Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned the G7 that Vladimir Putin still has “the means of an escalation”, Tuesday, October 11, the day after a series of massive strikes on several Ukrainian cities, which left 23 dead and 100 injured, according to a latest report communicated Tuesday by the presidential adviser Kirill Tymoshenko.
More than 300 localities remained without electricity throughout the country after these bombardments. Consequently, the Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday called on the population to “limiter” its electricity consumption, and not to use appliances “energy guzzlers” between 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. Franceinfo takes stock of the day’s news on the frontline of the war in Ukraine.
New strikes target infrastructure
In the aftermath of this series of bombardments, Russian forces continued firing against Ukraine on Tuesday, notably hitting energy installations in the west of the country. The city of Lviv is 30% deprived of electricity, according to the town hall. Strikes also caused “severe destruction” on energy installations in the Dnipro region (center), depriving of power “many villages”according to the regional governor.
The Russian Ministry of Defense was pleased that these “massive strikes” against “targets of military command and energy system of Ukraine” have “achieved their goal”.
In Zaporijjia (south), 12 S-300 type missiles fell on infrastructure “civilians”killing one person, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The bodies of 78 civilians exhumed in two cities
The bodies of 78 civilians have been exhumed in two recently recaptured towns in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the prosecutor general’s office said on Tuesday. “Sites of numerous burials have been discovered in the liberated cities of Svyatogirsk and Lyman”he said, reporting 34 bodies exhumed in Svyatogirsk and 44 in Lyman.
According to the same source, some bodies in Sviatorguirsk showed marks of “violent death”, and the charred remains of two people were found in a car. In Lyman, the bodies “of a 1-year-old child and his entire family” were discovered in particular.
kyiv asks the G7 for help for an “air shield”
During an emergency virtual meeting, Volodymyr Zelensky called on his G7 counterparts to help create an air shield to stop Russian strikes hitting his country.
“I ask you to strengthen the general effort to help financially the creation of an air shield for Ukraine. Millions of people will be grateful to the G7 for such assistance”said the Ukrainian President at this meeting.
The G7 wants to “hold Putin to account”
G7 leaders pledged on Tuesday “to hold President Vladimir Putin to account”, after the massive strikes that hit Ukraine. “We condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms and recall that indiscriminate attacks against innocent civilians constitute a war crime”the leaders said in a statement, following their emergency meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky.
The G7 Heads of State and Government also “deplored Russia’s strategy of deliberate escalation, including partial mobilization of reservists and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric, which jeopardizes global peace and security”. They warned Moscow, reaffirming that “Any use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by Russia would have serious consequences”.
The G7 also targeted Belarus, after the announcement of the creation of a joint military force with Moscow. This decision constitutes “the most recent example of complicity” of Minsk with Russia in the war against Ukraine.
More than 2,000 people without electricity in Russia after a Ukrainian strike
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, accused kyiv of carrying out a strike on an electrical installation on Tuesday, knocking out power “more than 2,000 inhabitants”. Vyacheslav Gladkov said there were no casualties.