Russian strike hits Ukraine’s largest dam, Kyiv says, amid attack on energy infrastructure – Europe live | World news

The Lithuanian foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, has strongly criticised western policies toward Ukraine after the latest Russian strikes targeting Ukraine.

“We choked the weapons supply, we failed to provide enough air defence, and now we ask Ukrainians to sit on their hands while cruise missiles land on their families,” he said, adding: “Such mistakes are setting the course of the entire century. And there is no justification for any of this.”

After Russian strikes targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure, Ukraine’s grid is getting urgent assistance from Poland, Romania and Slovakia, national grid operator Ukrenergo said, Reuters reported.

Russia regards itself to be in a state of war due to the West’s intervention on Ukraine’s side, the TASS news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying, Reuters reported.

EU to impose tariff on Russian grain

Lisa O’Carroll

The EU is set to impose a tariff of up to 50% on Russia grain imports amid fears that the Kremlin could flood the bloc with cut cost wheat to destabilise the European market

The proposal, unveiled by the European commission president Ursula von der Leyen, follows a plea yesterday to EU leaders by Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to do something about grain “stolen” from occupied territories by the Russians.

“We propose the imposition of tariffs on these Russian imports to mitigate the growing risk to our markets and our farmers. They will reduce Russia’s capacity to exploit the EU for the benefit of its war machine,” she said.

But it is mainly intended to head off a potential illegal dumping of grain as the Kremlin seeks to weaponise as much as it can in its war against Ukraine.

In a sharply-worded post this morning responding to Russian attacks targeting energy infrastructure, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, said “Russian missiles have no delays, unlike aid packages for Ukraine.”

He added:

“Shahed” drones have no indecision, unlike some politicians.

It is critical to understand the cost of delays and postponed decisions.

Patriot systems must protect Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia; air defense is required to protect people, infrastructure, homes, and dams.

Our partners know exactly what is needed. They can definitely support us. These are necessary decisions. Life must be protected from these savages from Moscow.

More than 1 million consumers across Ukraine were without power after overnight Russian air strikes on energy facilities, Reuters reported citing a top presidential official.

The strikes had affected around 700,000 residents in Kharkiv region, at least 200,000 each in the southern Odesa and southeastern Dnipropetrovsk regions and 110,000 in the Poltava region, according to Oleksiy Kuleba, deputy head of the presidential administration.

After the latest round of Russian strikes targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure, Ukraine’s defence ministry reiterated a plea to the west for more air defences.

“Ukraine needs more air defense systems to protect our people and infrastructure from missile attacks. The world needs to defeat russian evil,” it said.

Ukraine’s state hydropower company said today that a Russian strike hit the country’s largest dam, the DniproHES in Zaporizhzhia, but that there was no risk of a breach, Reuters reported.

“There is currently a fire at the station. Emergency services and energy workers are working on the spot, dealing with the consequences of numerous airstrikes,” said Ukrhydroenerho, which runs Ukraine’s network of dams.

Herman Halushchenko, the Ukrainian energy minister, said it was the largest attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the recent past.

“The goal is not just to damage, but to try again, like last year, to cause a large-scale failure of the country’s energy system,” he wrote on Facebook, according to Reuters.

Ukraine said this morning that Russian drones and missiles targeted power plants, energy supply lines, a hydroelectric dam, and residential buildings.

Good morning and welcome back to the blog, where today we will be looking at the latest updates from an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels and from Ukraine.

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