Russia launched 55 missiles at targets across Ukraine yesterday, with strikes killing at least 11 people and wounding another 11, the authorities said. A total of 47 missiles were shot down by Ukrainian forces. A day earlier, Germany and the U.S. pledged to send dozens of battle tanks to Ukraine, a major step up in Western military support.
Since October, Russia has fought a campaign to target infrastructure and cripple Ukraine’s power grid. The barrages have sometimes come after Ukrainian successes. “The main goal is energy facilities, providing Ukrainians with light and heat,” Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said in a post on Telegram.
For the past week, Russia’s Air Force has been conducting exercises north of Ukraine in Belarus, keeping Ukraine on heightened alert. Air attack sirens have sounded countrywide each time Russian planes take to the air.
The war has raised the influence of Central and Eastern European countries with negative views of Russia, amplified calls to expand the E.U. and NATO, and dimmed the power of France and Germany, writes Steven Erlanger, the chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe for The Times.
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