Russia continues attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, Zelensky calls for perseverance: what happened on the 777th day of war

A Russian cruise missile attack on infrastructure in the Lviv region, in western Ukraine, killed one man, while another died in an attack in the northeast of the country, local authorities said on Sunday. The attack in Lviv destroyed a building and caused a fire, wrote the local governor, Maksym Kozytskyi, on the Telegram social network, adding that rescue operations were being carried out. In the Kharkiv region, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said an air strike killed a 19-year-old man after a projectile hit a gas station.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the Ukrainian region of Odessa were left without electricity after the wreckage of a downed Russian drone caused a fire at an energy facility, said local governor Oleh Kiper. Around 170,000 homes suffered power cuts as a result of the attack, said Ukraine’s largest private electricity operator, DTEK.

The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down nine of 11 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia overnight, as well as nine of 14 cruise missiles. In recent days, Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, causing significant damage in several regions.

Ukrainian energy company Centrenergo announced on Saturday that the Zmiiv thermal power plant, one of the largest in the northeast region of Kharkiv, was completely destroyed following Russian bombings last week. Power cut plans were still in place for around 120,000 people in the region, where 700,000 were left without electricity after the plant was hit on March 22.

In a message sent today to mark the date on which some Ukrainian Christians celebrate Easter, President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the country to maintain perseverance. “There is not a day or a night when Russian terror does not try to destroy our lives. Last night [sábado], we once again saw Shaheds missiles and drones launched against our people”, he stated. “We defended ourselves, we persevered; our spirit does not give up and knows that death can be avoided. Life can win,” Zelensky added.

Putin recruits 150 thousand Russians

This Sunday, Vladimir Putin signed the decree for the first military recruitment campaign of 2024, which raises the age to 30 years, three more than the previous one, and will cover 150 thousand Russians.

“Carry out, between April 1 and July 15, 2024, the call-up for military service of Russian citizens aged between 18 and 30”, says the document published on the Russian Government’s legal information portal and cited by Spanish agency EFE. The decree does not cover Russians who have turned 27 before the end of 2023 and reservists aged 28 and 29. And it also provides for a moratorium on service for citizens who work in IT companies and the release of soldiers, sailors, sergeants and corporals who have already completed their service.

Rear Admiral Vladimir Tsimliansky, head of Organization and Mobilization of the Russian General Staff, said last week that the new recruits would not participate in the war with Ukraine and would not be sent to the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporiyia, which were annexed in 2022.

This new mobilization follows the autumn campaign, in which 130,000 new recruits were called up, and is expected to surpass last year’s spring campaign, which saw around 147,000 mobilizations.

Other news that marked the day

⇒ Russia this Sunday held Ukraine responsible for the March 22 terrorist attack in Moscow, among other attacks, and demanded that Kiev arrest and hand over the head of the Security Services and other alleged suspects. According to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, cited by the Spanish agency EFE, Moscow “delivered to the Ukrainian authorities the demand, within the framework of the convention on terrorist attacks committed with bombs and the convention on the financing of terrorism, the detention and the immediate surrender of all people involved in the attacks”.

⇒ In a speech that aimed to mark the release of Bucha, two years ago, Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the current war is “for the right of existence of our State, as well as for everyone’s right to life”. The Ukrainian leader added that what is at stake is “a war for the dignity of our people and of each nation that seeks its own destiny”. Bucha was the target of an occupation by Russian forces for just over a month at the beginning of the Russian invasion, in February 2022. Hundreds of civilian bodies were found, some in mass graves, after the military withdrew from Russia.

⇒ In a post on March, reported the newspaper ‘The Guardian’.

⇒ A Ukrainian attack killed a woman in the Russian border village of Dunayka, AFP reported, citing the local governor. “The village of Dunayka, in the urban district of Graivoron, was under Ukrainian fire. To our great regret, a civilian was killed,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on social media.

⇒ Relatives and friends of soldiers captured by Russian forces, some dressed in military clothing, demonstrated this Sunday in Kiev for the release of elements of the Azov battalion.

⇒ Pope Francis called this Sunday, during his Easter message, for “an exchange of all prisoners between Russia and Ukraine” and an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. “All for all”, said the Pope from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, before giving the Urbi et Orbi (to the City and the World) blessing before tens of thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square.