Czech President offered Ukraine combat planes to fight drones, but Prime Minister Babisz rejected the proposal.
Czech President Offers Fighter Jets
On Friday (16 January), Czech President Petr Pavel visited Kyiv, meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. During a joint press conference, Pavel announced that Prague could transfer combat aircraft to Ukraine to help shoot down incoming drones. According to Reuters, these were Czech light, subsonic L-159 fighter jets. Pavel stated that Czechy mogą w stosunkowo krótkim czasie dostarczyć kilka średnich samolotów bojowych, które są bardzo skuteczne w walce z dronami. Wierzę, że uda nam się szybko i pomyślnie zakończyć tę kwestię. He also announced that Czechy could provide early warning systems to Ukraine.
Babisz Rejects Proposal
Just three days later, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babisz firmly rejected President Pavel’s proposal. On Monday (19 January), he informed that Prague would neither sell nor transfer aircraft to Ukraine. After a government press conference, he indicated that the Czech army needs this equipment. Babisz stated, Te samoloty nie są dostępne i innych niemamy. He noted that the situation would not change and added that the previous – more pro-Ukrainian – government had also not agreed to transfer the machines to Ukraine.
Russian Attacks on Ukrainian Energy Infrastructure
Thousands of Kyiv residents suffer from lack of electricity and heating, a result of repeated Russian strikes on energy infrastructure. In many apartment buildings, radiators have been cold for several weeks. Multi-hour, and even multi-day power outages are common. Meanwhile, temperatures at night drop to minus ten degrees Celsius. The Ukrainian power grid operator reports that planned power outages will cover all of Ukraine and could last up to several hours at a time. There is a serious power deficit in transmission networks. Besides Kyiv, the situation is difficult in other cities as well. Meanwhile, Russians continue to attack energy infrastructure. During the night from 18 to 19 January, they hit such facilities in Odessa and Chernihiv oblast. In the morning, ballistic missiles also struck Kharkiv.
