WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia pounds Kharkiv for second night in row, Ukraine says

Russia has attacked the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine for a second consecutive night, injuring three people, sparking fires at industrial buildings and damaging two kindergartens, Ukrainian officials said early on Monday.

The attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, lasted most of the night and hit the city's largest and oldest district, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

"Five industrial buildings of one of the research and production enterprises were damaged," Terekhov said on Telegram.

Emergency crews said they battled a large fire which spanned 3,900 square meters after the strike. The drone assault on the city also damaged 11 apartment buildings, Terekhov said.

The attack came a week after a U.S.-brokered partial ceasefire on strikes on energy and Black Sea infrastructure. Both sides have accused each other of breaking the moratorium.

The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 57 of 131 drones launched by Russia during the overnight attack that also used two Iskander-M ballistic missiles.

Another 45 drones did not reach their targets, likely due to electronic countermeasures, it said.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Russia had fired more than 1,000 drones over the past week and he called for a response from the U.S. and other allies. Russia said Ukrainian drones attacked its energy facilities last week.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has waged a bloody and brutal three-year war. Both sides deny targeting civilians, saying their attacks are aimed at destroying each other's infrastructure crucial to war efforts.

Over the weekend a Russian drone strike on Kharkiv killed two people and wounded 35, a Ukrainian official said.

Oleh Sinehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said on Monday that the overnight attacks followed a Sunday guided aerial bomb strike on the city of Kupiansk that left five injured and damaged an apartment building.

Kupiansk, east of Kharkiv, was seized by Russia early in the invasion of Ukraine and recaptured by Ukrainian troops later that year. It has now come under new, intense Russian pressure.

There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the attacks.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine again violated energy strike ceasefire – Russia

Ukraine has again violated the moratorium on strikes on energy infrastructure by launching two attacks on the power grid in Russia’s border Bryansk Region, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for 30 days following a phone call with his US counterpart Donald Trump earlier this month, an agreement later confirmed by Kiev.

Moscow, however, accused Ukraine of violating the ceasefire almost immediately, with several similar breaches occurring in the following days.
In a statement on Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry signaled that Kiev did not change its approach to the moratorium. “Over the past 24 hours, despite the Kiev regime’s statements about not striking energy facilities, the Ukrainian armed forces continued to attack Russia’s energy infrastructure.”

One attack, which took place on Sunday evening, targeted a facility in Bryansk Region and involved an artillery shelling of a branch of energy company Rosseti Centre – Bryanskenergo, the ministry said. “Due to a break in the wire on the support, the high-voltage line was disconnected, and household consumers in the Suzemsky district were cut off from the energy supply.”

Less than half an hour later, a Ukrainian drone attacked an electricity substation in the same area, also leading to energy disruptions, officials added.

“The continued deliberate attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Russian energy facilities indicate the complete inability of the Kiev regime to abide by any of its obligations regarding the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine,” the ministry stressed.

While Moscow has repeatedly accused Kiev of violating the moratorium on energy strikes, it has signaled that it intends to uphold its end of the bargain because the deal serves as a sign of progress in improving US-Russian bilateral relations. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned, however, that Moscow may retaliate symmetrically for Kiev’s violations.

Reuters/RT