In its latest analysis of the war in Ukraine, published on Saturday night, the US think tank noted that “Russian forces conducted massive missile and drone attacks to degrade Ukrainian energy infrastructure in nine oblasts on October 22.”
Nine Ukrainian regions hit by Russian missiles on Saturday October 22
The ISW cited Ukraine’s General Staff as reporting on October 22 that “Russian forces launched 40 missile strikes and 16 Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones at Ukrainian infrastructure,” while “Ukrainian forces shot down 20 Russian cruise missiles and 11 Russian drones.”
The Russian strikes on Saturday hit Ukrainian energy infrastructure in Volyn, Rivne, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Cherkasy, Zaporizhia, Odesa, and Mykolaiv regions, the US experts wrote. They further noted that according to Ukrenergo, the Ukrainian state energy company, “the scale of Russian strikes on October 22 met or exceeded the scale and effect of Russian strikes on October 10-12, which Russian President Vladimir Putin had falsely implied were a discrete response to Ukraine’s October 8 attack on the Kerch Strait Bridge.”
Russian strikes ‘unlikely to erode Ukraine’s will to fight,’ but will ‘pose a humanitarian challenge’
According to the ISW, “Russian forces are likely attempting to degrade Ukraine’s will to fight and to force the Ukrainian government to apply additional resources to protecting civilians and energy infrastructure in lieu of channeling those resources toward Ukraine’s counteroffensives in the east and south.”
In the view of the US experts, “Ongoing Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure are extraordinarily unlikely to erode the Ukrainian will to fight but will increasingly pose an economic and humanitarian challenge for Ukraine as temperatures drop.”
Russian forces continue to withdraw from Ukraine’s southern Kherson region
Meanwhile, Russian forces on Saturday continued to withdraw from western parts of Ukraine’s Kherson province, in anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive, “while preparing for delaying actions that will likely be only partially effective,” the ISW assessed.
The Washington-based think tank noted that “Occupation authorities in Kherson Oblast ordered civilians to evacuate east on October 21.”
According to the ISW, “Evacuations from Kherson City will support likely Russian plans to blow up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Plant (HPP) dam to cover their withdrawal.”
Ukrainian advances reported in Luhansk province
The US think tank also wrote that “Russian sources reported Ukrainian counteroffensives in the direction of Kreminna and Svatove” in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, on Saturday, October 22.
At the same time, on Saturday “Russian forces conducted limited counterattacks with no confirmed advances to regain lost territory” in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv province and the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, the ISW reported.
For instance, Russian forces were attempting to conduct offensive operations in the Bakhmut and Avdiivka directions, in the Donetsk province, the Ukrinform news agency reported on Sunday.
Ukraine strikes Russian army’s concentration points in southern Ukraine, injuring 250 troops
Over the past few days, Ukrainian forces have struck Russian manpower and equipment concentration points in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces in southern Ukraine, injuring some 250 Russian soldiers, Polish state news agency PAP reported on Sunday, citing Ukraine’s General Staff.
In the early hours of Sunday, the Ukrainian army also hit a Russian Grad multiple rocket launcher and an anti-tank missile system in the south of Ukraine, as well as four ammunition storage points in Kherson region; Russian losses in southern Ukraine over the past day also included 47 soldiers, two tanks and 16 armoured vehicles, the Ukrainska Pravda website reported, citing Ukraine’s Operational Command South.
Russian forces shell Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk provinces
In other developments, Russian forces on Saturday shelled six communities of Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region with various types of weapons in the course of Saturday, with one person injured, a forest catching fire and a school being destroyed, among other damage, the Ukrainska Pravda reported on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Russian troops also pounded Ukraine’s southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region in the early hours of Sunday, using multiple-launch rocket systems and heavy artillery, Ukrainska Pravda also wrote, citing regional officials.
It added that according to local authorities, there were no casualties and the extent of the destruction was being ascertained.
Sunday is day 242 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Source: PAP, understandingwar.org, pravda.com.ua, ukrinform.net