Ukraine attacks energy infrastructure and admits to having used long-range weapons secretly sent by the US a week ago: day 792

Ukraine attacked, with drones, energy installations in the Russian region of Smolensk, about 400 kilometers from the border. According to a Ukrainian Defense source, Kiev struck “two oil depots” that “stored 26 thousand cubic meters of fuel” during the operation organized by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU).

The governor of Russia’s Smolensk region said several energy facilities had caught fire. “Our region has once again been the target of Ukrainian drone attacks,” he wrote on social media.

Last week, according to Washington, Ukraine began using long-range ballistic missiles secretly supplied by the US for the first time, bombing a military airfield and Russian forces in Crimea. The information comes after the United States Senate approved a new $61 billion military aid package (57 billion euros).

Other news that marked the day:

⇒ The authorities of Russia and Ukraine have reached an agreement to exchange 48 children displaced by the war, announced the Russian Commissioner for Children, Maria Lvova-Belova, after the first bilateral meeting on the subject, in Qatar. “Twenty-nine children will return to Ukraine and 19 to Russia as a result” of the agreement, Lvova-Belova told the press.

⇒ The president of the European Commission argued that Russia represents “an existential threat not only to Ukraine, but also to Europe” and warned that a Russian victory in Ukraine “would change the course of European History”. Ursula Von der Leyen was speaking at a festive ceremony at the European Parliament, in the French city of Strasbourg, to mark the 20th anniversary of the biggest enlargement in the history of the European Union.

⇒ head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andri Yermak, guaranteed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will receive anti-aircraft batteries of the ‘Patriot’ type from their allies, having stressed that it is “secondary” to know which country will provide such equipment. “I can guarantee that there will be new ‘Patriots’. And, frankly, for us it is secondary where they come from. The main thing is that they come as quickly as possible, because this is the protection of our cities, the protection of our people,” said the advisor to the Ukrainian President.

⇒ The European Union (EU) today disbursed the second installment, worth 1.5 billion euros, of exceptional bridging financing to Kiev under the Mechanism for Ukraine. The disbursement follows the European Commission’s positive assessment of reforms in the areas of the judicial system, the fight against money laundering, public financial management, the business environment and agriculture, as well as presentation requirements reporting in order to ensure transparent and effective use of funds.

⇒ The head of Russia’s Orthodox Church suspended the priest who supervised a funeral ceremony in memory of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny for three years, the Moscow diocese announced.