Russia’s Top Ukraine Commander Sees Invasion Faltering in South, but Missile Strikes Take Toll on Ukraine

Russia’s top military commander in Ukraine signaled Moscow’s hold on the southern city of Kherson was weakening, and Ukraine said Russian strikes since last week had knocked out some 30% of its power-plant infrastructure, raising concerns of countrywide blackouts.

Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the recently appointed commander of Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine, gave a rare pessimistic take of his invading forces’ position, telling state television Tuesday that the situation in Kherson “is not at all easy right now” and that the priority in the south was preserving civilians and military personnel.

“Difficult decisions cannot be ruled out,” he said, without elaborating, in his first significant public comments since taking over the role.

Gen. Surovikin’s comments came as Russia launched a fresh volley of missiles at Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, the latest in a number of attacks that Kyiv said has damaged nearly a third of the country’s power plants.

“Ukraine is under fire by the occupiers. They continue to do what they do best—terrorize and kill civilians,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Developments in recent days underscore the two sides’ competing offensives in the war, with Russia hammering civilian targets as Ukraine advances on the battlefield.

For weeks, Ukraine has sought to choke off thousands of Russian troops trapped on the western bank of the Dnipro River in and around Kherson, the capital of a region that Russia last month declared was part of its territory. Russia seized the city in the early days of its invasion, the only regional capital to fall.

Gen. Surovikin’s comments late Tuesday, delivered in his characteristic deep monotone, suggested that strategy was succeeding. The city was suffering from shortages of food, water and electricity, he said, as Ukraine had damaged the main bridge used to supply Russian forces in Kherson and a crossing over a dam to the northeast.

Western military analysts have long said that Russian forces would be advised to leave Kherson to avoid a rout. But Russian President Vladimir Putin feted the city as new Russian territory in a ceremony in Moscow less than a month ago.

The top Russia-appointed representative in the region, Vladimir Saldo, also gave a somber take on events Tuesday, saying Russia was transferring civilians to the eastern bank of the Dnipro from districts north of Kherson, where Ukrainian forces have advanced in recent weeks, in order not to impede Russian forces.

Ukraine has used precise, long-range rockets provided by the U.S. to hammer bridges across the Dnipro, as well as command posts and ammunition and fuel depots. Ukrainian troops have advanced toward Kherson from the north in fits and spurts since launching an offensive in late August.

The advance of Kyiv’s forces in the south followed a lightning offensive in the northeast, where they seized swaths of territory last month.

As Russia’s position on the battlefield has worsened, it has increasingly targeted Ukrainian infrastructure in an apparent attempt to crush the will of Ukraine’s civilian population.

On Tuesday, it hit cities across the country with drone and missile strikes.

Russia’s strikes have caused rolling blackouts since Oct. 10, when Russia first responded to Ukraine’s battlefield victories with barrages against critical infrastructure. The Kremlin’s strategy of targeting critical infrastructure is intended to sow panic in the population while diminishing the country’s resolve and ability to fight.

Tuesday’s strikes hit targets in Zhytomyr, Kharkiv and Dnipro, cutting the supply of electricity and water. Other Russian strikes in the southern region of Mykolaiv overnight used modified S-300 surface-to-air missiles to hit residential houses, killing at least one person and leveling parts of the city’s flower market.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said three workers in the city’s critical infrastructure were killed as a result of the strikes. The deputy head of Mr. Zelensky’s administration, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, told Ukrainians to prepare for blackouts across the country after days of Russian strikes.

“The situation is critical,” he said in a television interview.

Russian air attacks in recent weeks have underscored Ukrainian officials’ calls for more air-defense capabilities from the West. On Monday, a swarm of Iranian-produced drones struck central Kyiv, hitting energy infrastructure and at least one residential block.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had asked Mr. Zelensky to cut off ties with Tehran as a result of Iran’s military assistance to Russia, Ukrainian media reported. He also said Ukraine would send a note officially requesting air-defense systems to protect against Iranian Shahed drones.

On Tuesday, a U.S. senior military official said the Biden administration was working to get the first deliveries of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, or NASAMS, a short and medium-distance system, to Ukraine in the coming weeks. European countries are also contributing various air-defense systems.

“From a U.S. standpoint, we’re going to continue to stand by the Ukrainians and provide them with the support that they need, as they try to push these Russian forces back,” the official said.

The U.S. has spent nearly $20 billion in security assistance for training and equipment for Ukraine since 2014, when a street protest movement ousted a Moscow-backed president in favor of a pro-Western government. Moscow, which called the ouster a coup, then aided armed separatists in Ukraine’s primarily Russian-speaking east, starting the conflict between Kyiv and the Kremlin.

Washington’s assistance has provoked Russian officials to warn that their real enemy isn’t Ukraine but the U.S. It has also prompted the U.S. to modify optics around military exercises. A wargame planned to exercise the North Atlantic Treaty Organization nuclear deterrence capabilities started early this week in Belgium, involving fourth- and fifth-generation jet fighters and B-52 long-range bombers. A NATO statement said the exercises had been long planned and weren’t linked to any current events.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow would be closely watching the exercises to understand NATO’s stance toward nuclear deterrence.

Mr. Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling has unnerved observers, though many see it as little more than rhetoric. The U.S. has said it hasn’t seen any indications that Russia has changed its nuclear stance.

Russian occupation of Europe’s biggest nuclear-power plant in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region has also raised fears over Moscow’s ability to maintain the integrity of the system while pressuring Ukrainian experts at the power plant to pledge loyalty to the Kremlin.

Energoatom said Tuesday that two more managers of the power plant were abducted on Monday.

“Currently, nothing is known about their whereabouts and state,” the Ukrainian state nuclear company said.

Tuesday’s strikes also came hours after a Russian Su-34 jet fighter crashed into a housing complex in the Russian city of Yeisk, near Crimea. Anna Minkova, deputy governor of Russia’s Krasnodar territory, said Tuesday that 15 people died because of the crash and 25 others are in hospitals.

Russian investigators said a technical malfunction likely caused the war plane, which was flying nearby, to crash into the nine-story apartment complex, reducing parts of it to rubble and sending flames throughout much of the rest of the building.

Demining teams were working through the rubble on Tuesday to ensure none of the plane’s munitions posed a danger to repair efforts.