Zelenskyi arrives in Hungary for the first time since the invasion, meets with Orbán. Ukraine shoots down 74 of 106 drones that Russia launches overnight, 25 more go off radar. Ukraine’s electricity imports fall by 58 per cent in October, exports rise 88-fold, making up one-third of imports.
Zelenskyi arrives in Hungary for first time since invasion, meets with Orbán
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi arrived in Budapest Thursday for a meeting of the European Political Community. He was welcomed by the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, with whom he shook hands in front of the cameras, according to the Ansa news agency. Zelenskyi is on a visit to Hungary for the first time since the invasion.
“I will talk [to reporters] after the meeting,” Zelenskyi told journalists.
There were doubts about Zelenskyi’s presence at the summit in view of Orbán’s position on Russia’s war in Ukraine, Ansa added.
Ukraine shoots down 74 of 106 drones that Russia launches overnight, 25 more go off radar
The Ukrainian Air Force said on Thursday that it shot down 74 out of 106 drones launched by Russia overnight. Twenty-five drones disappeared off radar after likely being disabled by electronic warfare systems.
The Shahed drones and other unidentified types of drones were launched from the area of Russia’s Kursk, Oryol and Primorsko-Akhtarsk, and from occupied Crimea.
The intercepts took place over the regions of Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kropyvnytskyi, Kyiv, Mykolayiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy, and Zhytomyr, Ukraine’s air force said.
The Air Force and other branches of the Ukrainian military deployed aircraft, surface-to-air missile troops, electronic warfare units and mobile groups to repel the attack.
In Kyiv, air defenses intercepted more than 30 drones that targeted the Ukrainian capital during the night time attack. Falling debris started multiple fires and caused damage to apartment buildings and non-residential facilities in six districts of the city.
Ukraine’s electricity imports fall by 58 per cent in October, exports rise 88-fold, making up one-third of imports
Ukraine imported 181,800 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity in October, a 58 per cent decrease from the prior month. Electricity exports increased 88 times from 700 MWh to 60,700 MWh in the same period, energy think tank DiXi Group said.
“Last month’s imports fell 58 per cent [from the month before] and were three times the size of October exports,” the analysts said in a statement.
Thirty-three per cent of the imports (59,600 MWh) came from Hungary, 25 per cent from Slovakia and Romania each (46,300 MWh and 45,100 MWh respectively), 11 per cent (19,900 MWh) from Poland, and six per cent (10,900 MWh) from Moldova.
Most of the exports went to Hungary (33 per cent, or 20,200 MWh), followed by Romania (26 per cent, or 15,500 MWh), Slovakia (25 per cent, or 14,300 MWh), Poland (12 per cent, or 7,300 MWh), and Moldova (six per cent, or 3,500 MWh).
Most of the electricity (70 per cent) was exported between October 2 and 11. Starting from October 12, exports began to quickly fall, and imports went up.
Ukraine could face rolling blackouts this winter, depending on the severity of the weather.
