What the week to 21 November 2022 showed about Ukraine's resilience
A look back at the days before 21 November 2022, when missile strikes, a blast in Poland and a Dutch verdict shaped the news.
What did the days leading up to 21 November 2022 reveal about the pressure on Ukraine's public institutions? The reports from that stretch point to a state operating under sustained attack on its energy system, while its partners dealt with the risk of the war spilling across borders.
On 15 November 2022, Russian missiles struck several cities across Ukraine, including Kyiv, causing damage to energy facilities that was described as critical. On 17 November, another wave of cruise missile strikes was reported in Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. Two people were confirmed killed overnight in Zaporizhzhia by a missile, and critical infrastructure was targeted in Dnipro and Odesa.
By 18 November, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strikes had left at least 10 million Ukrainians without electricity. He also said the death toll from the previous day's attacks had risen to seven, with many more injured.
A missile in Poland
Also on 15 November, a missile killed two people in the village of Przewodów in eastern Poland. The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs called it a Russian-made missile and summoned the Russian ambassador for an explanation. US President Joe Biden said the blast was caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile, after US officials told the Associated Press that preliminary findings suggested Ukrainian forces had fired at an incoming Russian missile. On 17 November, Germany offered to deploy Air Force jets to protect Polish airspace. Later, in September 2023, the Polish Prosecutor's Office stated that the explosion was caused by an out-of-control Ukrainian S-300 air defence missile.
Accountability and a nuclear plant
On 17 November, a court in the Netherlands sentenced Igor Strelkov-Girkin, Sergey Dubinsky and Leonid Kharchenko to life imprisonment for shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Donetsk Oblast in 2014. The verdict was delivered in their absence.
On 20 November, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Enerhodar had been shelled, damaging some buildings, systems and equipment.
Taken together, the reports show a country absorbing repeated strikes on the infrastructure that ordinary public life depends on, while courts and allies continued to act on separate fronts.
