Ukraine Latest: Russia Launches Missile Barrage From Air and Sea

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(Bloomberg) — Kremlin troops launched a major cruise missile barrage early Thursday morning, hitting critical infrastructure facilities, Ukraine’s air defense said. It was the first major round of bombing in a week, but one of more than a dozen such attacks since early October. The missiles were launched from the air and sea; many were intercepted.

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Russia is likely to continue suffering mounting casualties as it recruits more ill-equipped and ill-trained soldiers into the fight and intensifies attacks in eastern Ukraine, according to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. “That’s their strength — they have a lot of people,” Austin told reporters after a two-day NATO meeting in Brussels. 

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German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius signaled that Western allies are struggling to assemble two full battalions of Leopard 2 tanks to send to Ukraine as promised, with Germany and Portugal the only nations to pledge high-end A6 models. “We will not reach the size of a battalion,” he said. 

(See RSAN on the Bloomberg Terminal for the Russian Sanctions Dashboard.)

Key Developments

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(All times CET)

Ukraine Downs 16 of 36 Russian Cruise Missiles (8:11 a.m.)

Ukraine’s air defense downed 16 out of 36 Russian missiles fired overnight on Thursday, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said on Telegram.

The missiles were fired from strategic bombers near Kursk and the Caspian Sea in Russia, as well as from fighter jets near the Russia-occupied Ukrainian city Melitopol, and from ships in the Black Sea.

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Missiles struck the north and west of the country, as well as in Dnipropetrovsk and Kyrovohrad regions, said chief of Ukrainian presidential office Andriy Yermak. 

Israel’s Foreign Minister Visits Kyiv (8 a.m.)

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen arrived in Kyiv, the first high-level visit by an Israeli official to Ukraine since the invasion, Israeli media reported. He’s expected to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. 

Cohen will visit Bucha, Babyn Yar and mark the reopening of Israel’s embassy, the Jerusalem Post reported. “During the past year, Israel has stood by the Ukrainian people and by the side of Ukraine,” he said.

EBRD Warns on Sanctions Busting Involving Russia’s Neighbors (7 a.m.)

Booming trade flows with Russia’s neighbors may be a sign that sanctions imposed in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine are being avoided, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

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Read more: EBRD Warns on Sanctions Busting as Russia Neighbors’ Trade Booms

Ukraine Invasion Shows World’s War Machine Needs More Ammo (6 a.m.)

As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine drags on, the two sides are using more shells than they can buy or produce — which means factories are becoming as critical as troops.

That’s set up a scramble to get more ammunition and weaponry to the front, making the war as much a battle of factories as of troops. Neither side is at risk of totally depleting its inventory, but dwindling supplies restrict an army’s options. 

Read more: Ukraine Invasion Shows World’s War Machine Needs More Ammunition

Kyiv’s Trolleys and Trams Move Again (9:42 p.m.)

Kyiv is gradually restoring the capital city’s electric-powered transport operations, after they were halted in late December due to Ukraine’s significant energy deficit, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said on Telegram. According to him, first 31 trolleybus and 13 tram routes will be available on Thursday.

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The current week became the first within several months without either scheduled or emergency power cuts in Ukrainian capital.

Envoy Calls Notion US Blew Up Pipelines ‘Preposterous’ (7:03 p.m.)

The US can say definitively that it bears no responsibility for the Nord Stream explosions and “any suggestion of that kind is preposterous,” US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith said in an interview.

Smith said it’s still not known who was responsible for the blasts that hit the pipelines last fall, and she said that the US wants investigations to continue. Russia embraced the notion that the US was behind the attacks after an American writer made the allegation, citing sources he didn’t identify.

The comments come after a two-day meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, where the topic of protection of subsea critical infrastructure was discussed. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg earlier said the alliance would establish a “Critical Undersea Infrastructure Coordination Cell” to facilitate engagement between industry, military and civilian stakeholders.

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Ukraine to Receive Fewer Battle Tanks Than Promised (5:12 p.m.) 

Poland has assembled about 30 units of the older A4 version of the Leopard 2, which is almost enough for the standard Ukrainian battalion of 31, but many of them are in poor condition and need repairs before they can be deployed, Pistorius said in Brussels. 

Those tanks will only get to Ukraine at the end of April, he added. The comments mark a setback in the bid by western allies to help the Ukrainian army deal with an expected intensification of fighting in the coming weeks.

Read More: Ukraine to Receive Fewer Battle Tanks From Allies Than Promised 

Ukrainian Air Defense Says Russian Balloons Seen Over Kyiv (1:23 p.m.) 

Objects seen floating in the sky over the region surrounding the Ukrainian capital were Russian military balloons, air defense spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said in a televised interview. A total of six balloons were detected, most of which were shot down, the military said earlier. 

Ihnat characterized the objects as primitive balloons carrying pieces of metal, which were picked up by radar and triggered an air-raid alert in the Kyiv region. The balloons were designed to fool air defenses and possibly mask reconnaissance drones that might be flying nearby, Ihnat said.