Russian bombing will cause power supply restrictions in several Ukrainian cities

Russian bombing continues to destroy Ukrainian energy infrastructure, while a political corruption scandal, ‘Operation Midas’, has erupted, affecting President Zelensky's government. 

During the interview on Onda Madrid's ‘De cara al mundo’ programme, María Senovilla, journalist and contributor to Atalayar, reported on how one of the largest Russian bombardments against Ukraine has taken place in recent hours, while on the Donbas front, the Russians continue to advance rapidly. 

María, you have been without electricity or heating for many hours, something that is happening in many regions of Ukraine due to the persistence of the heaviest bombardments since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

In Kramatorsk, we have been without electricity for almost 24 hours since Russia bombed the thermal power station and the nodes, the links through which energy is transmitted to the cities in the north of Donetsk. But last night, the city of Kiev experienced one of the worst attacks in living memory. 

There are now four dead and dozens injured, despite the fact that Ukrainian air defences were able to shoot down 419 of the 450 missiles launched by Russia. It launched everything: air, land and sea missiles, and the ubiquitous drones, 430 drones, 300 of them Shahed type, which struck not only critical infrastructure and power stations, but also around 30 residential buildings and private homes where people were sleeping. 

The Ukrainian capital was the most heavily attacked, but Odessa, Kharkiv and the cities in the north of Donbas were also under Russian fire practically all night, and here in Kramatorsk during the morning, between eight and nine o'clock, there were two more bombings against what remains of the heating supply. 

We are without heating, as well as without electricity, throughout the city. More than 60% of Ukraine's infrastructure has already been destroyed, and this continues to accumulate, making repairs increasingly difficult and taking longer and longer. It is likely that electricity will soon be rationed to a few hours a day, if that little supply can be provided. 

Maria, on the Russian front, in addition to bombing the front, they continue to advance rapidly, don't they? 

Russia has intensified its deployment, especially on the Pokrovsk front, but also on the Konstantinovka, Kupiansk and Liman fronts. 

There is talk of more than 100,000 Russians at the gates of the Pokrovsk front, where they have also deployed the Rubicon brigade, which is dedicated to deactivating Ukrainian drone units, which are currently holding the Pokrovsk front, because there are serious complications for the infantry to enter. 

There is an established death zone of more than 15 kilometres, which means that no vehicle can enter this 15-kilometre-wide strip without being attacked by Russia, so the infantry has to walk those 15 kilometres with all their equipment on their backs and at great risk because the drones are everywhere. Right now, the brunt of the fighting is being carried out by unmanned vehicle units, and Russia has deployed its best anti-drone brigade to try to neutralise them. 

Added to this is an increase in Russian troops on the Konstantinovka, Liman and Kupiansk fronts, which continue to push forward. In recent days, weather conditions have also helped Russia greatly, as we are experiencing days of intense fog, which Russian troops are taking advantage of to enter both the city of Konstantinovka and Pokrovsk. 

The images recorded by the Russians themselves really looked like something out of an apocalyptic film, with hundreds of Russian troops in cars, on motorbikes and on foot, laden with weapons, entering the urban area of Pokrovsk through the fog, where half the city is already under Russian control and urban combat is taking place with terrible consequences. 

At this moment, unfortunately, what we can say from the Donbas front is that it is falling, and it is falling very quickly. And if Ukraine loses both the strongholds of Pokrovsk and Konstantinovka, where thousands of civilians remain who have not been able to be evacuated precisely because this death zone prevented vehicles from entering to pick them up. There is talk of more than 2,000 people between Pokrovsk and Mirnogrado who are now surrounded by Russian troops and almost 5,000 people in the city of Konstantinovka who are trying to get out little by little in armoured vehicles, both NGOs and the police, but it is almost impossible to get them all out against the clock and under siege and continuous fire from Russian troops. 

These attacks do not exclude vehicles belonging to non-governmental organisations, such as the one you were travelling in a few days ago, which was attacked by a drone. 

These vehicles are clearly identified; in this case, it was a blue van with a white dove of peace painted on the bonnet, which the Russians used as a target to crash their drone loaded with explosives. 

But this is not an isolated incident. It is the daily reality right now in cities near the front lines, where Russia is also hunting down civilians with drones, not just NGO vehicles or the press, but civilians as well. 

There is a daily trickle of deaths in this city, for example, in Constantinidka, where every day civilians are reported dead because they have been hit by first-person view drones controlled by pilots dozens of kilometres away who are watching everything the drone's camera sees through virtual reality glasses and specifically directing these drones loaded with explosives against people, against civilians, who die instantly. 

The fact is that war brings out the worst in human beings. We discussed this when we learned what happened in Sarajevo during the war, those supposed Italians who went to Sarajevo to shoot at civilians. There are no such cases in Ukraine. Politically, a corruption scandal has erupted in the Ukrainian government. Does it affect the Zelensky government? What is Operation Midas? What is going on with this? 

Well, after fifteen months of work and 1,000 hours of audio recordings, the anti-corruption agencies, NABU and SAPO, have uncovered a corruption network that fully affects the energy sector. Not all the details have been published yet, but the government has already removed the ministers of Energy and Justice from their respective posts, and there has been a cascade of resignations from all those who would be affected. The leader of this corruption scheme is a film producer and personal friend of Zelensky, who, incidentally, has looked particularly downcast in his recent appearances. 

He said he would take a step forward and it was precisely at the front line that he showed his face, but the Ukrainian president looked particularly dejected by this information that has come to light. They focus on the energy sector, specifically the public company Energoatom, which manages all the country's nuclear energy production and which, apparently, was charging suppliers a kickback of between 10% and 15% in exchange for being able to work in the state-owned public company. 

The total amount of money embezzled has not been disclosed, but there is talk that it could be as much as $1 billion, which would be a scandal at the highest level. 

This whole network of commissions that had been organised has already been described as a criminal plot, and a few months ago there was a political attempt to push through a law that would have dismantled these very anti-corruption bodies, NABU and SAPO, which was stopped by citizens who took to the Maidan to protest and demonstrate for several nights in a row until the law was withdrawn and these anti-corruption agencies were allowed to continue their work. 

At that time, we all thought that these anti-corruption bodies had not really proven to be particularly effective because they had not uncovered any cases, but now we know that these investigations take time, no less than 15 months of work, more than a year, thousands of hours of audio recordings, and it seems that they have carried out an immense and very well-done job.