Russia batters Ukraine power grid amid rising concern Putin could order ballistic missile attack this weekend

Russia on Friday continued for the third year in a row with its primary winter strategy to pummel Ukraine’s power grid as freezing conditions settle ahead of the winter months in a “massive blow” to the country’s largest energy company. 

Moscow’s forces fired some 90 missiles, including cruise missiles, and 200 drones in one of the largest mass attacks on Ukraine’s power grid, targeting plants across Western Ukraine in the Lviv, Ternopil and the Ivano-Frankivsk regions, the Kyiv Independent reported.

The severity of the attack is not yet known, though at least half of the Ternopli region was reportedly without power and equipment was said to have been “damaged” by the DTEK civilian energy company.

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“This year, this is already the twelfth mass attack on the Ukrainian energy industry and the ninth mass attack on the company’s energy enterprises,” the company said in a post on Telegram, noting that no casualties had been reported. “In total, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the DTEK thermal power plant has been fired upon more than 200 times.”

The mass attacks came after reports this week suggested that Russia could be planning another attack using its latest ballistic missile, the Oreshnik missile — which it first fired last month — to hit Ukraine. 

The attack could apparently happen “as soon as this weekend,” according to a U.S. National Security Council official in a Friday Financial Times report. 

Similarly, an official told Reuters earlier in the week, “We assess that the Oreshnik is not a game-changer on the battlefield, but rather just another attempt by Russia to terrorize Ukraine, which will fail.”

The threat of another substantial attack comes amid concern that Russian forces are making incremental gains in Donetsk near the town of Pokrovsk, which has potentially given Moscow access to supply routes connecting the area to Zaporizhzhia, Estonian Intelligence reported on Friday.

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Though according to open-source data presented by Estonian Colonel Ants Kiviselg, head of the nation’s Defense Forces (EDE), Ukrainian forces have also successfully repelled attacks levied by Russian forces on the Dontesk town of Kurakhove, some 35 miles south of Pokrovsk, despite Russian attempts to encircle the town.

“Russian occupiers are throwing all available forces forward, attempting to break through the defenses of our troops,” Ukrainian army chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a Facebook post late Wednesday. 

Pokrovsk remains a key defensive post for Ukraine in Donetsk, and its fall would not only compromise Kyiv’s access to supply routes, but its ability to continue to fend off Russia’s attempts to seize the entire region.

The increasing crunch Ukraine is feeling in Donetsk coincides with concerns over whether the U.S. will continue to aid Ukraine as the Trump administration is set to take office in late January. 

President-elect Trump has not said whether he will maintain the U.S.’ ongoing level of support for Ukraine, and in an interview with Time magazine released Thursday, he criticized Kyiv’s use of U.S.-supplied ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile Systems) to hit targets in Russia. 

“Anything can happen. Anything can happen. It’s a very volatile situation,” Trump said of the war in Ukraine. “I think the most dangerous thing right now is what’s happening, where [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy has decided, with the approval of, I assume, [President Biden], to start shooting missiles into Russia. I think that’s a major escalation. I think it’s a foolish decision.”

Biden in November relinquished his long-held opposition to Ukraine using U.S.-supplied missiles to hit military targets in Russia after years of pleas by Kyiv to do so.

Zelenskyy, along with other U.S. security experts, have long argued Ukraine should be able to attack Russia amid its yearslong deadly invasion, and that hitting weapons depots and Russian military positions used to launch massive missile and drone campaigns that target Ukrainian civilians is critical in turning the tide of the war.