They stay Ukrainian power plants in Moscow’s sights. On Friday night those of Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv. A massive attack with 34 missiles, 21 of which were shot down, which saw four power plants of Ukraine’s largest private energy company, Dtek, damaged, while the state operator Ukrenergo disconnected its main line in the west of the country as a preventive measure.
Self for weeks the Russians have resumed bombing energy infrastructures, now – warns the AFP which reports Ukrainian security sources – there is the risk that the railways will also end up under fire. The Kremlin’s objective would be to delay the delivery of weapons while Kiev awaits supplies after the vote in the US Congress which released 61 billion in aid. The intent – according to the Ukrainian security source – would be to facilitate the Russian advance on Chasiv Yara conquest that would allow the president Vladimir Putin to announce a victory on May 9, the anniversary of the Russian victory in World War II.
On the other front the strategy seems similar. Kiev’s security services launched adrone attacks against two oil refineries, in Ilsky and Slavyanskand against a military airport in the Russian region of Krasnodar, as well as against the Kushchyovskaya air base, “where dozens of military aircraft, radars and electronic warfare devices were stationed”, according to a source from Kyiv Independent. In the last weeks, Ukrainian forces have used drones to damage Russia’s oil industry in widespread attacks. “The SBU continues to effectively target military facilities and infrastructure behind enemy lines, reducing Russia’s war potential,” the SBU source explained to the Ukrainian newspaper, while the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the shooting down of 66 Ukrainian drones over the Krasnodar region and two others over Crimea.
On a diplomatic level, despite some glimmers of hope after the face-to-face meeting in Qatar between Ukraine and Russia, the first in a long time, for the exchange of kidnapped children, there appear to be no positive signs. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov yesterday once again reiterated how Russia does not see the conditions to start a new negotiation. «At the moment there are no prerequisites for negotiations, because Ukraine does not accept any negotiations. Therefore, the special military operation continues,” he said.
The tension between Moscow and Rome is also at the forefront, after Putin signed a decree nationalizing the Russian branches of the Italian Ariston and the German Bosch, transferring them to the Russian Gazprom Domestic Systems, a company of the state-owned Gazprom group, manufacturer of household appliances. “I have given a mandate to the secretary general of the Farnesina to summon the ambassador of the Russian Federation to Italy”, replied the Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani with a post about X, while words of condemnation also came from Brussels. «Russia continues to take measures against EU companies by targeting legitimate economic activities: yet more evidence of Russia’s contempt for international law and rules. Russia confirms itself as an unpredictable actor also in the economic field”, the EU External Action service said.
