KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on Monday evening, November 2, that Ukraine has intelligence that Russia is preparing a new massive attack on the country, aimed primarily at its energy and logistics infrastructure, and that Moscow may time it to the US midterm elections on Tuesday, when he said the world's attention will be elsewhere.
Source: Ukrainska Pravda via EuropeSays
"We have intel that Russia is preparing a new massive attack on our country – primarily targeting energy and logistics," Zelenskyy said in his evening address and in a post on X. "The assumption is basically that tomorrow the world will be watching the American midterms, and what is happening here in Ukraine, along with our difficulties with air defense and Patriot missiles, will be overlooked."
Source: ANI via Indian Economic Observer
Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to heed air-raid and missile-threat alerts, and said Ukraine's services and air force were ready to respond as far as their defences allow. He called on the world to send Moscow a clear signal: "We need signals from the world to Russia that will make them feel that terror is no good, that it will bring no gains, and that as long as this war continues, their oil will burn, and they will not be able to make money doing business with the world."
Source: Fox News via WAOVAM
A warning delivered hours after the Komyshuvakha bombing
The warning came hours after Russian glide bombs struck a school used as a humanitarian aid distribution centre in Komyshuvakha, in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, killing at least 26 people including rescue workers and police officers, according to Ukrainian officials. It also followed the expiry on Sunday night of the six-day humanitarian ceasefire in Oleshky, in the Kherson region, which Ukraine's General Staff said on Monday Russian forces had used to strengthen their positions — a claim the Kremlin dismissed, saying regrouping is standard practice.
Source: Fox News via WAOVAM
The Komyshuvakha attack, and the day of mourning declared across Zaporizhzhia region for Tuesday, are covered in Awaaz Punjab's earlier report. Read: Komyshuvakha toll rises to 26
"We must not play games with Russia's oil or gas revenues," Zelenskyy said. "We must put pressure on Russia in such a way that it has no alternative but to end this war. America can do this." The appeal to Washington follows his Sunday interview with Fox News, in which he offered to pause Ukraine's strikes on Russian oil refineries for a month if the United States supplied Patriot interceptors for that month — an offer Awaaz Punjab reported on Monday.
Source: ANI via Indian Economic Observer
Zelenskyy's Patriot-for-a-pause offer, and the US-approved $2.1 billion sale of 500 Patriot interceptors, are covered in the earlier Awaaz Punjab report linked here. (Yaani: $2.1 billion is about ₹18,600 crore.) Read: Zelenskyy offers to halt refinery strikes for Patriots
Ukrainian reports on Monday also described cyberattacks on emergency alert systems in both Ukraine and Russia, circulating false warnings of chemical and radiation threats among residents, ANI reported. Russia had not publicly commented on Zelenskyy's massive-attack warning in the initial reports. The warning is a Ukrainian intelligence claim, attributed as such: no independent source has confirmed Russia's planned timing, and Moscow routinely denies planning attacks on civilian infrastructure while describing its strikes as aimed at military and energy targets.
Source: ANI via Indian Economic Observer
What happens next
Ukraine now waits on two dates at once: the US midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3, which Zelenskyy says Moscow may use as cover, and the US-mediated Ukraine-Russia negotiating round in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11 announced the same evening by US envoy Steve Witkoff. If a large strike does come, its scale — and whether Ukraine's air defences, short of Patriot interceptors, can blunt it — will be the first test of the warning.