Russia launches its largest missile and drone attack; Ukraine responds by hitting Russia’s Omsk refinery.
The response was near immediate
Fifteen different oblasts in Ukraine came under attack today, with a small list of Ukrainian cities targeted. Russia fired more than 100 missiles and 100 drones. It wasn’t a concentrated assault on a single location but rather a widespread attack designed to test Ukraine’s air defense capabilities across the country.
Ukraine has the strength to respond with equal ferocity, targeting Russian military and economic assets. However, due to obvious Western influence, they are trying to maintain a delicate balance. They don’t want to let Russia’s actions go unpunished, but at the same time, they are avoiding a full-scale response that might alarm Western leaders, who are keen to reset their relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As a result, Ukraine is using its power to constrain Russia from targeting critical infrastructure. The last time Russia launched a major attack on Ukraine’s energy grid was in the last week of March. Today, Russian forces aimed multiple missiles at Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
The regions reporting strikes on power or critical infrastructure included Rivne and Volyn in the northwest, Khmelnytsk in the southwest, Zhytomyr in the north, Lviv in the west, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad and Vinnytsia in central Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia in the southeast and Odesa in the south.
Neighbouring Moldova, whose grid is linked to that of Ukraine, reported small disruptions to its power network.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said a hydropower plant in the Kyiv region had been targeted too. A video posted on social media and verified by Reuters showed a damaged dam and a fire after an apparent strike at a hydropower plant. A separate clip, also verified, showed a missile hitting a water reservoir.
A few hours after the Russian attack on Ukraine, explosions were reported at the state-run energy giant Gazprom in the Russian city of Omsk.
Details are unclear. Some analysts say it was long-range drones, while others suggest it was sabotage. I am unsure of the cause, but the refinery is currently burning. The Gazpromneft-ONPZ oil refinery in Omsk, which was hit, is nearly 2,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Ukraine has now publicly stated that they will respond to any attack on their critical infrastructure. I think they should have done this a long time ago.
“The desire to destroy our energy sector will cost the Russians dearly, (it will cost them) their infrastructure,” Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, wrote on Telegram.
After the Russian attack, President Zelensky called on partners to deliver the promised air defense systems.
Like most Russian strikes before, this one was equally insidious, targeting critical civilian infrastructure. The energy sector has sustained significant damage, but in every area affected by power outages, restoration work is already in progress.
It is crucial that our partners uphold the commitments we’ve made together, in particular regarding air defense systems, missiles for them. And beyond that, we must finally unite in our efforts to shoot down Russian missiles and drones. Today, their targets were in Volyn, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, and Ternopil regions.
Across Ukraine, we could do much more to protect lives if the aviation of our European neighbors operated in concert with our F-16s and air defense systems. If such unity has proven effective in the Middle East, it must work in Europe too. Life holds the same value everywhere.
I don’t know if the United States and European nations will ever agree to use NATO firepower to knock down Russian missiles flying over western Ukraine. It’s such an easy task, but in their minds, it would be a massive escalation. So, they will most likely keep pushing the discussion down the road. Poland has been asking NATO for permission to shoot down Russian missiles that fly in its direction, but so far, it has been met with a strong dose of silence.
I don’t think the approval is coming anytime soon.
However, it makes no sense to delay the delivery of the four long-range air defense systems that the allies promised in June. Italy has not sent its SAMP-T long-range air defense unit. The United States, Romania, and the Netherlands each promised to send a Patriot unit, and they still haven’t delivered.
How many Russian missiles would those have stopped?
Whatever missile interception rate Ukraine currently has with six long-range units will significantly increase when they have ten systems. This was agreed upon, and all four nations made public announcements to that effect. Now, please go ahead and at least do what you said you would do.
That’s not a heavy lift, is it?
Let’s be grateful that the current generation of Western leaders wasn’t in charge when Hitler rose to power. If they had been, many of us might not be here today.
Thanks for reading. Making critical information on Ukraine accessible is one way to fight misinformation. That’s why I’ve made 254 stories free to the public in 2024, including this one.
