Ukraine must be ready for an upsurge in Russian airstrikes this fall, the country’s air force spokesman said on Wednesday, warning that Moscow may seek to resume its campaign to destroy critical energy infrastructure targets as winter approaches.

Yuriy Ihnat, the air force spokesman, said Ukraine “should expect an escalation”. While he said the attacks may not be as intense as last winter’s because Russia’s stockpiles of missiles and drones have been depleted, Ihnat told Ukrainian television that Moscow was nonetheless building up its ammunition for the fall.

Russia’s campaign against Ukraine’s power grid last winter left millions of people without consistent access to power, water and heat. President Volodymyr Zelensky has also warned that Moscow would renew its energy attacks in the colder months and called for officials at every level of government to be prepared.

Inhat’s comments came after Ukraine’s nuclear power company said on Monday that all the plants under its control were expected to be repaired in time for the winter.

Ukraine is heavily reliant on nuclear power. Before the war, roughly half its energy needs were provided by 15 reactors at four plants. Russian forces captured the Zaporizhzhia power plant soon after the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion began last year, leaving Ukraine with nine reactors.

Repairs and maintenance to fortify the grid have been completed at five of the remaining reactors, and people were “working to their limits” on the other four, Petro Kotin, the head of Energoatom, the state nuclear power company, said on Monday after visiting the South Ukraine plant, near the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk. Over the weekend, workers finished repairing one of that plant’s three reactors two weeks ahead of schedule, Energoatom said.

Child killed

A child was killed and two people were injured when a Ukrainian artillery shell hit a two-storey building in Donetsk, the Russian-appointed head of the region, Denis Pushilin, said on Wednesday on his Telegram channel.

Drones shot down

Two drones flying near Moscow were shot down overnight, Russian officials said on Wednesday, in what appeared to be the third attempted attack near the Russian capital in recent days.

Russia’s ministry of defence blamed Ukraine for what it called an attempted “terrorist attack”, saying air defences had destroyed the drones without casualties or damage.

New York Times News Service