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11 October 2022: Strikes, Belarus and warnings
Summary
A look back at a day when the aftermath of mass missile strikes met reports of Russian troop movements into Belarus.
What did Ukraine face on 11 October 2022, the morning after one of the widest waves of Russian missile strikes on its cities? The answer ran from power cuts in the west to warnings about the north.
On 10 October 2022, Russian forces had struck Kyiv, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Sumy, Dnipro, Lviv, Ternopil and Poltava. At least nineteen people were killed and hundreds injured. Moldova confirmed that day that Russian Navy warships in the Black Sea had fired cruise missiles through its airspace towards targets in Ukraine, and its authorities summoned the Russian ambassador to explain the violation.
Lviv in the dark
On 11 October 2022, Lviv suffered a major power outage after a Russian missile strike damaged what was described as critical infrastructure. It came two days after a Russian missile attack on Zaporizhzhia killed at least 13 people and injured 89 others.
Troops into Belarus
The same day brought a warning aimed at Ukraine's allies. As reported at the time, thousands of Russian troops were entering Belarus by the trainload. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told G7 nations that Russia was planning another offensive against Kyiv, with direct Belarusian involvement. The troop movements followed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's accusation, a day earlier, that Ukraine was planning an attack on his country.
Moscow's rhetoric
The strikes unfolded against Russian accusations over the Crimean Bridge explosion, which killed three people and partially destroyed part of the structure. On 9 October 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin formally accused Ukraine, and specifically the Security Service of Ukraine, of being behind it, calling it an act of terrorism.
On 11 October 2022 Russia also added Meta Platforms, parent company of Instagram and Facebook, to its list of terrorists and extremists. The stated reason was that the company tolerated Russophobia and allowed calls to violence against Russians.
Taken together, the day combined continuing damage to Ukrainian infrastructure, a warning about a possible northern front, and a widening of Moscow's confrontation with outside actors.
