During a meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Russian strikes on bridges and energy infrastructure are systematic in nature and aimed at physically cutting the country's territory along the Dnipro line. This was reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing the Head of State's speech. According to him, the meeting was attended by representatives of frontline regions, the Mayor of Kyiv, relevant officials, and the military command, where the problems faced by regions, cities, and communities due to Russian attacks were thoroughly analyzed.
“Operation Against Bridges and Energy Grid”
“We discussed in detail the problems faced by regions, cities, and communities due to Russian strikes, including the challenges associated with the Russian operation against bridges and the energy grid. Russia is trying to divide Ukraine along the Dnipro and make life as difficult as possible for people in our towns and villages,” Zelenskyy said. Thus, strikes on transport and energy hubs, in his assessment, are viewed not as isolated incidents, but as part of a single campaign aimed at disrupting logistics connectivity and the daily livelihood of the population.
Weekly Update of Countermeasures
The Head of State emphasized that Ukraine updates its package of countermeasures against Russian strikes every week and stressed the need for effective work to protect people at the central and local levels of government. This essentially means moving from one-off responses to a regular review of scenarios: from the distribution of reserves and redirection of flows to the coordination of local authorities' actions during prolonged outages and infrastructure destruction.
Additional Support from the European Union
Zelenskyy also announced that Ukraine will receive additional assistance from the European Union, the parameters of which are being prepared by Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi together with representatives of the European Commission. “We are talking, in particular, about strengthening logistics and transport shipments that Russia is trying to block, supporting the energy sector, and ensuring the ability of Ukrainians to get through this winter,” the president noted. Thus, European support, according to him, is focused precisely on the areas that Russia is purposefully shelling: transport corridors and the energy system.
Strikes on Odesa and Death of a ZNPP Employee
Against the backdrop of the president's statement, on the morning of the same day, the Russian military attacked Odesa, striking an infrastructure facility: as a result of the shelling, three people were killed and another was injured. In addition, a drone attack killed an employee of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant — this is already the second case of a ZNPP employee dying over the past few days. These episodes illustrate what Zelenskyy described as an attempt to «complicate the lives» of citizens: the strikes affect both transport hubs and facilities critical to energy supply and the nuclear industry.
