UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Nov 8 –  Switzerland plans to allocate 500 million Swiss francs [over $571 million] to Kharkiv over the next four years for preparation for winter and reconstruction, according to the Swiss government’s website.

In the spring of 2024, the Russian army attacked Ukrainian energy facilities with missiles and drone strikes. On May 8, the Prime Minister reported that they had destroyed or damaged 800 heating facilities in the country. In particular, the March attacks destroyed the power and heating infrastructure supplying Kharkiv and its region.

These funds will come from the 1.5 billion Swiss francs allocated for Ukraine’s recovery in the International Cooperation Strategy for 2025-2028.

Viacheslav Kravtsov, head of Kharkivoblenergo [local power operator — ed.], said that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, the Russian army has damaged more than 700 power substations, 4,000 overhead lines of all voltage classes, 236 buildings, and 200 vehicles in Kharkiv region.

Currently, 129 settlements and 47 thousand houses in the border communities are without electricity in the Kharkiv region.

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  • As of November 5, Russian troops doubled the number of ground attacks in the Kupiansk direction using fire assault units of three to five soldiers, reported analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).