This week, the battlefield situation has deteriorated. Ukraine has been grappling with the consequences of one of the heaviest Russian attacks on its energy grid. The week was also marked by a major corruption scandal in the energy sector, involving the president’s inner circle.
Ukrainian troops were forced to retreat from near five villages and towns in Zaporzhzhia region. Russia also made gains in the region of Dnipro. Russian forces are bringing motorcycles, pickup trucks and mortars into Pokrovsk. The battle for the city continues. Ukrainian logistics into Myrnohrad and Pokrovsk is difficult, but the troops there are not encircled, spokesperson for Ukraine’s General Staff said Monday.
Ukraine continues to strike deep into Russia. Early in the week, the Ukrainian military conducted strikes on an oil refinery in the Saratov region, a naval oil terminal in Feodosiya, in Crimea, and a number of sites in occupied Donetsk region. The Ukrainian military struck several dozen sites in Russia and the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory overnight on Thursday, using own weapons.
Russia fired 458 drones and 45 missiles overnight on November 8, targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in one of the densest attacks of the war so far. A corruption scandal around the state-owned nuclear energy company Energoatom, the largest since president Zelenskyi took office, has shaken the country. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau charged the members of a criminal organization that established a scheme of kickbacks. Zelenskyi also enacted the sanctions that the National Security and Defense Council imposed on two people implicated in the graft.
Russia captures village in Kharkiv region, DeepState says.
Russian forces have occupied the village of Stepova Novoselivka, east of Kupyansk in Kharkiv region, Ukrainian open-source mapping project DeepState said on Thursday. The villages of Rivnopillya and Yablukove in Zaporizhzhia region have fallen into Russian hands, the analysts said Wednesday. Russia has also achieved tactical advances in the regions of Donetsk and Dnipro, they added.