WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Russia pounds Ukraine's energy sector, Kyiv urges more air defence assistance
Russia launched a barrage of missiles and drones on Saturday that damaged energy facilities and critical infrastructure across Ukraine, injuring at least four people, and prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to issue a fresh plea for more air defence assistance.
The sixth major Russian air attack on the Ukrainian power sector since March damaged energy facilities in the east, centre, and west, the national grid operator Ukrenergo said.
Ukraine's air force said it shot down 35 of 53 Russian missiles and 46 of 47 attack drones used for the strikes, which pile more pressure on Ukraine's hobbled energy system as the war with Russia is in its third year.
"Russia's main goal is to normalize terror, to use the lack of sufficient air defence and determination of Ukraine's partners," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.
"Partners know exactly what is needed. Additional "Patriots" and other modern air defence systems for Ukraine. To accelerate and expand F-16 deliveries to Ukraine. To provide our soldiers with all the necessary capabilities."
So far this year, Ukraine has found itself on the back foot as it faced delays in military aid from the United States, intensified attacks on its infrastructure and Moscow’s push to expand the frontline, 27 months after its full-scale invasion.
RENEWED ATTACKS ON POWER SECTOR
On Saturday, Russian forces attacked energy facilities in the eastern Donetsk region, southeastern Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions, central Kyrovohrad region and Ivano-Frankivsk region in the west, the energy ministry said.
Air alerts lasted for more than three hours across the regions with many people rushing for shelters in the middle of the night.
Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi said four people were injured and three critical infrastructure facilities were hit in the region on Ukraine's border with Poland. He gave no further details on the facilities.
DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy-generating company, said its two thermal power plants had been hit and equipment "seriously damaged".
Russia’s defence ministry has said it is striking Ukraine’s military-industrial complex and energy facilities in retaliation for Kyiv’s strikes on Russian energy facilities.
Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on Russian oil facilities this year, trying to find a pressure point against the Kremlin whose forces are slowly advancing in the eastern Donbas region and have opened a new front in the Kharkiv region in the northeast.
Russia pounded the Ukrainian energy system in the first winter of the war, and renewed its assault on the grid in March as Ukraine was running low on stocks of Western air defence missiles.
Ukrainian officials have said the Western aid has started to arrive but Russian bombardments over the past two months knocked out the bulk of the thermal and hydropower generation, caused blackouts, and pushed electricity imports to record highs.
The government was forced to nearly double consumer electricity tariffs to be able to fund massive repairs. It plans record electricity imports of about 27 megawatt hours (Mwh) for Saturday.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Huge anti-war rally in NATO member’s capital
Hundreds of thousands participated in the “peace march” in Hungary’s capital Budapest on Saturday, denouncing the EU’s policy of escalating tensions with Russia. The event culminated with a speech by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who accused Brussels of bringing Europe closer to a global conflict.
The demonstrators marched from the iconic Chain Bridge to Margaret Island on the Danube River.
Many carried national flags and chanted pacifist slogans, with some holding signs reading “No war” and “Give us peace, Lord.”
“Never before have so many people lined up for peace. We are the biggest peace corps, the largest peacekeeping force in Europe,” the prime minister said, as quoted by Reuters. “Europe must be prevented from rushing into war, into its own destruction.”
Orban said that his country must draw lessons from the devastation it went through the darkest times of the 20th century. “In the two world wars, the Hungarians lost 1.5 million lives, and with them – their future children and grandchildren,” Orban told the crowd. “I’m saying this slowly so that Brussels would understand: we will not go to war. We will not go to the East for a third time, we will not go to the Russian front again.”
Orban urged everyone to support the “pro-peace and pro-sovereignty”agenda of the ruling Fidesz party in the European Parliament election next week. “Do we want to shed Hungarian blood for Ukraine? No, we don’t,” he said.
The pro-war [forces] have gone beyond common sense by wanting to defeat Russia as they tried to do during the First World War and the Second World war.
Since the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, Orban has repeatedly accused the EU leadership in Brussels of dangerous brinkmanship with Moscow and warned that the European bloc must not allow itself to be dragged into a full-blown war.
Budapest has refused to provide any military aid to Ukraine and threatened to veto financial assistance to Kiev. Orban heavily criticized the economic sanctions imposed on Moscow by the EU, arguing that the bloc had “shot itself in the lungs” by undermining trade and its own energy supply.
Reuters/RT