Tagesschau: ‘600,000 without power’, TASS: ‘substation for military industry’
After Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure on 8 November, Germany's Tagesschau reports hundreds of thousands of people without electricity, while Russian outlets, citing the Russian Defence Ministry, describe targets they say served the Ukrainian military and its industry.
What Western media report
Tagesschau (Germany) says that, according to Ukrainian utility DTEK, 600,000 people in the Dnipropetrovsk region have no power, and that nearly 250,000 people in the town of Slatopil in the Kharkiv region are in the dark, according to authorities. Hundreds of buildings in Kyiv are still without heating. It relays President Volodymyr Zelensky's accusation that Moscow is raising pressure ahead of planned talks in Abu Dhabi. It also reports that the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant lost external power, according to the IAEA, and is being cooled by emergency generators, while the Russian plant management says radiation levels are normal. Tagesschau describes the war as an ‘invasion’ and the plant as ‘occupied’.
What media from these countries report: Russia
TASS (Russia, state-controlled) relays the Russian Defence Ministry's statement that drones hit a 330-kV substation near Beloshitsy in the Zhytomyr region, which the ministry says supplied Ukrainian military-industrial facilities. Lenta.ru (Russia, state-controlled) repeats this and adds the ministry's claims of a vessel hit in the Black Sea, ammunition depots and over a thousand Ukrainian military losses. It also reports emergency outages in Kyiv, the Kyiv region and Dnipro, with local residents saying some areas have had no power for up to five days. Vedomosti (Russia, state-controlled) adds a container ship southwest of Odesa and recalls earlier strikes on 5 and 6 November. The outlets use the term ‘special military operation’ or simply relay the ministry's wording.
Differences
- Tagesschau starts from the consequences for civilians (600,000 without power, heating in Kyiv), while TASS and Vedomosti start from the military targets named by the Russian Defence Ministry.
- Only the Russian outlets mention the Beloshitsy substation; Tagesschau does not. The figures of people without power (600,000 and 250,000) appear only in Tagesschau.
- Tagesschau cites Zelensky saying the attacks are pressure ahead of the Abu Dhabi talks and covers the Zaporizhzhia plant; the supplied Russian texts do not.
- Unlike TASS and Vedomosti, Lenta.ru extensively cites claims of Ukrainian losses and quotes Oleg Soskin, a former aide to Leonid Kuchma, who says Kyiv is ‘almost finished’; Vedomosti rely almost entirely on the ministry statement and earlier strikes.
- TASS is the shortest and carries only the ministry statement, while Lenta.ru also includes Ukrainian-sourced information on the effects on residents.
Where they agree
- All sources report Russian strikes on energy facilities in Ukraine overnight on 8 November.
- Both Tagesschau and Lenta.ru mention DTEK and the difficult situation in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
- Tagesschau and Lenta.ru both report power outages in Kyiv.
Sources: read the originals
- Ukraine
- Russia
- energy
- drone strikes
- DTEK
- Zaporizhzhia
Russia & Ukraine
Middle East
Russia & Ukraine
Middle East
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first.