Russia again punished Ukraine with a bombardment from south to north and from west to east of the country, using cruise missiles, drones and even hypersonic missiles, killing at least ten people and once again destroying infrastructure, destroying the nuclear power plant of Zaporizh was forced to be disconnected from the grid for several hours. The attack, which affected ten regions, was regarded by the Ukrainian president as a return to “miserable tactics” by Moscow.
“The enemy has fired 81 missiles in an attempt to intimidate the Ukrainians again and return to their miserable tactics. The occupiers are only succeeding in terrorizing civilians. That’s all they can do,” denounced Volodymyr Zelensky.
Kiev says its air defenses downed 34 of 81 missiles and four of eight drones, marking a drop in the defense’s success rate compared to data for previous strikes. This can be partly explained by the fact that Russia fired six hypersonic Kinzhal missiles. One of them hit the capital, and 40% of Kiev’s population was left without heating, according to the mayor.
The attacks, carried out by land, air and sea, killed at least five people in Lviv, four in Kherson – at a bus stop – and one more in Dnipro. In addition, according to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, the “massive rocket attack” on Ukraine was “targeted against the energy system”. The attacks led to power outages as generation and distribution facilities in eight regions were affected.
“She [russos] tried to destroy it [sistema de energia] again. And again they failed,” said the head of the Ukrainian government. The company DTEK Energo reported that three of its thermal plants were damaged, one of them seriously.
Partly as a result of the attack, the Zaporijia nuclear power plant had to be disconnected from the power grid for hours, prompting the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency to issue a new warning. “[Sempre que há bombardeamentos] we dice. If we allow this again and again, one day our luck will run out,” said Rafael Grossi.
Moscow justified the attack in retaliation for the strange incident that took place in the Russian border region of Bryansk last week. Identifying men from the Russian Volunteer Corps claimed to have taken over a village. Russian authorities later said two people, including a child, had been shot, prompting Putin to denounce the “terrorist act” he blamed on the Ukrainians.
In the ping-pong of attacks and retaliations, Kiev announced the destruction, in the east of the country, and with the respective video evidence, of two Russian anti-aircraft missile systems TOR M2 and S-300VM using kamikaze drones. “In response to any Russian ‘retaliatory missile strike’, we will strike in a truly vengeful manner to destroy the occupiers, their bases and their equipment,” Ukraine’s security service said.
On the day Poland revealed that it had already delivered 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Kiev, Warsaw again put on the table the possibility of supplying some MiG-29 aircraft. Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat thanked the gesture and even suggested they could be used to replace parts, but he said the priority is to receive aircraft, such as the F-16, “mainly to protect the air of terror from the air”.
Source: DN
