The light installation Heller-Forgo, created by Hungarian artists D. Besnyo, M. Kalman, and Z. Czingali, during the Vilnius Light Festival in Lithuania, January 24-26, 2025

Wednesday’s Coverage: Russia Kills 5, Including Pregnant Teen, and Injures 55 in Izyum

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1124 GMT:

Air defenses downed 56 of 77 drones launched by Russia across 11 regions of Ukraine overnight. Another 18 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

UPDATE 1115 GMT:

The first French Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets have arrived in Ukraine.

French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu posted:

On June 6, 2024, [French President] Emmanuel Macron announced the delivery of French Mirage 2000 to Ukraine. The first of these arrived in Ukraine today.

With Ukrainian pilots trained for several months in France on board, they will now participate in defending Ukraine’s sky.

The planes are equipped with ground strike capabilities, including SCALP/Storm Shadow long-range missiles and AASM Hammer guided bombs.

UPDATE 1110 GMT:

Ukraine’s General Staff says Moscow has lost almost 40,000 personnel, with more than 16,000 killed, trying to regain the Kursk region in western Russia.

Ukrainian forces have reportedly captured 909 Russian soldiers during the operation.

Ukraine seized around 1,300 square km (500 square miles) of Kursk after a cross-border incursion on August 6. Russia has reclaimed more than half, but is struggling to advance in the rest of the area.

“The Kursk offensive remains an example of sudden, asymmetric, and successful actions by the Ukrainian Defense Forces, allowing them to inflict heavy losses on a superior enemy and seize the initiative on the battlefield,” the General Staff said.

UPDATE 1003 GMT:

A person died setting off an explosion in the latest attack on an army recruitment center in Ukraine.

The detonation at the Kamianets-Podilsky center in western Ukraine wounded four people.

Alleging the perpetrator had been recruited by Russian agents, Ukrainian police said the attack was the ninth on a center this year, amid tension over mobilization for the ongoing resistance of Moscow’s invasion.

A person who set off a blast on Saturday at a draft center in Rivne in northwest Ukraine was killed, with six people wounded. On the same day, a man with a hunting rifle shot dead a Ukrainian army recruitment soldier and escaped with a conscript before both were caught by police.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: The Baltic States — Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia — will disconnect from Russia’s power grid on Saturday and synchronize with the Western European network.

Authorities confirmed that Latvia will cut a power line to Russia, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attending a ceremony with Baltic leaders in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius on Sunday.

Lithuanian Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas said the transition ends Russia’s ability to use energy as political leverage.

From 7 a.m. on Saturday, the countries will operate in “isolated mode” for 24 hours to test their ability to manage power levels and assess frequency stability. They will then integrate with Europe’s grid through Poland.

The Baltic States began energy diversification in late 2014, months after the start of Russia’s “hybrid war” to split Ukraine, with the installation of the liquefied natural gas terminal in Lithuania’s seaport Klaipėda. Baltic gas markets were opened to global LNG suppliers, including those from the US.

Planning for the Baltic synchronization with the European grid began in 2007, but has required years of political, regulatory, and infrastructure development. The EU has allocated more than €1.2 billion from its Connecting Europe Facility for the initiative.

The three states halted Russian gas and electricity imports after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, their power grids remain linked to Russia and Belarus, with Moscow controlling electricity flows.

They will also have to contend with the possibility of Russian sabotage. Since October 2023, at least eleven cables running under the Baltic Sea have been damaged, with Russian-linked ships the prime suspects.

In response, NATO has stepped up its presence in the Baltic Sea with a new military patrol mission. The bloc has established a Critical Undersea Infrastructure Network to enhance information sharing and situational awareness, and a Maritime Centre for the Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure.