Ukraine Daily

Sunday, October 23

Russia’s war against Ukraine

A man takes pictures with a phone beside a damaged building in Lyman, Donetsk region, on October 21, 2022, after the recapture of the area from the Russian forces, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP) (Photo by DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images)

Russia strikes critical infrastructure across Ukraine. Energy facilities have been struck with missiles in Volyn, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, Odesa, and Kirovohrad oblasts.

Official: Russian attacks cut electricity to over 1.4 million Ukrainian households. Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Oct. 22 cut off power supplies to 672,000 households in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, 188,400 in Mykolaiv Oblast, 102,000 in Volyn Oblast, 242,000 in Cherkasy Oblast, 174,790 in Rivne Oblast, 61,913 in Kirovohrad Oblast, and 10,500 in Odesa Oblast, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a deputy chief of staff for President Volodymyr Zelensky. Repairs in these regions are underway, he added.

Mayor: Russian missile strike completely destroys energy facility in Lutsk, Volyn Oblast. Lutsk Mayor Ihor Polishchuk said on Oct. 22 that it’s currently impossible to restore the facility. He did not specify what facility he was referring to.

Ukrenergo: Damage from today’s strikes on energy facilities may be worse than Oct. 10-12 attacks. The state-owned grid operator also said that the mounting damage on energy facilities due to Russian strikes forced the company to impose electricity supply limitations across the country.

PM: Russia plunges Ukraine into humanitarian catastrophe by attacking energy infrastructure. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine that Russia wanted Ukraine to have “a cold winter when many people could literally freeze to death.” This may lead to a “planned humanitarian catastrophe such as Europe has not seen since the Second World War,“ he said, adding that Ukrainians may flee to Europe en masse due to Russian strikes on energy infrastructure.

ISW: Russian attacks aim to force Ukraine to invest more in infrastructure protection instead of counteroffensive. The Institute for the Study of War reports that “Russia’s campaign of targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure is creating a humanitarian tragedy without meaningfully altering the battlefield situation, and Russian excuses for such strikes are wearing increasingly thin.” The experts add that power outages, cold weather, and damaged buildings are likely to exacerbate the suffering of Ukrainian civilians in the winter.

Zelensky: The world ‘can and must stop’ Russian terror. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 22 that Russia had launched 36 missiles on Ukraine earlier on Oct. 22, and most of them had been shot down. Zelensky also shared a picture of an energy facility on fire, saying it was “an example of how the enemy tries to break us.” “These are vile strikes on critical infrastructure facilities, typical terrorist tactics,” Zelensky said.

General Staff: Armed Forces push Russians out of Charivne, Chkalove settlements in Kherson Oblast. The General Staff reported on Oct. 22 that Russian forces continue to leave the occupied parts of Kherson Oblast, adding that cases of looting and robbery of residents have become more frequent.

Russian occupation government starts to dump water from Kakhovka reservoir. Vladimir Leontiev, the head of the Russian occupation government in Nova Kakhovka in Kherson Oblast, said that “the discharge of water has been increased over the past week, so that in the event of a negative development, the amount of water flowing downstream would be smaller,“ Russian newspaper Kommersant reported. The “negative development” was an apparent reference to an explosion at the Russian-occupied Kakhovka Hydropower Plant in Kherson Oblast.

Occupation government orders civilians to leave Kherson immediately. Kherson Oblast’s illegal occupation government said that civilians must leave Kherson due to the tense situation on the front, shelling, and possible “terrorist attacks.” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 20 that Russia was planning to blow up the dam at the Russian-occupied Kakhovka Hydropower Plant in Kherson Oblast as part of a false-flag operation and blame Ukraine.

Ukraine’s General Staff: ‘Multiple conflicts’ observed between Russian, Belarusian soldiers in Belarus. The General Staff hasn’t provided details or evidence to support the claim, only adding that the clashes have reportedly been happening due to “Russians’ insolent attitude toward Belarusians.”

Zelensky accuses Iran of lying about selling drones to Russia. President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with CTV and CBC that Iran is making “bloody money” by supplying drones to Russia and that he doesn’t trust Iranian leadership.

The human cost of Russia’s war

Governor: 3 more civilians killed in Bakhmut over past 24 hours. Additionally, 10 people were injured across the eastern region.

Russia fires at Sumy Oblast 143 times in one day, 1 person injured. Russian forces struck several communities in Sumy Oblast on Oct. 22 with various weapons, damaging a school, a kindergarten, Khodyne vilage council, a water tower, a monument, two residential buildings and a power line in the Shalyhyne community, Sumy Oblast Governor Dmytro Zhyvytskyi said. According to Zhyvytskyi, a 68-year-old woman received shrapnel wounds as a result of Russia’s shelling of the Seredyna-Buda community. Two houses and a power line were also damaged in the Seredyna-Buda community.

Governor: Russian forces kill 2 civilians, injure 9 in Donetsk Oblast on Oct. 22. According to Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, one person was killed in Klishchiivka and one in Torske. Also, four more civilians killed by Russian troops during the occupation were found in the liberated villages of Dibrova and Ozerne, Kyrylenko said.

Russia reports shelling in Belgorod Oblast, claims 5 people wounded. Local authorities didn’t directly blame Ukraine for the alleged attack.

General Staff: Russia has lost 67,070 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24. In the past 24 hours, Russia lost 320 troops, 6 tanks, one plane, 15 vehicles and fuel tanks, and more, according to Ukraine.

International response

Germany reports delivering more military aid to Ukraine. The list includes air defense system Iris-T SLM, 167,000 rounds of ammunition for fire arms, and five additional armored recovery vehicles.

Scholz explains why he’s refusing to send German tanks to Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Die Welt that his country does not want to “act alone”, meaning that other Western countries should also send such tanks if Germany does. Scholz also said that 20-30% of Germans don’t agree with the sanctions against Russia and arms deliveries to Ukraine. Scholz has been repeatedly accused of blocking arms supplies to Ukraine.

G7 condemns Russia’s kidnapping of Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant’s leadership, staff. In a statement on Oct. 22, the Group of Seven (G7) called for the immediate return of full control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to Ukraine and the release of those kidnapped.

In other news

SBU: Ukraine has banned 12 pro-Russian parties. According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Ukraine’s Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by the pro-Russian Socialist Party of Ukraine against its ban. The party was banned due to its explicit support for the Kremlin and its efforts to popularize Russia’s aggressive anti-Ukrainian policy, the SBU said. Previously 11 other pro-Russian parties had been banned.

Lviv supermarkets, shopping malls evacuated over bomb threats. Lviv Oblast police received anonymous calls around noon on Oct. 22 about explosive devices allegedly placed in shopping malls and supermarkets in Lviv, local media reported. Employees and visitors have been evacuated, and the police are working there with the help of demining teams and bomb-sniffing dogs.

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