Ukraine, arms factory in Russia and energy plant hit. Merz: Putin wages hybrid war against Germany

In the Ukrainian region of Chernihiv, Russian forces attacked an energy plant, causing a power outage. This was reported by Ukrinform citing a note from the local energy provider Chernihivoblenergo Jsc. 'At night, the enemy shelled the Ichnyan region. Unfortunately, a power plant was hit again,' reads the report posted on Telegram. Restoration work has already begun, but it will be carried out with the security situation in mind. ChernihivOblenergo asked for 'patience' and added that it is doing everything possible to restore the power supply as soon as possible.

Ukrainian forces also hit the Russian state-owned plant in Sverdlov, one of the country's main producers of explosives and ammunition. This was reported by the Ukrainian General Staff in a Facebook post. The plant, located in the city of Dzerzhinsk in the Nizhny Novgorod oblast, 800 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, is 'one of Russia's largest producers of explosives'. The plant, the General Staff explains, produces a wide range of ammunition, including projectiles for aircraft and artillery, guided aerial bombs, anti-tank missile warheads and ammunition for air defence units, as well as warheads for precision-guided missiles for the Russian army. The Kyiv Independent recalls that the Sverdlov plant has been subject to sanctions by the US and the EU since 2023. Also hit was the Jsc Marine Oil Terminal in Feodosia (in occupied Crimea), a complex that handles the transshipment of oil and oil products from tank cars to ships and back, as well as road transport, part of the Russian military's supply chain.

The UK is planning 'a provocation', a 'false flag' operation, in which a civilian ship belonging to a foreign state in Europe will be attacked by Russians. This was stated by the Svr, one of Moscow's three secret services, quoted by Tass. "According to the British plan, a group of Russian traitors fighting alongside the Ukrainian armed forces would attack a Ukrainian navy ship or a civilian vessel of a foreign state in a European port. Members of the group have already arrived in the UK for sabotage training. After the terrorists have been 'discovered', the plan is to announce that they were acting on 'orders from Moscow'," the statement read. According to SVR, London's calculations are based on the assumption that "Russiaphobic European political elites will readily accept the false narrative of 'malicious agents of the Kremlin' to justify the need for further military aid for Ukraine and the militarisation of a 'united Europe' to combat 'Russian aggression'".

The Russian Defence Ministry said today that it had shot down 251 Ukrainian drones overnight, in one of Kiev's largest retaliatory strikes against its neighbour since Moscow invaded the country over three years ago. "Last night, air defence warning systems intercepted and destroyed 251 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones," the Russian ministry wrote on Telegram, saying it had shot down 40 drones over Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, and 62 over the Black Sea, dozens more also in the skies over the Kursk and Belgorod regions.

Around 40,000 residents of the Belgorod region were left without electricity following drone attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces. This was stated by the region's governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. "We have heard a report from energy experts on the nature of the damage caused by the shelling of Belgorod last night. We suffered significant damage to the power grid in seven municipalities: almost 40,000 residents of the region remain without electricity to date,' he said in a video posted on his Telegram channel. Gladkov noted that emergency teams are carrying out all the necessary work to restore power supply to residential buildings, social facilities and businesses by tomorrow.

Two civilians were killed today in a Ukrainian missile attack on the Russian city of Belgorod, according to the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov. On his Telegram channel, Gladkov pointed out that the attack followed another one last night on an energy infrastructure, which left some 40,000 residents of the region without electricity. One person was killed and one injured in the eastern Ukrainian region of Lugansk, which is largely controlled by the Russians, in a drone bombardment by Kiev forces, according to the local pro-Russian government. A Ukrainian unmanned aircraft hit a civilian car in the locality of Svatovo, the same source said.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, 'conducts a hybrid war against Germany'. This was stated by the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, in an interview with journalist Pinal Atalay on Ntv in the evening. 'He conducts an information war against us, and a military war against Ukraine. And this war is directed against all of us," the Kanzler said. "That is why we support Ukraine," he added. Asked whether he intends to talk to Putin on the phone, Merz replied: 'Of course I think about it. I only see at the moment that every attempt to talk to him ends up in an even stronger attack against Ukraine,' he added.

Merz reported a tough confrontation with the Hungarian premier, Viktor Orban, in Copenhagen: 'He reproached us for not wanting to deal with Putin,' he said. Merz reminded him that as European representative Orban himself had been in Moscow in July, 'and Putin's response was the bombing of a children's hospital in Kiev. That is not the road I would like to go down,' he concluded.