“As far as we know, Brussels and London are trying to convince Washington to abandon its intention to resolve the crisis by political and diplomatic means and to fully engage in military pressure on Russia, that is, to become a full-fledged member of the war party.” In an interview with the state-run news agency Ria Novosti, Sergei Lavrov accused the European Union and the United Kingdom of inciting the United States against Moscow. At the same time, however, the Russian Foreign Minister said he was ready to meet with his US counterpart Marco Rubio, despite rumors that he was the one who scuppered the planned second meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. In this sense, Lavrov downplays the breakdown of contact:"Rubio and I understand the need for regular communication. It's important to discuss the Ukrainian issue and advance the bilateral agenda. That's why we communicate by telephone and are ready to meet in person when necessary." The minister acknowledges that "there are many irritants in Russian-American relations, inherited from the previous US administration. It will take a long time to clarify the situation," he says."With the arrival of the new administration, we sensed a willingness to resume dialogue. It's ongoing, but not as quickly as we would have liked."
Russian assets in Kiev? "A deception and a robbery."
In the same interview, Lavrov once again railed against the idea that Russian assets frozen in the Belgian company Euroclear are being used by the European Union to support Kiev:"The cynicism with which the European Commission interprets the UN Charter and other international legal norms, including the provisions on sovereign immunity and the inviolability of central bank assets, has long ceased to surprise. Such actions constitute outright deception and robbery. Apparently, the Europeans' long-standing instincts of colonizers and pirates have been awakened," he accused. If the plan were to materialize, Lavrov promised that Russia would respond"appropriately," and "in accordance with the principle of reciprocity, national interests, and the need to compensate for the damage caused." In any case, says the head of Russian diplomacy,"the confiscation of our gold and foreign exchange reserves will not save Kiev's protégés: it is clear that the regime will be unable to repay any debt and will never repay its loans. Given this, not everyone in the European Union is willing to blindly adopt such measures, which also pose serious risks to the eurozone's reputation as an economic hub. Brussels and other Western capitals could still come to their senses and abandon the adventure," he says.
“Weapons deliveries blocked by shutdown“
On Sunday, the American online newspaper Axios published a State Department estimate that more than five billion dollars worth of US weapons destined for NATO countries have been blocked due to the shutdown. The administrative freeze due to the failure to approve the budget bill (now underway for forty days, the longest ever) has also paralyzed several federal agencies, including the State Department office that manages export contracts : as a result, deliveries of systems such as the Himars, Aegis, and Amraam missiles to Denmark, Croatia, and Poland have been interrupted or delayed. Many of these weapons are expected to be transferred to Ukraine.
Cross-attacks on energy infrastructure
Meanwhile, the war on the ground is increasingly being fought over energy: in the last 48 hours, cross-fire attacks against electricity and heat infrastructure have multiplied, leaving millions of people without light or heat as winter returns on both sides of the border. In Ukraine, Russian attacks overnight have disrupted the national grid, reducing electricity generation capacity to"zero," according to the state-run company Centerenergo."Our generation capacity has dropped to zero," confirmed the supplier Ukrenergo, which announced power outages of up to 16 hours a day in most regions of the country. In Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Poltava, Chernihiv, and Sumy, electricity and heating supplies remain highly unstable, while emergency teams are attempting to restore the grid and reroute supplies. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy, hundreds of Russian drones have struck power plants and railway junctions, temporarily paralyzing water and gas supplies. The wave of strikes—one of the most intense since early autumn—has caused at least four deaths and extensive damage to the country's power plants.
In Russia,"twenty thousand residents without electricity"
Russia, for the first time in weeks, also reported direct attacks on its thermal power plants and distribution networks in border regions. In Voronezh, about 250 kilometers from the border, a drone strike hit the CHPP-1 power plant, which supplies thermal energy to four districts of the city and a thousand enterprises, including the main petrochemical plant, Voronezhsintezkauchuk. The fire that broke out at the facility was extinguished, but tens of thousands of people were left without electricity and heating, Governor Alexander Gusev confirmed. In the Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported that"the electricity and heat distribution network has suffered serious damage": over twenty thousand residents are without power. In Kursk, a fire hit a plant in the village of Korenevo, leaving ten villages without power. And in Bryansk, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had shot down 44 Ukrainian drones. Yesterday, Russia conducted massive air strikes on Ukraine's electricity, gas, and railway networks. According to authorities, this attack caused power outages and significant damage to Ukrainian power plants, resulting in at least four deaths. Between last night and this morning, Russian forces launched 69 drones against Ukraine, downing 34, according to the Air Force.
