UKRAINE, KHARKIV OBLAST, Oct 25 — Since the beginning of 2024, Russia launched more than 3,700 glide bomb attacks on the territory of the Kharkiv region. In 2023 there were “just a little more than 100 attacks like that,” announced the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko.

Towns and villages of the Kharkiv Oblast come under massive Russian artillery shelling and air strikes often, even more so since Russia launched a new ground offensive north and northeast of the region in the Vovchansk and Lyptsi directions in May.

Ihor Klymenko noted that most of Russia’s targets are energy and civilian infrastructure. Ukraine, he said, is preparing an emergency plan for the fall and winter in case of power outages.

The plan includes the operation of Points of Invincibility [places with electricity where people can warm up, get a hot drink, and charge their devices in cases of blackouts — ed.], provision of backup power sources for medical and social institutions, and plans for evacuation of the population.

According to Klymenko, in the Kharkiv region, they have installed more than 20 mobile gas boilers, which are needed to provide an alternative source of heat for residents of high-rise buildings.

The minister also warned that there are several dozen critical crossroads in Kharkiv, so if traffic lights are turned off due to blackouts, traffic controllers will work on all roads to ensure safety.

On October 18, the European Union’s Ambassador to Ukraine Katarina Maternova said to Dumka, Ukrainian media from Kharkiv, that the cities of Kharkiv, Odesa, and Kyiv are among the most vulnerable this winter.

Read more

  • Yesterday, on October 9, the Russian military attacked seven settlements in the Kharkiv region, including the city of Kharkiv, reported Oleh Syniehubov, governor of Kharkiv Oblast.