A worker at the Khakas aluminium smelter in Sayanogorsk, Russia (Bloomberg)

Friday’s Coverage: Russia Destroys One of Kyiv’s Biggest Power Plants

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1502 GMT:

Germany is delivering an additional Patriot air defense system to Ukraine.

The German Defense Ministry announced, “Germany will immediately hand over another Patriot system to Ukraine to repel Russian airstrikes. This is in addition to the air defense systems that have already been delivered and are planned to be delivered.”

UPDATE 0702 GMT:

Russia State TV is celebrating Moscow’s hold on US House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has held up the Biden Administration’s proposal for $60.1 billion in aid to Ukraine since last October.

On Friday, Johnson travelled to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for an appearance alongside the reality TV star.

UPDATE 0645 GMT:

Continuing its assault on journalists, Russia’s Justice Ministry has labelled BBC Russian correspondent Ilya Barabanov and Russian science reporter Asya Kazantseva “foreign agents”.

Barabanov has written extensively about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Wagner mercenary group. Kazantseva signed an open letter from Russian scientists and science journalists demanding that Moscow’s troops withdraw.

Both Barabanov and Kazantseva now live outside Russia.

Others added to the list included journalists Ivan Filippov and Ivan Astashin and regional politician Nikolai Kuzmin.

UPDATE 0626 GMT:

At a meeting with students, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said about $700 billion will be needed to restore Ukraine after the war.

The World Bank, the European Commission, the UN, and the Ukraine Government said at the end of 2023 that Ukraine’s repairs will require $486 billion over 10 years.

Despite the scale of the task, the President said Ukraine’s restoration is possible.

You and I don’t know the real amounts, because we haven’t finished the war. When it ends, everything will be analyzed. In principle, the partners agree that everyone will restore Ukraine. That the amounts are, let’s say, understandable, and they are affordable.

Zelenskiy said that the key areas in Ukraine’s recovery are energy, technology and economics, and that the process will be assisted by Kyiv’s membership of the European Union and NATO in coming year.

NATO is our external defense and, of course, the best security guarantee. But I am also convinced that we will strengthen our internal defenses. We will strengthen our security on our borders, in our cities, in our communities. In the future there will be a completely different approach to both security and construction.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: The US and UK are sanctioning Russia’s metal companies over Vladimir Putin’s 25 1/2-month invasion of Ukraine.

The two governments announced on Friday that Russian exports of aluminum, copper, and nickel will be banned from the world’s largest metal exchanges, including the London Metal Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Metals are Russia’s second-largest export commodity after energy products. The sanctions will affect $40 billion in Russian aluminum, copper, and nickel exports.

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said, “Thanks to Britain’s leadership in this area, our decisive action with the US to jointly ban Russian metals from the two largest exchanges will prevent the Kremlin funnelling more cash into its war machine.”

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen echoed, “Our new prohibitions on key metals, in coordination with our partners in the United Kingdom, will continue to target the revenue Russia can earn to continue its brutal war against Ukraine.”

The UK introduced legislation to ban the imports of Russian metals in December. The US announced tariffs on Russian aluminum in February 2023, while Canada banned Russian aluminum and steel products the following money.