[ad_1]
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has again called on Ukraine’s allies to give the embattled country more air-defense systems as Russia struck Ukrainian energy infrastructure targets, including a major power plant south of Kyiv, killing at least four people and leaving hundreds of thousands Ukrainians without electricity.
Live Briefing: Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine
RFE/RL’s Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia’s full-scale invasion, Kyiv’s counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL’s coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.
The coal-powered Trypilska thermal power plant, a major electricity supplier for the Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Zhytomyr regions located some 50 kilometers south of the capital, was completely destroyed in the Russian attack, Ukrainian energy company Centrenerho said on April 11.
Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that energy infrastructure was the main target of the Russian missile and drone strikes on the Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhya, Lviv, and Kyiv regions.
President Vladimir Putin said Russia had been obliged to launch strikes on Ukrainian energy sites in response to Kyiv’s attacks on Russian targets.
“Unfortunately, we observed a series of strikes on our energy sites recently and were obliged to respond,” Putin said after a meeting on April 11 with Belarus’s authoritarian ruler, Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which is less that 30 kilometers from the Russian border, was again one of the main targets of Russian strikes in the early hours of April 11, with 10 air strikes that cut the energy supply to more than 200,000 consumers in the city.
Russian attacks on Kharkiv have intensified in recent weeks. Mayor Ihor Terekhov said recently that S-300 missiles need only 40 seconds to reach Kharkiv from the Russian region of Belgorod.
Russian ballistic missiles struck the southern city of Mykolayiv at noon on April 11, killing four people and wounding five, the Ukrainian military and the head of the regional military administration, Vitaliy Kim, said.
Zelenskiy, who arrived in Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, for a summit of the Three Seas Initiative, said he and Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics had signed a bilateral security agreement as he seeks to shore up aid and support in the face of unrelenting attacks from Russia.
“The main task for now is to make every effort to strengthen our air-defense system, to meet the urgent needs of the Ukrainian Defense Forces, and to consolidate international support so that we can overcome Russian terror,” Zelenskiy wrote on X, formerly Twitter, upon arrival in Vilnius.
Zelenskiy earlier said Russia had attacked with scores of drones and missiles that overwhelmed Ukraine’s dwindling air-defense systems and ammunition.
“More than 40 missiles and about 40 attack drones. Some of the rockets and Shahed [drones] were shot down. Unfortunately, only a part,” Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram, calling the latest attack “vile.”
Ukraine’s air force separately said that during the April 11 attack its air defenses destroyed 39 drones, 16 cruise missiles, and two guided missiles.
Zelenskiy made another impassioned appeal to Ukraine’s allies to act faster and provide Ukraine with the means to defend itself.
“Air defense and other defense support are needed, not turning a blind eye and long discussions,” Zelenskiy wrote, adding that permitting Moscow to bomb Ukraine with impunity ammounted to giving Russia carte blanche to terrorize the world.
“If Russia is allowed to continue to do this, if Russian missiles and ‘Shaheds’ will strike not only at Ukraine but also at the determination of its partners, this will be a global license for terror,” he wrote.
Inside Ukraine’s Fast-Tracked Sniper Training Course
At a secret location within earshot of the fighting in Ukraine, camouflaged snipers receive specialized training in a fraction of the time it would have taken soldiers in peacetime.
A $60 billion U.S. aid package has been stalled in the U.S. House of Representatives for months, blocked by a small number of Republicans who believe domestic matters should take priority, despite both the State Department and Defense Department pushing Congress to pass it.
Japan’s prime minister told U.S. lawmakers that Ukraine risks collapsing under Russia’s onslaught without U.S. support, a disaster that could embolden China and spark a new crisis in East Asia.
In the first speech to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress by a Japanese leader in nine years, Fumio Kishida urged Americans on April 11 not to doubt their country’s “indispensable” role in world affairs, and said Tokyo was undertaking historic military upgrades to support its ally.
On support for Ukraine, he asked, “Without U.S. support, how long before the hopes of Ukraine would collapse under the onslaught from Moscow?”
On April 10, the top U.S. general in Europe warned that Ukraine cannot sustain the fight against Russia alone.
General Christopher Cavoli, the commander of European Command, told the House Armed Services Committee on April 10 that the severity of the situation in Ukraine “can’t be overstated” as troops on the battlefield run short of ammunition and as the country’s air-defense capabilities are depleted.
Ukraine’s parliament on April 11 moved to boost the number of troops available for duty by approving a law on military mobilization. The law expands the powers of Ukrainian authorities to issue draft notices — including via an electronic system — that is expected to help limit evasion.
Speaking in parliament on April 11, General Yuriy Sodol, who commands the troops in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk regions, put in stark contrast the battlefield disadvantage Ukraine faces.
“The enemy outnumbers us by 7-10 times, we lack manpower,” he said.
With reporting by Reuters
[ad_2]
