Russia carried out a “massive attack” against Ukraine overnight and targeted its energy infrastructure across the country, Ukrainian authorities announced this Thursday morning. “The enemy is attacking our energy infrastructure again!” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on the Telegram social network. These attacks targeted “production facilities and transmission systems” in the regions of kyiv, Kharkiv (northeast), Zaporizhia (south) and Lviv (west), explained German Galushchenko.
Information to remember
⇒ At least ten Russian strikes against “essential infrastructure” in Kharkiv
⇒ The head of the US House of Representatives still without a plan on Ukraine
⇒ A conference in Switzerland “on peace in Ukraine” in mid-June
At least ten Russian strikes against “essential infrastructure” in Kharkiv
Two thermal power plants of the Ukrainian energy supplier DTEK were attacked, the company reported on Telegram this Thursday morning, without specifying their location.
To carry out its “massive attack” against Ukraine, Moscow used cruise missiles as well as Iranian-made Shahed drones according to the daily report of the Ukrainian general staff published on Facebook. Ukraine was able to destroy 37 of the 40 drones launched against it, the army said.
In the city of Kharkiv and its region, Moscow carried out “at least 10 strikes against essential infrastructure”, Oleg Synegoubov said on the Telegram social network without mentioning possible victims. According to the mayor of Kharkiv, Igor Terekhov, and the region’s police, it was with missiles that the Russian army struck Ukraine’s second most populous city. The regional governor clarified that interventions concerning power outages are underway.
The head of the US House of Representatives still without a plan on Ukraine
The Republican leader of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, refused to comment on the future of aid to Ukraine on Wednesday, ensuring that negotiations were still underway, despite repeated calls for action.
“The elected representatives of the House continue to debate the procedure to follow,” he confined himself to saying during a press conference on Wednesday. A $60 billion package for kyiv, demanded by Democratic President Joe Biden, has been blocked in the US Congress for months.
“The majority of Democrats and Republicans overwhelmingly support Ukraine. There must be a vote now,” the leader insisted at a press conference. These funds were approved in the Senate in February, but supporters of Donald Trump in the House refuse to examine the text as it stands — due, among other things, to a broader dispute over immigration.
London calls for the release of Russian opponent Kara-Mourza
The head of British diplomacy David Cameron called on Thursday for the “immediate” release of Russian opponent Vladimir Kara-Mourza, also a British national, accusing Moscow of ill-treatment aimed at worsening his state of health.
“A human rights activist committed to a democratic Russia and a vocal critic of the war in Ukraine, Vladimir Kara-Mourza was considered a threat by the Kremlin. Putin locked him up in an attempt to silence him,” declared David Cameron in a statement published to mark two years since his arrest.
A conference in Switzerland “on peace in Ukraine” in mid-June, without Moscow
Switzerland announced this Wednesday that it was organizing a conference “on peace” on Ukraine on June 15 and 16, but without the presence of Russia, which sees it as a project of “American Democrats”. “The idea of organizing a high-level conference to launch the peace process has received sufficient support at the international level,” assured the Swiss government in a press release.
The conference, to which more than a hundred countries will be invited, is to take place near Lucerne, in central Switzerland, in the Bürgenstock hotel complex, perched more than 450 meters above Lake Lucerne. “This is a first step for a process for lasting peace,” declared Swiss President Viola Amherd at a press conference in Bern.
Seven dead in Russian strikes on Wednesday
Seven people were killed on Wednesday in the Ukrainian regions of Kharkiv (north-east) and Odessa (south) during nighttime attacks which hit two energy sites.
In the Odessa region, four people died, including a 10-year-old girl, and seven others were injured, Governor Oleg Kiper said. “A man is in serious condition, his lower limbs have been amputated,” he said on Telegram, claiming that the region was hit by Russian ballistic missiles.
A few hours earlier, two women and a child had lost their lives in a Russian strike on the Kharkiv region, which is regularly targeted, according to the Interior Ministry, which specifies that two people were also injured.