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Ukraine and its allies are holding a meeting on November 22 to discuss ways to enhance protection against an expected uptick in Russian attacks on the war-torn country’s energy and civilian infrastructure during the upcoming cold season.
The virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group brings together representatives from some 50 countries that back Kyiv in its war against Russia and is being chaired by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“The focus will be on preparing for winter — air defense, artillery, ammunition. But the projected needs always depend on what the soldiers at the front need. And they are constantly being updated,” said Illarion Pavlyuk, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s top spokesperson.
Last winter, Ukraine’s energy infrastructure was regularly targeted by Russian missile and drone strikes that caused civilian victims and damage as well as misery to millions of people who were left in the dark and cold amid below-freezing temperatures.
Ahead of the meeting, Austin and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius visited Kyiv as Washington and Berlin announced fresh military aid packages for Ukraine.
The United States and Germany are the two largest providers of military aid to Ukraine.
But more recently there have been concerns of “war fatigue” among Ukraine’s Western allies, especially in Washington.
The meeting comes as Russian forces shelled the city of Nikopol, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, early on November 22, causing casualties and damage and as Ukraine’s air defenses fought off another wave of Russian drone strikes.
“The occupiers have targeted Nikopol region with heavy artillery four times since last night, regional Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram, adding that two civilians were wounded.
“Two men aged 61 and 37 were wounded in the city center and eight private houses, vehicles, and a gas pipeline were damaged,” Lysak said, adding that power lines were also destroyed by the shelling, leaving more than 1,200 families without electricity.
Russian artillery and drone strikes have repeatedly targeted Nikopol, causing casualties among civilians and damage to infrastructure. Last week, a man was killed in a drone strike.
Ukraine’s air defenses said in a statement early on November 22 that Russia launched a multipronged drone attack on several regions overnight, but that all 14 Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down.
The statement said the drones were downed over the regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhya, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsya, and Khmelnytskiy.
It said that a Russian cruise missile fell in the Zaporizhzhya region without reaching its target but caused damage to infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s 128th Separate Mountain Assault Transcarpathian Brigade reports that it struck a building in the village of Kumachovo in the eastern region of Donetsk where Russian forces were celebrating the Day of Missile Forces and Artillery on November 19, killing 25 troops. The claim could not be independently verified.
Novaya Gazeta.Europe and social media reports said Russian director and actress Polina Menshikh, who had come to perform for the troops, was among those killed in the strike, which employed HIMARS missiles.
On November 5, 19 members of the Transcarpathian Brigade were killed when Russian missiles struck a ceremony held in a frontline position in southern Ukraine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on November 22 that its air-defense units destroyed three Ukrainian drones over occupied Crimea, as well as four Ukrainian naval drones.
“Three Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed over the territory of the Republic of Crimea by air defenses,” the ministry said.
It said that the four naval drones were destroyed in the western part of the Black Sea while heading toward Crimea.
The claim could not be independently verified.
WATCH: Ukraine marks the 10th anniversary of the Euromaidan protest movement that erupted after then-President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign an EU Association Agreement. Massive crowds of pro-European demonstrators occupied Kyiv’s central square for months to oppose Yanukovych’s plan for closer economic ties with Russia.
On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces reported 48 close-quarter battles along the front line over the past 24 hours.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s military said Russian assaults were repelled in the Donetsk region in the direction of Lyman, Bakhmut, and Avdiyivka.
In Bakhmut, which saw months of heavy fighting earlier this year before falling to the Russians, Ukrainian forces were conducting offensive operations, the General staff said.
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