Ukraine war briefing: Russian airstrikes pound central and western Ukrainian power facilities

Russian missiles have hammered power facilities in central and western Ukraine, increasing pressure on the country’s ailing energy system. Saturday’s airstrikes, carried out with long-range missiles including cruise missiles, were the fourth large-scale aerial assault targeting the power system since 22 March. DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private electricity company, said four of its six thermal power plants were damaged. Rescuers battled to put out fires at several energy facilities in the western regions of Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, officials said.

Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 17 drones launched by Ukraine over its territory, Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday, with a regional official saying the attack targeted an oil storage facility in the Kaluga region. Three of the drones were downed over the region, south of Moscow, the ministry said, while Kaluga’s governor, Vladislav Shapsha, said the drones fell close to an oil depot near the town of Lyudinovo. There were no casualties or damage, he said. Drones were also destroyed over the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions, the ministry said.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy repeated his pleas to partners for more defensive missiles – notably the Patriot system – and faster deliveries after Saturday’s Russian attacks, despite this week’s breakthrough in US military aid. The Ukrainian president said the targets included electricity and gas transit facilities, in particular those important for gas supply to the European Union. Ukrainian air defences brought down 21 of the 34 incoming missiles, the air force’s commander said. After strikes on energy facilities in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, running water supplies were disrupted in Zelenskiy’s home town of Kryvyi Rih, officials said.

A Russian court ordered another suspect to be held in custody following the arrest of an ally of defence minister Sergei Shoigu on suspicion of taking bribes, TASS news agency reported on Saturday. It cited court documents as saying Anton Filatov, a subordinate of deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov, had been ordered to be held in custody.

A missile struck a hospital holding 60 patients on the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, injuring a woman and damaging the building, nearby water pipes and power lines, the regional governor said on Saturday.

Ukraine attacked the Ilsky and Slavyansk oil refineries in Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight to Saturday, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters. The drone strike conducted by the SBU security service caused fires at the facilities, the source said, and Russia’s Kushchevsk military airfield was also attacked in the southern region. The Slavyansk oil refinery was forced to suspend some operations after being damaged in the attack, Russian state news agency Tass cited an executive overseeing the plant as saying.

Russia has sent more troops to Ocheretyne in eastern Ukraine to reinforce an offensive there, but Kyiv’s forces largely hold the village and expect US arms deliveries to turn the tide in their favour, the Ukrainian military said. Russian troops have slowly advanced through at least half a dozen villages on the eastern front since capturing the bastion town of Avdiivka in February. Fierce fighting raged in Ocheretyne on Saturday but Nazar Voloshyn, a spokesperson for the eastern command, said Ukrainian forces had the situation “under control” and controlled two-thirds of the village.

Australia’s defence minister, Richard Marles, announced a $100m military aid package for Kyiv including short-range air defence and drones, with air-to-ground precision munitions coming separately, during a visit to Lviv on Saturday.

Italy summoned Russia’s ambassador after Moscow announced it was putting a subsidiary of Italian heating firm Ariston under the “temporary management” of state energy company Gazprom. An EU spokesperson condemned the move as “yet another proof of Russia’s disregard for international law and rules” and called on Moscow to reverse it. Since invading Ukraine, Moscow has taken the Russian subsidiaries of a number of western companies – notably French food giant Danone and Danish brewer Carlsberg – under what it calls temporary control.

Russia on Saturday said it would require major exporters to carry on converting the bulk of their foreign currency earnings into rubles for another year to help support the national currency. Moscow has used strict capital controls to prop up the value of the ruble in the two years since the west levelled sweeping financial sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.