Russia attacks Ukraine’s power grid as Moscow worries over US Tomahawk missiles
Kiev Regional Governor Mykola Kalashnyk said that two employees of Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK were injured in an attack on a Russian substation. Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said infrastructure in the Donetsk, Odessa and Chernihiv regions was also targeted.
“Russia continues its air terror against our cities and communities, intensifying attacks on our energy infrastructure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote to X, noting that Russia launched “more than 3,100 drones, 92 missiles and approximately 1,360 glider bombs” last week.
Zelenskyy called for tougher secondary sanctions on buyers of Russian oil. “Sanctions, tariffs and joint actions against buyers of Russian oil, those financing this war, must remain on the table,” he wrote to X.
He also wrote that he had a “very productive” phone call with US President Donald Trump on Sunday in which they discussed strengthening Ukraine’s “air defense, endurance and long-range capabilities” as well as “details related to the energy sector.” Zelenskyy said the talks followed an earlier meeting on Saturday in which the leaders agreed on Sunday’s issues.
The calls came after Zelenskyy said on Friday that he was in talks with US officials about the supply of various long-range precision strike weapons, including Tomahawks and more ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles. Trump, disappointed in Russia’s efforts to end the war, said earlier this week that he had “sort of decided” whether to send Tomahawks to Ukraine. A high-level Ukrainian delegation will visit the United States this week. Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement published on Sunday that “the issue of Tomahawks is extremely worrying.”
“Now is really a very dramatic moment in terms of the fact that tensions are escalating from all sides,” he told Russian state television reporter Pavel Zarubin.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also said on Sunday that he doubted the United States would provide Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine.
“I think we need to calm down on this issue,” he told Zarubin, who posted these on his Telegram channel on Sunday. “Our friend Donald… sometimes takes a stronger approach and then drops the tactic a little bit and steps back. So we shouldn’t take this literally as if it’s going to fly tomorrow.”
Ukraine’s energy sector has been a major battleground since Russia launched its all-out invasion more than three years ago.
The latest attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid come after Russian drone and missile attacks, which Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko described as “one of the largest concentrated attacks” on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, injured at least 20 people in Kiev, damaged residential buildings and caused power outages across the country.
Every year, Russia has attempted to cripple Ukraine’s power grid ahead of the severe winter, hoping to demoralize the population. Winter temperatures last from late October to March, with the coldest months being January and February.
Ukrainian air forces stated on Saturday that their air defense intercepted or stopped 103 of the 118 Russian UAVs launched against Ukraine overnight, while the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it shot down 32 Ukrainian UAVs over Russian territory.
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