List of All Articles with Tag 'eu'

Ukraine is already stockpiling fuel ahead of another challenging winter under siege from Russia, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said on Thursday. The ministry said in its intelligence report that “despite the consistent pressures of war, Ukrainian efforts to build up fuel stockpiles will likely be successful in ensuring that it will have sufficient fuel reserves during the approaching winter period.” It also noted that “Ukraine has been effective in mobilising its mining sector to maintain output, ensuring a continuous supply of coal is available for thermal power and heating plants in the winter, with substantial gas stocks providing a further reserve”. “Despite Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure likely continuing this winter, Ukraine demonstrated last winter that it has the skilled workforce and expertise needed to operate and maintain the power network, even in wartime conditions,” it further noted in the defence intelligence report. Even as British analysts acknowledged the likelihood of Russia resuming attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in winter, they highlighted the country’s ability to sustain its power network in the face of wartime challenges, the Kyiv Independent reported. In the winter of 2022-2023, Russian forces attempted to severely damage Ukraine’s power network through extensive attacks. Despite this, prime minister Denys Shmyhal reported that substantial repairs have been carried out, restoring 80 per cent of the primary power grids and high-voltage stations affected by the assaults. On 15 November last year, Mr Shmyhal pointed out that Moscow had launched approximately 100 missiles, primarily targeting the country’s energy infrastructure. Energy minister Herman Haluschenko labelled the attack the “most massive” bombardment of power infrastructure since the beginning of the war. In July this year, infrastructure minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said that nearly 100 per cent of thermal power stations, which had suffered damage from Russian attacks in late 2022 and early 2023, have been successfully repaired. “In general, as of today, the preparation level of utility networks for stable operation in the autumn-winter period of 2023-2024 is roughly 60 per cent,” the minister wrote on social media, adding that Ukraine will be 100 per cent ready in technical terms before the start of the next heating season on 1 October. “We must be prepared for the worst-case scenario, which includes repeated missile and drone attacks on energy infrastructure,” Ukraine’s state energy operator Ukrenergo’s head, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi said in Kharkiv on 27 July, according to Ukrainska Pravda. He continued: “We at Ukrenergo are absolutely certain that our main network will be ready to function without restrictions during the heating season.” However, he also added: “We don’t want to help the enemy understand the power system in detail.” Read More Ukraine’s intelligence service claims responsibility for Crimean Bridge drone attack Staff at Ukraine's experimental nuclear site pick up pieces from Russian strikes A camp teaches Ukrainian soldiers who were blinded in combat to navigate the world again UK inflation falls 1.1% in just one month as Ukraine war energy price crisis starts to ease Wagner mercenaries issue a chilling message on Poland’s doorstep: ‘We are here’

UK government bonds slid to send benchmark yields to the highest since 2008, on concerns major central banks

European stocks extended declines after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting in July suggested further interest-rate increases

Europe is bracing for the possible influx of a drug that’s hooked the Middle East as political shifts

Applications for unemployment benefits fell by the most in five weeks, suggesting the resilient economy is making employers

Indian officials are considering a plan to reallocate as much as 1 trillion rupees ($12 billion) from the

Ukrainian forces said they shot down Russian Ka-52 attack helicopters Thursday in the Zaporizhzhia and Bakhmut regions, respectively.

National Swiss rail operator SBB said a derailed freight train caused severe damage to tracks.

Temperatures are rising across the continent as wildfires destroy parts of a Spanish island and Germany issued red

Oil steadied after a three-day drop spurred by concerns over the Chinese economy and the possibility of even

Norway’s central bank raised borrowing costs to the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis and signaled it

Russia is in the process of equipping its new nuclear submarines with hypersonic Zircon missiles, the head of Russia’s largest shipbuilder has said. “Multi-purpose nuclear submarines of the Yasen-M project will... be equipped with the Zircon missile system on a regular basis,” Alexei Rakhmanov, chief executive officer of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, told RIA. “Work in this direction is already underway.” Yasen-class submarines, also known as Project 885M, are nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines built to replace Soviet-era nuclear attack submarines as part of a programme to modernise the Russian navy’s fleet. Sea-based Zircon hypersonic missiles have a range of 560 miles and can travel at several times the speed of sound, making them extremely difficult to defend against them. What are hypersonic missiles? Hypersonic missiles, like the Zircons or the Kinzhal (”Dagger”) rockets the Russian Air Force has allegedly already deployed in its war in Ukraine, are thought to represent the next generation of arms. The Kinzhals can travel at exceptionally high velocities – up to ten times the speed of sound, which is around 8,000mph. By comparison, a subsonic cruise missile like the US Air Force’s Tomahawk rocket moves at a relatively sluggish 550mph. Kinzhals are typically carried by MiG-31K fighter jets and can hit targets as far away as 1,250 miles, their speed, mid-flight manoeuvrability and ability to fly at low altitudes making them difficult to track using radar on the ground and therefore near-impossible to stop. Perhaps most alarmingly, the Kinzhal can carry a nuclear warhead as well as a conventional explosive, a strategy it has been feared Russia could resort to as its war becomes ever-more desperate and drawn-out than expected due to the heroic resistance put up by the locals, well armed by their international allies. Which countries have them? Australia, the UK and US, together known as the Aukus nations, previously announced a plan to expand their military pact to collaborate on the development of hypersonic missiles and anti-hypersonic weapons. In April 2022, the then-prime ministers of Australia and Britain, Scott Morrison and Boris Johnson, joined Joe Biden in issuing a joint statement saying their countries would “commence new trilateral cooperation on hypersonics and counter-hypersonics, and electronic warfare capabilities, as well as to expand information sharing and to deepen co-operation on defence innovation”. “These initiatives will add to our existing efforts to deepen cooperation on cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and additional undersea capabilities.” The Aukus deal was initially signed to concentrate on nuclear submarine development with a wary eye on potential Chinese aggression in the Pacific, but focus has now shifted towards the threat posed by Vladimir Putin. Russia’s defence ministry has already said its forces have fired hypersonic ballistic missiles in the conflict, claiming to have destroyed a fuel depot in the Black Sea city of Mykolaiv and an underground ammunition store in western Ivano-Frankivsk. How effective are they? Military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer has argued that the use of such weapons will make little difference on the ground and that their true value is “giving a certain psychological and propaganda effect”. In other words, inspiring terror. Mr Putin has boasted of Russia’s investment in such “invincible” weaponry, justifying doing so as a response to what he considers to be Nato military expansion on his country’s doorstep in Eastern Europe. The US and China are said to be working on their own versions, as are the navies of Britain and France, who are understood to have been collaborating on one known as Perseus since 2011, although it is not expected to enter service for another seven years or so. What’s happening in the US? Andrew Hunter, assistant secretary of the US Air Force’s acquisition team, told politicians in March this year that his team would not go ahead with purchasing the hypersonic AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon after the prototyping phase ended. There were problems with the weapons during testing. Mr Hunter, in written testimony, told the House Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee the service planned to finish the ARRW programme’s last two all-up round test flights to collect data that might help with future hypersonic programmes. Read More Ukraine-Russia war – live: Moscow’s ‘convict’ assault squads straining Kyiv’s forces in northeast Ukraine’s intelligence service claims responsibility for Crimean Bridge drone attack Wagner mercenaries issue a chilling message on Poland’s doorstep: ‘We are here’ The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary