Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky (Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP)

EA-Ukraine VideoCast: A Federov-Musk Scheme v. President Zelensky?

Sunday’s Coverage: France’s Macron Pledges Help for Air Defenses

UPDATE 0615 GMT:

Russia struck a factory of the US-owned multinational food company Mondelez International in the Sumy region in northeast Ukraine on Sunday, said Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.

Two Russian drones hit the facility in the city of Trostianets, damaging the premises and injuring several employees.

Mondelez’s brands include Oreo, Cadbury, Ritz, and Toblerone.

UPDATE 0603 GMT:

Ukraine has struck four more logistics hubs of Russia’s second-largest ⁠online retailer Ozon, bringing the total to six in three days.

Drones shut down the ​hub ‌in ‌Krasnodar Krai in southwest ‌Russia. Monitors reported that two other Ozon logistics centers, in the Adygea Republic and in Stavropol Krai, have been set afire. Photographs showed smoke rising above a site in the Dagestan Republic.

Stavropol Krai Governor Vladimir Vladimirov confirmed Ukrainian drones attacked the city of Nevinnomyssk’s industrial area, without saying what sites were targeted.

Ukraine attacked Ozon warehouses in the Samara region on Saturday and the Orenburg region on Sunday in central Ukraine.

Since mid-July, Ukraine has caused billions of dollars in damage to “Russia’s Amazon”, Wildberries. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said, “After Ukrainian units hit the 15 largest logistics hubs of Wildberries, it is now Ozon’s turn,” said a Ukrainian defence ministry announcement.

UPDATE 0556 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted his Government was not involved in the September 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream undersea gas pipelines from Russia to Germany.

Three of the four pipelines were damaged by explosives of Denmark’s Bornholm Island in the Baltic Sea. German prosecutors arrested a second Ukrainian suspect, living in Croatia, last Wednesday.

The prosecutors allege the Nord Stream bombings were ordered by the Ukrainian state. Zelensky responded that Kyiv is helping Berlin with its investigation and hoped it would not cause a rift in relations.

“It is very important for us not to lose our partnership, not to lose the trust of European countries that have been helping Ukraine since the very beginning of this war,” he said.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeated that elections cannot be held during Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, dismissed by Zelensky on July 15, called for a vote in an online video released last week.

The President told journalists on Sunday:

If we want to destroy the country, then during a war like this we can move toward elections.

Elections right now are a tsunami for the state that will split Ukraine. My strategy is to bring the country to the end of the war and preserve an independent and sovereign state.

Ukraine’s Constitution bars elections during martial law.

Zelensky said some partners have called for a vote, but have not offered concrete conditions under which it could be conducted safely, legitimately, and democratically.

He noted that any election would have to include military personnel, residents of frontline areas, and millions of Ukrainians living abroad. It would have to ensure voters are protected from Russian attacks.

Russia’s Ballistic Missile Threat

Emphasizing the challenge for Ukraine before winter, Zelensky said Russia has a stockpile of 600-630 high-speed ballistic missiles and is trying to build more than 100 per month.

“I wanted to secure 300 Patriot missiles for the winter package. The request from our air force is 360,” Zelensky said.

The President noted the difficulty as only about 600 of US-made PAC-3 interceptor missiles are manufactured each year. He cited an agreement with France on at least one SAMP/T air-defence system ​this year, and with ‌Germany on the supply of ​about 600 PAC-2 and PAC-3 ​interceptors in 2027-28.

After a conversation with Zelensky on Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he had agreed to step up delivery of interceptor missiles.

The US could help by supplying “some small percentage” of its stockpiles – about 5% to 10%, Zelensky explained. He called on the Trump Administration to make “a very significant difference both in protecting lives and diplomatically”. Ukraine was willing to pay and it would mean the country “could get through the winter”.

Zelensky added the expectation that Russia will try to conscript a further 300,000 soldiers after Parliamentary elections in September. The “peripheral mobilisation”, conducted away from Moscow, St Petersburg, and other main cities, will try to regain momentum on stalled frontline.