The destroyed Trepilska thermal power plant after a Russian missile strike near Kyiv, Ukraine, April 11, 2024

Thursday’s Coverage: Kyiv U-Turns on Demobilization of Long-Serving Troops

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1805 GMT:

The Netherlands is committing another €1 billion ($1.065 billion) in military aid and €400 million ($426 million) for reconstruction to Ukraine.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte made the pledge in a phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The two men also discussed joint work with partners to speed up the supply of shells for artillery, ammunition, and air defense systems.

Zelenskiy thanked Rutte for the Justice for Ukraine conference in The Hague. He summarized preparations for June’s Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland and invited the Netherlands to join.

UPDATE 1251 GMT:

A 64-year-old man was killed and two other senior citizens injured by Russian shelling of the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine on Friday morning.

The fatality was in the village of Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi. Another artillery attack on the village of Monachynivka injured a 72-year-old man and a 76-year-old woman.

UPDATE 1058 GMT:

Power is out for households and individuals in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine following an overnight Russian drone strike.

Equipment was damaged at a substation, leading to restrictions in the Kryvyi Rih area.

The State energy company Ukrenergo said 399 settlements are without power across the country, with blackouts in the Donetsk, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions as well as Dnipropetrovsk.

An emergency shutdown in Kharkiv cut off 210,000 consumers.

UPDATE 1010 GMT:

Ukrainian security personnel have searched the premises of Archpriest Mykola Danylevych, a senior member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Officials said Danylevych has supported the “Russian world” ideology and justified Russia’s aggression.

Ukraine’s security services have raided churches linked to the Moscow Patriarchate and detained clerics, accusing them of providing funds and literature to assist Russia’s 25 1/2-month invasion.

UPDATE 0732 GMT:

The toll from Thursday’s Russian missile attack on Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine has risen to five killed, with the death of an injured man in hospital.

A sixth victim has perished in hospital from Wednesday’s Russian assault on Odesa in southern Ukraine.

UPDATE 0659 GMT:

Russia’s invasion is a “direct threat to regional stability and international security” and an “existential threat to the people of Ukraine”, UN Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca told a Security Council session on Thursday.

Since our last briefing to this Council almost a month ago, Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns have become a daily destructive pattern. This includes intense and systematic targeting of Ukrainian energy infrastructure across the country.

We are appalled by the increase in civilian casualties as a result of these relentless attacks.

Jenca noted that 57 children were killed or wounded in March, twice the toll of February.

The UN has recorded the killing of 10,810 civilians killed, including 600 children, by Russia’s invasion. Another 20,556 civilians have been injured, among them 1,357 children.

UPDATE 0650 GMT:

Ukraine air defenses downed 16 of 17 Iran-type attack drones fired by Russia overnight.

The UAVs were intercepted over the Mykolaiv, Odesa, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, and Khmelnytskyi regions.

Wreckage from a downed drone briefly set a “critical infrastructure facility” on fire in Kryvyi Rih in south-central Ukraine.

The Russians also launched a Kh-59 guided missile from the occupied part of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: A Russian missile strike has destroyed one of Ukraine’s most important power plants.

Officials in Ukraine’s energy sector confirmed that the Trypilska thermal power plant outside Kyiv was struck in Russia’s mass missile and drone attack early Thursday. The complex supplied much of the power of three regions, incuding Kyiv, in the north of the country.

The company operating Trypilska said in a statement, “A black day in the history of Centrenergo. The scale of the destruction is terrible. Money can’t estimate it. This is the biggest challenge for us in the history of the company.”

Centrenergo’s thermal plant in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine, Zmiivska, was destroyed in a Russian mass assault on March 22. Russian troops had occupied the company’s third thermal plant, Vuhlehirska, in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine in July 2022.

DTEK, Ukraine’s biggest power company, said two of its power stations suffered “serious damage” on Thursday.

The company, which generates 20% of Ukraine’s energy, said that in the past three weeks, Russia has inflicted the most extensive destruction of its 25 1/2-month invasion. About 80% of power-generating facilities have been affected.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy again chided the international community for failing to protect civilians and infrastructure through support of air defenses.

If Russian missiles and “Shahed” drones continue to strike not only Ukraine but also the resolve of our allies, this will amount to a global license for terror.

We need air defense systems and other defense assistance, not just turning a blind eye and having lengthy discussions.