Earlier this week, Russia’s attacks on Ukraine left several residents in Kyiv without power or water due to damaged infrastructure. Monday evening, 40% of residents in that area were without water and 270,000 apartments had no electricity, according to the Deseret News.
Russia also started to force Ukrainians out of their homes in the southern region of Kherson. Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed to have annexed Kherson in September, although several countries have refuted these claims and said they wouldn’t recognize the annexation in support of Ukraine.
Residents reported they were being forced to evacuate Kherson. Russian officials claim the evacuation is due to suspicions that Ukraine will attack a dam and flood the region.
Here’s what is happening this week.
Russia prepares to retreat from Kherson, but Ukraine is worried it’s a trick
Groundwork and preparations have been laid out for a Russian retreat from Kherson. Politico reports that Ukrainian forces have advanced in gaining back the region and have forced Russia into the defensive.
Russian troops are less visible on the west side of Kherson, but Ukrainians are approaching this pullback with caution, per USA Today. “Most likely, our units, our troops will go to the left (east) bank,” Kremlin head of Kherson Kirill Stremousov said on Russian TV.
Ukraine’s southern military spokesperson, Natalie Humeniuk, said that the nation is aware of Russia’s tactics and “should not be in a hurry to rejoice.” Humeniuk said that Ukraine is afraid the possible retreat could be a Russian “trick,” per Politico.
Sustained attacks left 4.5 million Ukrainians without power
Relentless and sustained Russian strikes have left 4.5 million Ukrainian households without access to power. As winter rolls in, the attacks on critical infrastructure raise concerns for civilian well-being, since temperatures in Ukraine can fall below freezing, per The Guardian.
The New York Times reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave an address Thursday evening encouraging residents to conserve energy in the face of “Russian energy terror.”
“The very fact that Russia resorted to terror against the energy industry shows the weakness of the enemy. They cannot defeat Ukraine on the battlefield, and that is why they are trying to break our people in this way,” Zelenskyy said in his address.
The United Nations found no evidence of a ‘dirty bomb’
Putin and other Russian officials have made claims that Ukraine is planning to use a bomb on its own territory and blame Russia for the attack, per the Deseret News. However, recently the United Nation’s nuclear watchdog reported that after investigating three facilities in Ukraine, they found no evidence of nuclear activity.