The escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is reaching alarming proportions, with a recent large-scale attack by Russia on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. The attack forced Ukraine to implement emergency power cuts, plunging the country into a critical situation.
Ukrainian Energy Minister German Halushchenko denounced the terrorist attack by the enemy on his official Facebook page, highlighting the extensive damage inflicted on the country’s energy sector. The extent of the damage is yet to be determined, but he urged people to seek shelter.
The streets of the capital, Kyiv, are deserted in the early morning hours, as the Ukrainian Air Force warns of the threat of ballistic and cruise missiles potentially targeting parts of the country. Ukraine’s power grid operator, Ukrenergo, reported damage to power facilities in several regions and announced emergency power cuts across the country. Russia has already launched 12 massive attacks on Ukraine’s power system this year, according to Ukrenergo.
Russian forces have been stepping up bombings in Ukraine in recent months, plunging the country into an increasingly precarious situation as it heads into its third winter of war. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently threatened Ukraine with another strike with a ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads, following a widespread attack on critical energy infrastructure that left more than a million Ukrainian homes without power.
The new Russian offensive comes after Moscow vowed Thursday to retaliate for a Ukrainian attack on a city in southwestern Russia, saying it involved six U.S.-made ATACMS ballistic missiles. Ukraine acknowledged hitting Russian targets significantly Wednesday, including military and energy facilities, without specifying the type of missiles used.
Meanwhile, Russia is continuing its ground offensive in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, advancing in the areas around Kurakhove and Pokrovsk, according to accounts on the ground and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced Friday the capture of the village of Zarya, south of the key city of Pokrovsk. Russian forces are just three kilometers from the vicinity of Pokrovsk after advancing on Wednesday, according to the Ukrainian mapping service DeepState.
The losses suffered by the Russian occupiers in the Pokrovsk direction are high, especially in terms of human numbers, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Friday. He also acknowledged that “for several months, the Pokrovsk direction has been one of the most difficult in the confrontation with the Russian occupiers.”
Against this tense backdrop, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Thursday called for a shift in mentality toward a wartime approach, including on defense spending, warning that the U.S.-led transatlantic alliance was not ready for the threats it will face from Russia in the years to come.
Rutte stressed that future spending would have to be much higher than the alliance’s current target of 2 percent of national wealth measured as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). “During the Cold War, Europeans spent much more than 3 percent of their GDP on defense,” he said. “We will need much more than 2 percent.”
Russia is preparing for a long-term confrontation, with Ukraine and with us, Rutte warned. “It’s time to move to a wartime mentality and dramatically increase our defense production and defense spending.”
The remarks come as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has called on allies to spend 3% of their GDP on defense. The United States on Thursday announced a $500 million aid package for Ukraine in the coming days, which will include removing equipment from U.S. military stocks.
The Biden administration is pushing to ramp up arms deliveries to Ukraine in its final days in office, with the goal of putting Kyiv in a strong position for 2025, according to a senior administration official. In November, Biden authorized Ukraine to use long-range U.S. weapons inside Russia. Kyiv has used the new powers to fire U.S.-made ATACMS missiles at Russian targets across the border on multiple occasions.
Trump said he “vigorously” disagreed with Ukraine’s authorization to use U.S.-supplied weapons to strike inside Russia, saying the United States is “escalating this war and making it worse.”
On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed the remarks, saying Moscow shares the same view on the causes leading to the escalation of the conflict. Asked about Russia’s hopes for an end to the war after Trump takes office, Peskov told a news briefing that the Kremlin will wait and see after the inauguration.
The situation in Ukraine remains extremely worrying, with tensions rising between Russia and Ukrainian forces. The international community is calling for a de-escalation and a peaceful resolution to the conflict to avoid a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe.