Explosions were heard in the early morning hours today in OdessaUkraine’s strategic Black Sea port, Ukrainian media reported, after Ukraine’s air force declared virtually the entire country on alert in the face of Russian missile strikes, as Moscow stepped up its military pressure in Kyiv after the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the USA.

“An airstrike alert has been issued across Ukraine due to a missile threat,” the air force said via Telegram, stressing that the Odesa (southern), Khyvorkhrad (central), Kherson (eastern) and Mykolayiv regions were particularly targeted. (southerly).

Then the Ukrainian authorities spoke of a “massive attack” on energy infrastructures, adding that they will need to proceed with urgent interruptions of the electricity supply, especially in Kiev, at a time when the temperatures are hovering around zero.

“Once again, the energy sector is under massive enemy attack,” Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said on Facebook. Power outages began to occur in Kyiv, Odesa and Dnipro, the operator DTEK reported.

Last Tuesday, Russia threatened that there would be “retaliation” for Ukrainian attacks with US-made ATACMS missiles on Russian territory over the past 24 hours.

Russia has been hammering Ukraine, including political infrastructure, since launching its invasion of the country in February 2022 and has stepped up its raids as winter approaches, specifically targeting energy infrastructure.

On the front lines, Moscow continues to make territorial gains as the Ukrainian military appears exhausted, with less than two months to go until Republican President-elect Trump takes office.

Yesterday, Wednesday, the administration of the outgoing American president Joe Biden called on Kiev to reduce the age limit for conscripts to 18 years, from 25 today, in order to recruit more and to deal with the increasingly acute shortage of personnel, against the background of the Russian advance in the fields of battles.