Russia killed at least seven people and caused “severe damage” to Ukraine’s power grid on Sunday with a barrage of more than 200 missiles and drones that Kyiv said was a rebuke to western leaders who believe the Kremlin is open to peace talks.
Ukraine said its military intercepted 104 of 120 missiles and 42 of the 90 attack drones fired by Russia in a nationwide effort that involved air defence systems guarding Kyiv and other major cities and US-made F-16 fighter jets supplied by western allies.
“Over the past week the aggressor used nearly 140 missiles of various types, more than 900 guided aerial bombs, and over 600 strike drones. Today our F-16 pilots shot down approximately 10 aerial targets,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday. “Efforts to address the consequences of the combined attack on our infrastructure in the Rivne, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Volyn and Odesa regions are ongoing.
“Russian terrorists are once again trying to intimidate us with cold and blackouts,” he added, as Ukraine braced for the third winter of all-out war with Russia.
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Kyiv fears that Donald Trump will press it to make a quick and unfavourable deal with Moscow when he returns to the White House in January, and has criticised what it sees as a creeping willingness in the West to re-engage with the Kremlin almost three years after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres travelled to Russia last month to meet its president Vladimir Putin, and German chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke to the Russian autocrat by phone last Friday for the first time in nearly two years, in a move Mr Zelenskiy warned would open a “Pandora’s box”.
“Russia launched one of the largest air attacks: drones and missiles against peaceful cities, sleeping civilians, critical infrastructure,” Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said on Sunday. “This is war criminal Putin’s true response to all those who called and visited him recently. We need peace through strength, not appeasement.”
Sources in Mr Scholz’s government were quoted as saying that he condemned Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure during the hour-long call, yet 36 hours later Mr Putin’s military was pounding Ukraine’s energy grid as winter weather began to bite.
“Severe damage to Ukraine’s energy system, including to Dtek power stations. These attacks again highlight Ukraine’s need for additional air defence systems from our allies,” said Maxim Timchenko, chief executive of Dtek, Ukraine’s biggest private power firm.
Ukrainian energy operators imposed emergency blackouts in several regions as they raced to patch up an electricity grid that had already lost about half its generating capacity after waves of Russian missile and drone strikes.
Mr Scholz reiterated support for Ukraine on Sunday and defended his call to Mr Putin, which many analysts saw as partly an attempt to boost his flagging popularity ahead of early German elections scheduled for February.
“Ukraine can count on us,” Mr Scholz said, insisting that “no decision will be taken behind Ukraine’s back”.
“It was important to tell (Mr Putin) that he must not expect that the support of Germany, Europe and many others in the world for Ukraine will weaken,” he added.
Poland scrambled fighter jets on Sunday in response to Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities near its eastern border.
“No one will stop Putin with phone calls,” said Polish prime minister Donald Tusk. “The attack last night, one of the biggest in this war, has proved that telephone diplomacy cannot replace real support from the whole West for Ukraine. The next weeks will be decisive, not only for the war itself, but also for our future.”
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