“The Mirages successfully intercepted Russian cruise missiles,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Facebook. He said U.S.-made F-16 jets also were used against the Russian attack.
The first of the French fighter jets arrived in Ukraine in early February, eight months after French President Emmanuel Macron announced the delivery. France has also stepped up by providing Kyiv with intelligence it needs to counter the Russian attacks after the U.S. stopped sharing intel with Ukraine.
All of the Russian missiles and drones in the overnight attack were directed against “infrastructure that ensures normal life,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said that Russians targeted energy and gas production facilities, “not abandoning their goal of leaving Ukrainians without light and heat, causing the greatest harm to ordinary citizens.”
This is the 17th combined attack on the energy infrastructure facilities of the Naftogaz Group, the company reported on Friday. “The production facilities that ensure gas production were damaged. Fortunately, there were no casualties,” Naftogaz said.
Zelenskyy used the occasion to remind that the first steps toward real peace must include forcing the sole source of this war, Russia, to stop such attacks.
“Ukraine is ready to pursue the path to peace, and it is Ukraine that strives for peace from the very first second of this war. The task is to force Russia to stop the war,” the Ukrainian president said. “Silence in the skies ― banning the use of missiles, long-range drones, and aerial bombs. And silence at sea ― a real guarantee of normal navigation,” he said.
