Ukraine war latest: Russia launches massive overnight raid on Ukraine's energy facilities (2024)

Russia has echoed claims made by the European Union's foreign policy chief suggesting that the war in Ukraine would finish in just two weeks if the West halted military supplies to Kyiv.

Josep Borrell said earlier this month that Ukraine's existence depended on the West.

Maria Zakharova, Moscow's foreign ministry spokeswoman, said this morning that the West had raised the rhetoric about Russia.

"And what is needed for de-escalation, Borrell said: if you
stop supplying Kiev with weapons, everything will be over in two
weeks - here is the de-escalation formula," she said.

Last night's massive Russian attack on Ukrainian energy infrastructure could lead to power cuts this evening, according to the country's grid operator.

Infrastructure across the country, including in Lviv, was struck as Russia fired some 50 missiles and 20 drones.

As a result, this morning saw nine Ukrainian regions experience power cuts.

Ukraine's grid operator Ukrenergo said on Telegram thatpower generating facilities were damaged and that power cuts would likely continue into the night.

One part of Ukraine targeted by Russia overnight was Zaporizhzhia.

Moscow fired 50 missiles and 20 drones at Ukraine, some of which hit the frontline region.

These images show a view of one successful missile strike, which destroyed a car and left a crater in its wake.

The Kremlin has declined to comment on Ukrainian reports suggesting security services foiled a Russian plot to kidnap and assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and kill other top Kyiv officials (see 9.27am post).

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had no comment on the assertion but added that was unlikely to be accurate information.

Some reports suggested the plot was meant as "a gift" for Russian President Vladimir Putin as he was sworn in for a new term yesterday.

Our Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett was present for yesterday's inauguration ceremony for Vladimir Putin.

The president, now in his fifth term, swore an oath of allegiance to the office and promised to uphold the constitution.

Actor Steven Seagal was also present, but reacted angrily to Bennett's line of questioning as to why here was there.

Watch below...

In the last few minutes, we've been hearing from Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Here are the top lines from her briefing:

French troops legitimate target in Ukraine

Over the past few months, we've seen a shift in French rhetoric towards Russia - including President Emmanuel Macron's suggestion that NATO soldiers could be deployed to Ukraine.

Ms Zakharova claimed that Russia was already seeing growing numbers of French nationals among those killed in the Ukraine war.

Should France send any troops, they will become targets for Russia, she added.

"It is characteristic that Macron himself explains thisrhetoric with the desire to create some kind of 'strategicuncertainty' for Russia," she said.

Dismisses British arson allegations

Ms Zakharova continued by saying that British allegations of Russian involvement in an arson attack in London are absurd and part of an information war against Moscow.

She said Russia considered such allegations provocative and never carried out sabotage attacks against civilian targets.

Russia pursuing proper Nord Stream investigation

Finally, Ms Zakharova said Moscow would continue efforts to ensure a fair and proper investigation into the Nord Stream gas pipelines blasts in September 2022.

She also said that both Sweden and Denmark, which ended their respective probes earlier this year, had declined to cooperate with Russia on the investigation.

"We hope that the parties concerned will reconsider their position, abandon politicisation and cooperate."

In case you missed it yesterday, Ukraine's security service (SBU) said it had foiled a Russian plot to kidnap and assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and kill other top Ukrainian officials.

You can read more on this storyhere...

A bit more on the overnight attacks by Russian forces now.

The governor of Lviv, the western Ukrainian city where many fled early in the war, has said that a gas storage facility was one of Russia's targets.

Speaking to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Maksym Kozytskyi said the facility had been targeted multiple times in recent months, as Russia steps up its targeting of Ukrainian enery infrastrucutre.

As we outlined in our 7.29am post, Russia also hit critical energy infrastructure in Stryi district and a power generation facility in the Chervonohrad district - both also in Lviv.

The missile strike caused a fire at the facility, with emergency services working on site.

These images show Kyiv in the early hours of this morning, as the Ukrainian capital braced for an air raid.

Sirens sounded after a massive overnight wave of missiles and drones fired from Russia hit cities and energy infrastructure across Ukraine.

By Ed Conway, economics and data editor

The Russian state has been making more money from its oil and gas industry in the past three months than in any comparable period since the early days of the Ukraine invasion, it has emerged.

The figures underline that despite the imposition of various sanctions on fossil fuel exports from Russia since February 2022, the country is still making significant sums from them. This is in part because rather than preventingRussiafrom exporting oil, gas and coal, they have simply changed the geography of the global fossil fuels business.

In the three months to April, Russia made a monthly average of 1.2 trillion rubles (£10.4bn) from its oil and gas revenues, according to Sky analysis of figures collected by Bloomberg.

That is the highest three-month average since April 2022.

It comes amid elevated oil prices and concerns that sanctions on Russia are failing to prevent the country earning money and wagingwar on Ukraine.

Read more here...