Amna: Returning to the war in
Ukraine --
as we reported, Ukraine's
president said today that
roughly 30 percent of Ukraine's
power generation has been
attacked and knocked offline by
new Russian attacks.
Nick schifrin looks at a Ukraine
partially in the dark, as the
cold descends almost eight
months into the war.
Nick: In southern Ukraine today
this is all that's left of a
residential building.
A giant crater where a home
stood for decades.
Destruction and death arrived
from a clear blue sky.
The price of Russian rockets
that elude Ukraine's air
defenses, this civilian's life
as he slept.
And the country's
infrastructure.
Today Russia struck this
combined heat and power plant in
dnipro.
For the last month Russia has
targeted Ukraine's electricity
grid, especially substations
that serve as junction points
between cities.
Nearly all of Ukraine's
substations have been damaged,
and president volodymyr
zelenskyy admitted today 30
percent of the country's power
plants have been destroyed.
That means in eastern cities
like kivsharivka, where the
destruction is still fresh,
residents live without
electricity or heat.
9-year-old artem panchenko helps
his grandmother iryna prepare
dinner.
He eats in the dark.
A family powerless to stop
what's coming.
They have to cook outside, on
the fire.
Winter in eastern Ukraine is
already arriving.
Artem: It's really cold.
I'm sleeping in my clothes in my
apartment.
Suriya: I think it can be safely
assumed that what Russia is
trying to do is freeze Ukraine
into submission.
Nick: Suriya jayanti is a senior
fellow at the atlantic council
and co-founder of Na, a
u.s.-ukrainian company focused
on green energy transition.
She says damaged infrastructure
hurts Ukraine's civilians and
military.
And that Ukraine and Russia are
playing cat and mouse -- Ukraine
fixes damage, and Russia strikes
it again.
Suriya: So this seems to be a
strike at the nervous system of
Ukraine's resistance.
This is going to be a very, very
long, very cold and very dark
winter for Ukraine.
Nick: And yet, Ukrainians remain
resilient.
In a new Gallup poll released
today, 70 percent say Ukraine
should continue fighting until
it wins.
And of those, 91 percent define
victory as when all territory
lost between 2014 and now is
regained, including crimea.
But that could be more
difficult, now that Russia is
using Iranian made kamikaze
drones that are 8 feet wide and
carry about 100 pounds of
explosives.
Russia's launched hundreds of
drones.
Ukraine has managed to shoot
many of them down.
But even a handful that get
through can cause major damage
and give Russia a new weapon of
war.
To further discuss the war in
Ukraine, we turn to Samuel
bendett, a Russia military
analyst at the center for navel
analysis.
Thank you very much and welcome
to the newshour.
Over the course of the war,
Russia has at times restrained
itself from attacking
infrastructure targets, but the
last few weeks we have seen
countless strikes across the
country and now, including using
these kamikaze drones.
Is this a shift in tactics?
Samuel: In a way, it is, it is a
response to Ukraine's successful
attacks against Russian forces
in the east and south of the
country, and the Russian
realization it must do something
to try and stem the advance and
cause a certain level of
attrition and certain level of
pain on the Ukrainian defense
industry, on the population and
the military.
Nick: Why do you think Russia
has turned to these Iranian
drones?
Samuel: Russia has a certain
capability that it was unable to
put in the field at scale.
Iran was able to offer a
significant capability to the
Russians in the form of
munitions as well as several
combat drones.
These are relatively cheap and
inexpensive drones by comparison
to the damage they can cause.
To pressure, this represents a
significant capability, an
increase in their ability to
strike Ukrainian targets.
Nick: The ability for Russia to
loiter above a target, as you
are saying, these drones give
Russia the ability to do much
does that give Russia some kind
of edge in the war strategically
that it did not have before?
Samuel: The drones that were
used in recent strikes have a
range of up to 200 kilometers,
and so this represents a
significant increase in Russian
capabilities because now a bulk
of the Ukrainian population,
it's military and industry are
in range of these munitions when
launched from the southeast of
the country.
Nick: Does Ukraine have the
ability to defend itself against
these, because he drones?
Samuel: Absolutely it does, and
it has shut down most of these
drones, more than three quarters
have been lost in their attacks.
The whole point of launching
munitions in waves is a lot of
them will be lost, but a few of
them will make it past the air
defenses.
These drones basically saturate
your defense capabilities.
One or two has to make it
through to really cause damage
and that's what we have seen in
recent attacks.
Nick: That brings us to those
air defenses.
Ukraine has been asking for more
from the U.S., from Europe.
The U.S. Has provided some
systems and is providing more
advanced systems, as is Germany,
and possibly other western
European countries.
Talk about how difficult it is
too great a layered system of
defense that can really protect
Ukraine not only from these
drones, but from larger Russian
missiles as well.
Samuel: It is a challenge.
These drones fly low, they fly
slow, they have a relatively
small radar signatures so they
cannot always be seen and
identified by the early warning
radar.
They could be heard before they
are seen because they have a
relatively cheap, civilian style
motor.
When the population sees the
drone in the immediate facility
-- immediate vicinity, it is
probably too late to do
anything.
However, robust electronic
warfare defenses are capable of
interfering with these drones's
fly patterns.
The use cheap, civilian gps
systems that can be interfered
with.
This is where some of the
successes against these drones
has been visible lately.
Nick: Nearly all of Ukraine's
substations as well as
distribution lines for
electricity as well as heat have
been destroyed.
Those can be fixed in a matter
of days.
Zelenskyy admitted today 30% of
power plants have also been
destroyed and that takes a
longer time to fix.
Does that have not only civilian
applications but military
implications?
Samuel: Absolutely.
Right now, Ukrainian civilian
and military efforts are
interlinked.
A lot of the resources are part
of the civilian and military
effort.
At the same time, this doesn't
necessarily appear to stem
Ukrainian resolve in the face of
these attacks, and it is not
likely these drones will have an
effect on the Ukrainian
population that Russia probably
intends.
What we are in relatively
uncharted territory.
If Russia continues to launch
these drugs on a daily -- these
strikes on a daily basis, there
is a possible plan for Russia to
acquire over 2000 of these, and
if they will be used against the
Ukrainian military and civilian
info structure, it becomes a
different type of war.
Nick: You Cain's terrain gets
very difficult across when it
becomes muddy, that is in the
next few weeks.
Over the winter, will both sides
continue to keep fighting and
try to push the frontline
forward?
Samuel: Both sides are preparing
for winter warfare.
Ukrainians are preparing,
Russians are preparing, Russian
volunteers are fundraising for
thermal underwear and warm
clothes for soldiers.
There is every bit of resolve on
both sides to fight into the
winter to try and essentially,
for the Ukraine to push the
Russians further south and east
in for the Russians, to reverse
some of the Ukrainian advances.
Nick: Samuel, thank you very
much.
Samuel: Thank you.