After Multiple Air raids and Missiles, Head of Russian Church Patriarch Kirill declares: “Now is a time of “Holy War”

Source: Nello Scavo – Avvenire, 03/29/2024

Also Italian fighters flying over the Baltic Sea. In a statement by the “Russian People’s Council” it is declared that all of Ukraine will have to submit to the «exclusive influence of Russia»

One hundred missiles in one night against civilian targets in Ukraine for Putin’s “holy war”. While Poland takes off its fighters to protect the airspace and the Italian Eurofighters have carried out a double intercept of Russian planes in the Baltic Sea, raising tension and fueling new fears.

The Russian attacks hit thermal and hydroelectric power plants, preceded by the blessing of Patriarch  Kirill who presided over the “World Council of the Russian People”. From a «spiritual and moral point of view, the special military operation – we read in the final document. it is a holy war.”  The conciliar act is entitled “Present and future of the Russian world”, and was approved on March 27 in the Hall of Ecclesiastical Synods of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. A few days after the attack claimed by ISIS-K, Orthodox clerics maintain that the Russian people «defend their lives, freedom, statehood, civil, religious, national and cultural identity, as well as the right to live on their own land within the borders of the united Russian state.”

And by “united Russian state” we also mean Ukraine:  “After the completion of the Special Military Operation, the entire territory of contemporary Ukraine will have to enter a zone of exclusive influence of Russia.” 

The purpose, always implied and never officially declared not even by the Kremlin, is now expressed without lexical subterfuge: «The possibility of existence on this territory of a political regime hostile to Russia and its people, as well as of a political regime governed by a external hostile to Russia, must be completely excluded.”

Kiev must therefore “enter a zone of exclusive influence of Russia”, but it is not allowed by Moscow to get closer to the European Union and even less so to NATO. The words of the council not only justify, but incentivize the armed forces to do more at a time when Ukraine appears at risk of a fall of the eastern front.

The Russian attacks with 99 missiles and drones in the night between Thursday and yesterday – but already over 100 in the rest of the day – hit thermal and hydroelectric power plants in central and western Ukraine, in some cases exploding the final blow for some infrastructures already damaged, while incursions started from Ukraine against the Belgorod area, the Russian border region.

The Kiev army declared that it had destroyed 58 drones out of a total of 60, as well as 26 missiles out of 39. And it was the latter that inflicted the greatest damage. “Dtek”, the largest private electricity company confirmed that its three thermal power plants were attacked and “severely damaged”. The Ukrainian energy distributor “Yasno” announced that “Dtek” has lost about half of its supply capacity. The Ukrainian state oil and gas company “Naftogaz” said that its facilities were attacked “but there was no serious damage”.

In Europe “war is no longer a concept of the past” but a “real” risk. “It is the first time since 1945 that we have found ourselves in such a situation.” The alarm comes from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk  in his first interview granted to the international media of the Lena consortium, of which La Repubblica is also part. “I know it seems devastating, especially for the younger ones, but we have to mentally get used to the arrival of a new era.” Due to the massive missile attack, Poland took off some NATO fighters to monitor its airspace. At the same time,  the Eurofighters of the Italian Air Force deployed in the 4th Wing Task Force, operating at the Polish base of Malbork, carried out a double intercept of Russian aircraft in the Baltic Sea. Once the aircraft were identified, the Italian F-2000s returned to the Malbork base.

The director general of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, once again expressed new fears about the worsening of the clashes  . The greatest risks are due to “military activities underway near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – he said -, warnings of air raids and bombings that knock out electricity at several sites”. At the power plant, “IAEA experts stationed on site continued to hear explosions every day for the last week, at different distances from the plant”,  says Grossi, adding that “several times the sounds seemed to come from close to the site, presumably from outgoing artillery fire, and nearby small arms fire.”