Significant retaliation. After the drone attack on the Russian fleet stationed in Sevastopol, Putin showed rare violence. The Ukrainian authorities believe that the strikes launched by the Kremlin are among the largest since the beginning of the war. These bombs targeted the country’s energy infrastructure, which the Ukrainians are struggling to rebuild. At the same time, the Russian president also announced the suspension of the wheat agreement allowing the export of cereals to the Black Sea, and signs a new escalation in the war in Ukraine.
The objective is clear, extinguish the country. On Monday, around 80 missiles, accompanied by combat drones, struck Ukraine, with the country’s energy infrastructure in sight, authorities said. These Russian attacks deprived 80% of the capital’s inhabitants of water and cut off power to 350,000 homes. This Tuesday morning, November 1, the mayor announced the restoration of the water and electricity supply throughout kyiv. Scheduled power cuts will however continue in the capital “because the deficit of the electrical system, after the barbaric attacks of the aggressor, is significant”, warned Vitali Klitschko as the anti-aircraft siren sounded again in the city this Tuesday morning.
These strikes were among “the most massive on our territory by the army of the Russian Federation”, accused an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Oleksiï Arestovych, on Tuesday. He hailed the country’s improved air defense – a gift from the West – which means “the destruction is not as critical as it could be”. Russian strikes last month destroyed about a third of electricity capacity ahead of winter, according to Ukrainian authorities, who continue to urge Ukrainians to reduce their energy consumption as much as possible.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday called on Ukraine to guarantee the safety of vessels using the corridor for grain exports to Turkey. This corridor, negotiated with the Turkish president and the UN a few months ago, was to guarantee grain exports from the two warring countries, but this weekend, Russia said it was suspending the agreement. A decision, which immediately caused an outcry among Western leaders. They accused Putin of holding the world hostage.
According to Putin, it is up to kyiv to show its paw, white. According to the Kremlin, Ukraine used the grain corridor for a drone attack against the Russian fleet stationed in Sevastopol Bay on Friday. Two cargo ships loaded with grain, however, left Ukrainian ports on Monday and took the humanitarian maritime corridor bound for Turkey, according to the specialized site Marine Traffic.
Twelve other ships were to leave Ukrainian ports during the day, said the Joint Coordination Center (JCC), responsible for overseeing the agreement on Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea. After meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, President Zelensky assured that his country was determined to “remain a guarantor of world food security” and to continue its grain exports. Three new cargo ships had already left the ports of Ukraine on Tuesday morning around 10:30 a.m. The latter are heading towards the humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea, in Istanbul.
The Russian occupation authorities in Kherson, in the south of Ukraine, announced on Tuesday that they had started the displacement of thousands of additional people in this region where kyiv forces are carrying out an offensive. “We will resettle and transfer up to 70,000 people” who are currently in a strip 15 kilometers deep to the east on the left bank of the Dnipro river, said the governor installed by Moscow in Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, in the Russian radio program Solovyov Live. Last week, the Russian occupation forces had already announced that 70,000 civilians had left their homes located to the west on the right bank of the river and closer to the front line.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced on Monday evening that it had begun its inspections in Ukraine, requested by this country after Russian President Vladimir Putin accused it of erasing evidence of the preparation of a “bomb dirty”. IAEA inspectors have “begun – and will soon complete – verifying the activities of two sites in Ukraine,” the Vienna-based UN agency said in a statement.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said he would release “his first conclusions on the verification activities of the two sites” later this week, according to the statement. The inspections follow a written request from the Ukrainian government to send IAEA teams on site.
