With the war on the ground stalling, Russia plans to step up its drone campaign against civilian targets, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
This prospect does not cause as much anxiety as before.
The Ukrainian military said it intercepted the 84 unmanned aerial vehicles launched by Russia on New Year’s Eve and on the night of Jan. 1 to the morning of Jan. 2.
The Iranian-made Shahed drones that played such a critical role in the Kremlin’s strategy to attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have become significantly less effective, thanks in part to US-supplied air defense weapons and Ukrainians’ ability to learn to use them.
Ukraine has shot down nearly 500 drones since September, the country’s air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on television Tuesday. Zelenskyy calls these achievements “victories over terrorists and terror”.
“Every drone shot down, every missile shot down, every day with electricity for our people and minimal blackouts are just such victories,” Zelenskyy said.
Other developments:
►Two senior Ukrainian officials – Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov – have warned that Russia plans to organize another project earlier this month.
►Ukraine has filed charges against two Russian officers for the first time in the war directly related to attacks on residential areas and civilian infrastructure. Sergei Kobylash, commander of Russia’s long-range air force, and Igor Osipov, former head of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, are unlikely to stand trial for the charges against them.
►Ukraine has recaptured 40% of territory Russia had seized since the start of the war, Supreme Commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi said, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Putin struggles to turn the story in his favor
Repelling the latest round of drone strikes, Ukraine has deprived Russian President Vladimir Putin of a rallying point as his troops reel after a rocket attack that killed at least 63 soldiers at barracks in Makiivka, a city in the eastern region of Donetsk which was partially occupied. by Russia.
“The Russian regime needs to stir emotions, something they want to show their country to keep lying that everything is going ‘according to plan,'” Zelenskyy said.
Instead, footage from an Associated Press video in Makiivka showed five cranes and rescuers removing large chunks of concrete after the attack, which was apparently carried out last weekend with US-supplied HIMARS missile launchers, according to a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense. Defence.
The attack, one of the deadliest and most embarrassing for the Kremlin since the start of the war, has sparked renewed criticism of the Russian military campaign.
“Such serious military failures will continue to complicate Putin’s efforts to appease Russia’s pro-war community and maintain the dominant narrative in the national information space,” said the Institute for the Study of War, a group of Washington think tanks.
Russia “has no intention of ending the war,” says a Ukrainian official
Battlefield casualties have barely changed Russia’s military plans, which still have plans to seize the entire Donetsk province and use the Donbass region as a land corridor to occupied Crimea, a spokesman said. Ukrainian speech to the media.
“They understand that they are going to lose, but they have no intention of ending the war,” said Defense Ministry intelligence spokesman Andriy Chernyak. “We are considering the possibility that they can (attack) from the north or east at the same time.
Chernyak said Ukrainian military intelligence estimates that Russia could lose up to 70,000 troops in the war in the next 4-5 months.
“And the leaders of the occupying country are ready for such losses,” he added.
Contributor: The Associated Press
Not all news on the site expresses the site’s point of view, but we automatically transmit and translate this news through programmatic technology on the site and not from a human editor.
