parts of the Ukrainian electricity grid in the western regions of the country, as well as in Odessa and Nikolaev in the southeast.  

The Mukachevo interconnector station in southwestern Ukraine has also been hit, damaging the import of electricity from Slovakia and Moldova.  

The electric war in the west by the Russian General Staff has been put on pause by President Vladimir Putin since the last major raid on August 26, while back-channel negotiators for the Kremlin exchanged armistice terms with the Biden Administration and with Donald Trump.   

The resumption of Russian missile strikes on west Ukrainian electricity infrastructure follows the disclosure in Washington on Sunday that the US has agreed to allow American and Ukrainian crews to fire long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) on Russian territory.  

Russian military sources comment that threats to escalate the war unless Putin agrees to extend the pause and to limit the westward offensive of Russian forces along the Donbass front have come from both Biden officials, and from Trump himself when he spoke with Putin by telephone last week.  

“The electric war strikes are coordinated with the ground offensives,” a military source comments. “We’re seeing the General Staff calling the bluff of both Biden and Trump with the counter threat to wind up the war before the inauguration [January 20]. That the Ukrainians in the western regions are bracing for power blackouts tell us, again, that [Chief of the General Staff Valery] Gerasimov’s staff are monitoring the Ukrainian electrical repair and replacement efforts, the weather, and the political situation in Washington.  The strikes have been timed accordingly.”

“This morning,” announced the Defense Ministry in Moscow in its daily bulletin for the Special Military Operation, “the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a massive strike with high-precision long-range air and sea-based weapons, unmanned aerial vehicles, on critically important energy infrastructure facilities that provided the work of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine and enterprises producing military products. All planned targets have been hit. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation defeated the infrastructure of military airfields, gas production facilities of Ukraine. A massive blow was inflicted on energy facilities providing the Ukrainian military-industrial complex.”  

Russian military blogs report the strikes involved “up to 20 Tu-95MS and Tu-160 strategic bombers of the Russian Aerospace Forces with X-101 and Zircon missiles;  at least 4 MiG-31K fighters with hypersonic Dagger missiles;  warships of the Black Sea Fleet with Kalibr cruise missiles; operations of the Iskander-M missile defense system and Bastion coastal missile systems.”  

MAP OF NOVEMBER 17 STRIKES ACROSS THE UKRAINE

Source: https://t.me/boris_rozhin/144650 

Ukrainian media reports, including statements from Vladimir Zelensky’s office in Kiev, repeated by western media, claim that about 120 missiles and 90 drones were detected in the raid. The Guardian in London, a pro-Ukrainian propaganda outlet, editorialized that “the attack was the largest missile and drone assault on Ukraine since August and the first big Russian assault since the US election, showing the Kremlin in little mood to compromise after Donald Trump’s victory.” 

Confirmation that the electricity substations and high-voltage lines connected to two nuclear power plants (NPP) in the west – Rivne and Khmelnitsky NPP – and to the South Ukraine NPP at Pivdennoukrainsk, Nikolaev oblast, have been hit was announced by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna.

“Although the NPPs – Khmelnytskyy, Rivne and South Ukraine – were not directly impacted and did not shut down, several electrical substations on which they depend suffered further damage during the strikes, Director General Grossi said, citing information from Ukraine’s national regulator. The main power lines from four of the substations were disconnected. At the moment, only two of the country’s nine operational reactors currently generate electricity at 100 percent capacity…At the Khmelnytskyy NPP, the IAEA team heard a loud explosion. At the Rivne NPP, two 330 kilovolt (kV) power lines were unavailable, the team there reported.”

“NPPs need reliable connections to the grid both to transmit the electricity they produce and to receive off-site power for reactor cooling. The increasing fragility of the grid has been one of the main challenges for nuclear safety and security throughout the armed conflict. Of the nine currently operational reactors at the three NPPs, six reduced output during the morning, ranging from just over 40 percent of maximum capacity to above 90 percent. At the moment, only two operate at 100 percent capacity, with one in shutdown for maintenance. All NPPs continued to receive off-site power.” 

Russian military bloggers, collating reports from the Ukrainian target areas as well as from Russian military sources, list targets and the consequent blackouts  in the Transcarpathian,  Volyn, Ivano-Frankivsk and Vynnitsia regions of the west;  Odessa, Nikolaev, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions in the east.  

Boris Rozhin’s Colonel Cassad is reporting a Russian strike on the Kremenchuk Hydroelectric Dam in the northeastern Poltava region.  

Source: https://t.me/boris_rozhin/144656 

DTEK, the Ukrainian electric utility, is reporting “emergency shutdowns in Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Poltava and Chernigov regions. Critical infrastructure was also attacked in Zaporozhye,  Vinnytsia region and Volyn region. In the Carpathian region, networks are operating normally. However, given the situation in neighbouring regions, there is a possibility of a shortage in the energy system of Ukraine. We are following the situation and instructions of Ukrenergo. Just in case, please charge your gadgets and power banks and be prepared for the possible introduction of shutdown schedules.”  

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