Air defense fends off further Russian attack – DW – 29.08.2024

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of preparing a new “Cold War” against Ukraine.

In recent weeks and months, there have been targeted attacks on the heat and water supply infrastructure in Ukraine “with the aim of making people freeze to death in winter,” the minister said during consultations with her counterparts in Brussels.

According to Baerbock, Putin is striving for an even more massive Cold War than in recent years, so the EU’s response must be a new “protective shield” for Ukraine.

She pointed out that Germany plans to deliver four more IRIS-T air defense systems and additional Gepard anti-aircraft tanks by the end of the year. “Air defense remains the most important thing to protect human lives on the ground in Ukraine,” Baerbock said.

Russia claims it has captured two more villages in eastern Ukraine as its forces advance deeper into the country.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its troops had captured the village of Mykolaivka, about 15 kilometers from the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, as well as the settlement of Stelmakhivka in the neighboring Luhansk region.

Ukraine has not confirmed the capture of the villages. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that the situation around the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, an important logistics hub in the Donetsk region, had become “extremely difficult”.

The Russian drone and missile attack on Monday forced Ukraine to take four nuclear power plants offline, posing a risk to the nuclear industry, the Ukrainian mission to the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

“The Russian Federation continues to target Ukraine's energy infrastructure and intends to disrupt the operation of the country's nuclear power plants, which generate most of Ukraine's electricity,” the mission said in a statement.

“Russian attacks pose a significant risk to the stable operation of nuclear facilities in Ukraine and the safety of millions of people,” it said.

Although Ukraine has not stated that Russia has directly attacked nuclear power plants, the attacks on the transmission and distribution systems forced the grid operator to reduce the production of nuclear power plants or even shut down nuclear blocks.

Ukrainian officials have said the country has lost about half of its electricity generation capacity so far as a result of the war, and that most of its electricity needs are now met by power generated by three Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

At a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he would call on allies to keep their promises to supply air defense missile systems to Ukraine.

“Some Patriot systems have been announced and have not yet been delivered,” Kuleba said. “I will call on all partners who have made their commitments to finally deliver these systems.”

Several countries have promised to supply Ukraine with anti-aircraft missile systems, but Kuleba said the delays between announcement and delivery were “sometimes excessively long.”

He also called on EU states to put pressure on Britain and the US to lift restrictions on the use of donated long-range weapons against “legitimate” targets deep inside Russia.

“Since the beginning of the invasion, the United States, Britain, the European Union and other countries have been acting as a coalition,” Kuleba said. “I call on the European Union to play a role and make its position clear and clear that this must be done now if we want to maintain the momentum.”

Fearing an escalation of the conflict with Russia, both Britain and the United States have imposed restrictions on Kiev's use of donated long-range missiles.

EU foreign ministers will meet in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the war in Ukraine, the war in the Gaza Strip and the controversial presidential elections in Venezuela.

The meeting is informal, meaning ministers are not expected to take any official decisions. The talks will be chaired by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

The meeting was originally scheduled to take place in Budapest, but ministers moved it to Brussels to protest against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in early July.

The first item on the agenda is a discussion on the Russian-Ukrainian war with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. Kuleba is expected to report on the recent wave of Russian air strikes on his country.

Previously, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell had called on member states to provide more military aid to Kyiv and expressed concern about reports of possible aid cuts in Germany.

An artillery depot and two oil storage facilities in Russia were attacked on Wednesday, leading to a fire at the Atlas oil depot in the southern Rostov region, the Ukrainian military confirmed.

The military said the Zenit oil facility in Russia's Kirov region, about 1,500 kilometers northeast of the border with Ukraine, was also hit. An artillery depot in Russia's Voronezh region was also hit, the same statement added.

Kyiv says its attacks are aimed at destroying energy, transport and military infrastructure critical to Moscow's war effort.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Ukrainian forces destroyed 60 of 74 Russian combat drones and two of three missiles fired overnight.

“Air forces, anti-aircraft missile and electronic warfare groups, as well as mobile fire groups of the Ukrainian Air Force and the Ukrainian Defense Forces were involved in repelling the air strike,” the social media post said.

About 15 drones were shot down over the Ukrainian capital, said Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration.

Drone debris damaged the windows and doors of an apartment building and caused a fire in a non-residential building that was extinguished, Popko added.

Kyiv Region Governor Ruslan Kravchenko said the drones did not cause damage to critical infrastructure in Kyiv region, and city and regional authorities reported no casualties.

Russia attacked energy facilities across Ukraine on Monday with airstrikes that Ukrainian authorities said involved more than 200 missiles and drones. The renewed attack on the power grid has forced Kyiv to resort to emergency and planned power outages this week to stabilize the system.

dh/sms (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)