Putin Seeks To Make Ukrainians Freeze in the Dark This Winter

Taking a page from the Nazi playbook in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin seeks to control Kyiv by blowing up bridges across the Dnipro River. In World War II, Hitler’s goal was to seal off escape routes east. On Sept. 29, 1941, 10 days after the two main bridges were blown, Nazi occupiers massacred 30,000 Jews in a Kyiv ravine, Babi Yar.Eighty five years later, the Kremlin’s strategy is to cut Ukraine’s capital in two, forcing a population evacuation west, to Poland. Since Thursday, Russian drones have hit Kyiv’s two main suspension bridges six times. It marks the first time in the war that the Russians have attacked the bridges.Spanning Ukraine’s Mississippi, each of the two Soviet-built cable stay suspension bridges stretches for almost one mile. They carry subway lines, intercity rail lines, buses, and, in the case of the Southern Bridge, 100,000 cars a day. They link the bedroom communities of Kyiv’s East Bank, home to 1 million people, with the jobs and schools of the capital’s West Bank, home to 2 million people.“Just when it seemed things couldn’t get any worse, the capital has been split in two,” a Kyiv beauty entrepreneur posted on her TikTok account “Lazerka.” The drone attacks have led to temporary bridge closures and massive traffic jams, but, so far, relatively minor damage to the hulking concrete structures.The bridge bombings are part of a renewed Kremlin strategy to make Ukrainians freeze in the dark as the country approaches its fifth winter of war. If a Russian language document circulated by Ukrainian officials is to be believed, this strategy aims to deprive city-dwelling Ukrainians of 90 percent of their heat, water, and electricity.The plan calls for bombing Ukraine’s major hydroelectric plants, Ukraine’s electricity connections to the West and electrical substations attached to Ukraine’s three working nuclear power plants. Water and sewage plants are also to be targeted, according to the Russian plan that was apparently drawn up in August.“Cities without heat, water or working sewers in January cannot be lived in. People will leave,” Canadian-Ukrainian analyst Michael Bociurkiw writes from Kyiv. “People are already making plans, and online, the chatter about leaving Kyiv has grown loud. Some are heading for relatives in the western regions; others are looking across the border.”With air raid alerts seemingly constant, life for many in the capital is moving from difficult to impossible. Radio host Inna Tsaruk posted: “We now live constantly to a rhythm of air-raid sirens and explosions. Before it was from time to time — now it’s permanent.” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, a former world champion boxer, posted Friday on Telegram: “We cannot pretend that we can live as we did in peacetime.”“This is no longer about the usual comfort, but about safety and survival,” he continued, writing after a meeting of the Kyiv Defense Council. “The enemy is destroying Kyiv. Infrastructure, critical infrastructure, logistics, housing, social facilities.”His political rival, President Zelensky, agreed, telling reporters Saturday:“We saw documents, and we know that they allow them to attack infrastructure…logistics…roads, schools, hospitals, to pressure people to leave the capital, leave different cities.” The Kremlin’s bombing campaign is partly to take revenge for Ukraine’s unchecked drone campaign against Russian refineries. On Sunday, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said that recent strikes on refineries in cities, including Moscow, Yaroslavl, Ust-Luga, Perm, Saratov and Syzran, has disabled 51% of Russia’s oil refining capacity.President Putin told an international conference in Russia last Thursday: “[The Ukrainians] started attacking oil refineries and openly declared the goal of damaging our economy. Did they achieve their goal? Partially.” President Trump blames that Ukrainian bombing campaign for the high price of diesel worldwide.Already, Mr. Putin’s war has driven about 10 percent of Ukraine’s pre-war population of 40 million to take refuge in the European Union. A new refugee wave may stretch the patience of Europeans who are increasingly intolerant of African and Arab immigrants. Pressuring Europeans to cut their support for Ukraine, Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday warned “foreign nationals, including diplomatic mission staff, against staying in Ukraine or traveling to its territory.” In a direct rebuke, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz arrived in Kyiv by train the next day. He announced new military aid for Ukraine. But, back home, Germany’s pro-Russian Alternative for Germany party, of AFD, increasingly outpolls Mr. Merz’s Christian Democratic Union. Speaking Sunday alongside Mr. Merz, President Zelensky said that more than a dozen robotic machine-gun turrets have been installed around Kyiv, including near the river bridges. With unblinking ‘machine eyes’ and .50 caliber machine guns, these emplacements have successfully shot down Russia’s late model, jet powered Geran-5 drones, Ukraine’s Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said yesterday on state television.“It’s machine vision that is used for the shootdowns,” the spokesman said. “Artificial intelligence makes it possible to engage even jet-powered drones.”In a reflection of this high tech arms race, Ukrainian technology advisor to Ukraine’s president, Serhii Beskrestnov posted on Facebook Saturday that he believes that Russia has smuggled into Kyiv one to three ground-based Mesh-network repeaters. Difficult to locate, these lunch-box sized devices restore data links between drone operators and their loitering drones. He believes these repeaters explain the high level of accuracy of several recent attacks in Kyiv. In the bridge attacks, drones made at least three direct hits. In another attack, last month, a Russian drone threaded its way through Ukrainian air defenses to fly in the open window of the new head of the Ukraine’s Security Service, or SBU.On Sunday alongside the German chancellor, Mr. Zelensky threatened to match Russia’s war escalation: “Now they are striking bridges. Do they really think we will not respond?”

Putin Seeks To Make Ukrainians Freeze in the Dark This Winter

Putin Seeks To Make Ukrainians Freeze in the Dark This Winter

More from the New York Sun

Inside El-Sayed’s Glitzy New York Fundraiser, AOC, Democrats Whoop It Up, Prepare To ‘Break the Map’

Trump Cancels Taxpayer-Funded Midterm Hype Ads Focused on Himself

Hundreds of Anti-Israel Protests Target Third Anniversary of October 7

Welcome to Washington: How Does One Say Pyrrhic Victory With a Texas Accent?

Britain Is a State at Odds With Its Own People

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Fighting Epstein-Linked Arrest, Is First Royal To Challenge a Criminal Proceeding Since 1649

Secret Messages From Kings, Princes and Emperors Finally Decoded by AI

Letitia James Puts Cornell Case Front and Center While Her Office Fights Hundreds of Abuse Suits Against the State

More from the New York Sun

Inside El-Sayed’s Glitzy New York Fundraiser, AOC, Democrats Whoop It Up, Prepare To ‘Break the Map’

Trump Cancels Taxpayer-Funded Midterm Hype Ads Focused on Himself

Hundreds of Anti-Israel Protests Target Third Anniversary of October 7

Welcome to Washington: How Does One Say Pyrrhic Victory With a Texas Accent?

Britain Is a State at Odds With Its Own People

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Fighting Epstein-Linked Arrest, Is First Royal To Challenge a Criminal Proceeding Since 1649

Secret Messages From Kings, Princes and Emperors Finally Decoded by AI

Letitia James Puts Cornell Case Front and Center While Her Office Fights Hundreds of Abuse Suits Against the State