IA bomb exploded in the Russian-held city of Melitopol, in the Zaporizhia region of southern Ukraine, on Tuesday morning. Ukrainian and Russian media unanimously reported on the detonation of a vehicle in the immediate vicinity of a building belonging to the SATV TV channel. Local occupation authorities said five people, including canal employees, were injured in the attack.
Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram that Russian propagandists apparently “smoked” near the building of the local occupation administration. This phrase was also used by Ukrainian officials after attacks on Russian bases in Crimea to imply Ukrainian authorship without directly confirming it.
Melitopol serves the Russian occupying forces as the administrative headquarters for the Zaporizhia region, which Russia illegally annexed at the end of September. There had already been several explosions in Melitopol on Tuesday night. Fedorov wrote of smoke rising near a local railway bridge. In the occupied areas of Ukraine, there are regular deadly attacks on occupation officials and acts of sabotage.
The number of Russian missile attacks is declining
The Ukrainian General Staff reported heavy artillery shelling in numerous front sectors in the past 24 hours on Tuesday. Again there were Russian offensive efforts in the direction of the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region. For weeks, Russian combatants have been trying to conquer the strategically important city, and the participation of the mercenary group “Wagner” in particular has attracted a great deal of attention in the Russian media. The American think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports a significant decrease in Russian missile, cruise missile and drone attacks in the past few days. For this reason, there are far fewer air alerts in Ukraine than in the past week.
Because of the already existing damage to the power grid by Russian shelling, the electricity was again switched off by the hour in all Ukrainian regions on Tuesday. The energy supplier Ukrenerho justified the staggered restrictions by saying that the load on the grids should be reduced and the energy systems stabilized. Consumers were urged to save electricity, especially during peak mornings and evenings. For almost two weeks, Russia has been targeting energy infrastructure objects. Numerous power plants were hit by Russian missiles, according to Ukrainian sources. There are power outages every day.
