Russia strikes Ukrainian infrastructure, says it may destroy Western
satellites
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[October 27, 2022]
By Guy Faulconbridge and Pavel Polityuk
LONDON/KYIV (Reuters) - A senior Russian
government official raised the possibility that Moscow could shoot down
commercial Western satellites being used to help Ukraine's war effort,
as Russia pressed ahead with its bombing campaign against Ukrainian
infrastructure.
If acted on, the threat would inevitably raise fears about spiralling
escalation of the eight-month-old conflict and the risk of direct
confrontation between Russia and the West.
There was no immediate reaction from the United States or commercial
satellite providers.
Konstantin Vorontsov, a senior Russian foreign ministry official, said
the use of Western satellites to aid the Ukrainian war effort was "an
extremely dangerous trend".
"Quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a
retaliatory strike," he told the United Nations First Committee, adding
that the West's use of such satellites to support Ukraine was
"provocative".
"We are talking about the involvement of components of civilian space
infrastructure, including commercial, by the United States and its
allies in armed conflicts," said Vorontsov.
He did not mention any specific satellite companies, though Elon Musk
said earlier this month that his rocket company SpaceX would continue to
fund its Starlink internet service in Ukraine, citing the need for "good
deeds".
Russia has a significant offensive space capability - as do the United
States and China. In 2021, Russia launched an anti-satellite missile to
destroy one of its own satellites.
Moscow in August accused the United States of direct involvement in the
war after Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine's deputy head of military
intelligence, told Britain's Telegraph newspaper that Kyiv was using
U.S.-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers
based on what he called excellent satellite imagery and real-time
information.
Satellite images of the conflict zone captured by commercial U.S.
satellite imagery firms are pored over daily on Twitter by open source
intelligence experts who highlight the coordinates of potential Russian
military vulnerabilities.
INFRASTRUCTURE ATTACK
With Ukraine's counteroffensive in its southern Kherson region slowing
down in recent days due to wet weather and difficult terrain, and no
dramatic changes in the east either, Kyiv said Russia was pressing ahead
with a campaign to destroy critical infrastructure ahead of the winter.
Ukrainian officials have said the campaign was aimed at breaking
people's spirit to resist by depriving them of basic utilities such as
light and heat, a strategy they say is doomed to failure.
Russia says it is targeting infrastructure as part of what it calls its
"special military operation" to degrade the Ukrainian military and
remove what it says is a potential threat against its own security.
Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of the Kyiv region, said the area,
including the capital city itself, faced a 30% deficit in its capacity
to generate the power it needs after overnight Russian strikes.
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A still image from video, released by
the Russian Defence Ministry, shows what it said to be Russia's Yars
intercontinental ballistic missile launched during exercises held by
the country's strategic nuclear forces at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome,
Russia, in this image taken from handout footage released October
26, 2022. Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS
"Last night the enemy damaged the facilities of the energy
infrastructure of our region. A number of critical facilities have
been disabled," Kuleba said in a video clip on the Telegram
messaging app.
Separately, the Kyiv region's military administration said the
region must "prepare for emergency power outages for an indefinite
period" due to the strikes.
Ukrainian grid operator Ukrenergo said the power grid across central
Ukraine had been hit overnight and that further electricity supply
restrictions were possible.
CALL TO CUT ENERGY USE
Russia has used air strikes, missiles and Iranian-made drones to
step up its strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure in recent
weeks, leaving millions without electricity or heating, and
sometimes water, for lengthy periods of time.
Oleksandr Starukh, governor of the southern Zaporizhzhia region,
said that Russian shells had struck the outskirts of the city of the
same name overnight and destroyed an unspecified infrastructure
object.
The Ukrainian military said that around two dozen Iranian-made
"Shahed-136" drones had targeted the south of the country after
taking off from Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Air defence forces shot down three over the Mykolaiv region, 15 over
the Odesa region, and another over the Vinnytsia region, the
military said. The Ukrainian air force said on Telegram it had shot
down a Russian Kas-52 attack helicopter and a Su-25 attack aircraft
in the south on Thursday morning.
The Russian defence ministry, which said its forces had repelled
attempted Ukrainian advances in the east, said it had destroyed a
Ukrainian military factory producing solid rocket fuel, explosives
and gunpowder near the town of Pavlograd in the Dnipropetrovsk
Region.
It said it had also shot down a Ukrainian air force Mi-8 helicopter.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield accounts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a late night address to
the nation on Wednesday, said he had held a meeting with government
officials to discuss the energy crisis.
He called on people to limit power use for the time being.
"In many cities and regions of Ukraine, emergency blackouts happen
and power consumption has to be limited," he said.
"But we all have to remember one thing: we need victory over Russia
in the energy sphere as well."
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by
Alex Richardson)
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