Ukraine seeks air defence boost before winter of Russian strikes on power grid

Nato has urged members to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences before another winter of Russian strikes on its power grid, and said it would respond if a deliberate attack caused damage to an undersea gas pipeline and communications cable linking Finland and Estonia.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited Nato headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, when defence ministers from about 50 member and non-member states met in the format of a US-led contact group to discuss continued weapons supplies to Kyiv.

“Winter is a big challenge. We really need the help of our partners to protect critical infrastructure. Air defence is not just a military issue. Normal life depends on it, how the economy will work… our defence against Russian aggression. It also determines how many people will return to Ukraine from abroad,” Mr Zelenskiy said.

“Our task now is to get through this difficult time, through this winter. But, in fact, the real power of this task, if fulfilled, is much greater… Air defence is a significant part of the answer to the question of when this war will end and whether it will end justly for Ukraine.”

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Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said Russia was “preparing, once again, to use winter as a weapon of war. Meaning attacking the energy system, the gas infrastructure. We need to prevent that. And with more advanced and increased capabilities for air defence, we can make a big difference.”

Several western states accelerated provision of air defence systems to Ukraine when Russia launched almost nightly missile and drone attacks on its energy grid last autumn and winter, subjecting much of the country to prolonged power cuts during freezing weather.

Ukraine says it needs additional air protection, however, to cover not only the power grid but hospitals, schools and civilian ports on the Black Sea and Danube river that Russia is attacking intensively in a bid to halt shipments of grain and other cargo.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin unveiled a new $200 million (€188 million) package of military aid for Kyiv, which he said “includes AIM-9 munitions for a new air-defence system that we will soon deliver to Ukraine, as well as artillery and rocket ammunition, precision aerial munitions, anti-tank weapons, and equipment to counter Russian drones”.

On the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv’s forces said they had repelled waves of heavy attacks on the town of Avdiivka, near the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk.

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Finland and Estonia are investigating the cause of damage to a gas pipeline and communications cable that links them under the Baltic Sea.

“If it is proven to be a deliberate attack on Nato-critical infrastructure then this will be, of course, serious, but it will also be met by a united and determined response from Nato,” Mr Stoltenberg said.

The damage was discovered last weekend when pressure in the pipeline plummeted, and repair work is expected to halt gas flow until next April.

“At the moment it looks like the damage was caused by mechanical force, not an explosion,” said Risto Lohi, chief investigator at Finland’s national bureau of investigation.