The alleged Ukrainian strike seems to have killed a large number of Russian troops.

The Kiev Counteroffensive: How the Kremlov Army Surrounded a Russian Front-Line Hub as Lyman-Like Battles

After being surrounded by Ukrainian forces, Russia pulled troops out of eastern Ukrainian city that was being used as a front-line hub. It was the sixth victory for the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have inflicted damage on Ukrainian forces in battling to hold Lyman, but said outnumbered Russian troops were withdrawn to more favorable positions. There were reports that the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff posted photos of a Ukrainian flag being raised on the town’s outskirts.

But a curious shift is underway in Russia’s tightly controlled information space. Ukraine’s military has been making dramatic advances in a counteroffensive, making it increasingly difficult to conceal the Russian military’s losses. And Putin last month declared a partial military mobilization, sending a message to the general population that their leader was going all in Ukraine, and that sacrifices are now in order.

The Ukrainian military tried to kill Russian soldiers as they regrouped after their retreat from Kherson. The Ukrainian air force launched strikes on the east side of the river and the military claimed to have fired on 33 Russian positions.

Writing on Telegram, Kadyrov personally blamed Colonel-General Aleksandr Lapin, the commander of Russia’s Central Military District, for the debacle, accusing him of moving his headquarters away from his subordinates and failing to adequately provide for his troops.

Meanwhile, on the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula, the governor of the city of Sevastopol announced an emergency situation at an airfield there. The smoke and bombs could be seen from a distance by the beachgoers. Authorities said a plane rolled off the runway at the Belbek airfield and ammunition that was reportedly on board caught fire.

Russian bombardments have intensified in recent days as Moscow moved swiftly with its latest annexation and ordered a mass mobilization at home to bolster its forces. The Russian call-up has proven unpopular at home, prompting tens of thousands of Russian men to flee the country.

The fighting has centered on the north of the peninsula. Zelenskyy lamented the most recent attack in a Telegram post.

Yanushevych said Sunday that a total of 16 people had been killed in 71 Russian attacks across the wider Kherson region on Saturday, including three state emergency workers who were killed during demining operations. He said 64 people received injuries of varying severity.

While racing down the road with his men in pursuit of retreating Russian soldiers, the battalion commander came across an abandoned Russian armored vehicle, its engine still running. Inside there was a sniper rifle, rocket propelled grenades, helmets and belongings. The men were gone.

“The enemy keeps resorting to its missile terror against the peaceful citizens of Ukraine,” Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said on Telegram, adding that the Russians had launched air and sea-based cruise missiles, as well as anti-aircraft guided missiles such as the S-300 at energy infrastructure facilities. He said the Ukrainian military shot down 11 Iranian Shahed drones, which are designed to explode.

Russian forces seized the director-general of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on Friday, in a move that may have been designed to keep Moscow in charge of the newly annexed territory.

Russia did not publicly comment on the report. The International Atomic Energy Agency was told that the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was temporarily imprisoned to answer questions.

The enemy launched another massive attack on the energy infrastructure of the country, said Halushchenko in a post. “Unfortunately, there is some damage to generation facilities and power grids.”

Russian-appointed quislings who have been installed by Moscow to run occupied regions of Ukraine have been criticized. In a recent four-minute rant on the messaging app Telegram, the Russian-appointed deputy leader of Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, lambasted Russian military commanders for allowing “gaps” on the battlefield that had allowed the Ukrainian military to make advances in the region, which is illegally claimed by Russia.

During President Zelensky’s expected visit to the White House, the US President is expected to announce an additional $1.7 billion in security assistance for Ukraine. The significant boost in aid is expected to be headlined by the Patriot missile defense systems that are included in the package, a US official told CNN.

The failure of the city of lyman, a strategic railway hub in the eastern region of Donbas, to commemorate the annexation of the four Ukrainian territories into Russia, has increased pressure on the Russian leadership already facing withering criticism at home.

In an unusually candid article published Sunday, the prominent Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that in the last few days of their occupation, Russian forces in Lyman had been plagued by desertion, poor planning and the delayed arrival of reserves.

Russian Defense Secretary Vladimir Kyiv questioned Russia’s actions in the country’s cross-border attacks on Ukrainian targets in the cold cold dark energy era

The daughter of a Russian nationalist was killed in a car bomb attack near Moscow, which US intelligence agencies thought was carried out by parts of the Ukrainian government.

The United States is worried that the assassination could lead to Moscow launching its own strikes against senior Ukrainian officials, which would have little impact on the battlefield. American officials have been frustrated with the lack of transparency regarding Ukraine’s military and covert plans.

The commander says that they dropped everything from personal care to helmets. I think it was a special unit that was panicking. They dropped everything and moved because the road was bad and the rain was very hard.

It is not certain how many Russians were killed in these infantry advances. The institute described the advances as “impaling” ill-prepared units on well dug-in defensive positions of Ukraine’s battle-hardened troops. The Ukrainian military claims to have overstated their estimates of Russian casualties, but the recent increase in reported numbers makes it seem that the toll is rising. The Ukrainian military said more than 800 Russian soldiers had been wounded or killed in the previous 24 hours.

Russia’s persistent and pervasive attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid have, at least temporarily, left millions of civilians without electricity, heat, water and other critical services in the freezing winter months. Repeated missile and drone attacks since October, which have damaged or destroyed civilian infrastructure, are part of a strategy by the Kremlin to terrorize Ukrainians and is in violation of the laws of war, according to experts.

In a recent interview with Russian arch-propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, the head of the defense committee in Russia’s State Duma demanded that officials cease lying and level with the Russian public.

The Ministry of Defense was covering up Ukrainian cross-border strikes in Russian regions, according to Kartapolov.

Valuyki is in Russia’s Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine. Kyiv has generally adopted a neither-confirm-nor-deny stance when it comes to striking Russian targets across the border.

There is no need for the Russian Federation to be shadowed by traitors but incompetent commanders who didn’t care for the process and gaps that exist today. Many say that the minister could have shot himself as an officer if he wanted to. The word officer is a new word for many.

Kadyrov has been less reticent when it comes to blaming Russian commanders, after Russia retreated from the Ukrainian city of Lyman.

“The Russian information space has significantly deviated from the narratives preferred by the Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) that things are generally under control,” ISW noted in its recent analysis.

One of the central features of Putinism is a fetish for World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. And those in Russia’s party of war often speak admiringly of the brutal tactics employed by the Red Army to fight Hitler’s Wehrmacht, including the use of punishment battalions – sending soldiers accused of desertion, cowardice or wavering against German positions as cannon fodder – and the use of summary execution to halt unauthorized retreats.

Kadyrov has been one of the most outspoken critics of the methods of the past. He recently said in another Telegram post that, if he had his way, he would give the government extraordinary wartime powers in Russia.

“Yes, if it were my will, I would declare martial law throughout the country and use any weapon, because today we are at war with the whole NATO bloc,” Kadyrov said in a post that also seemed to echo Putin’s not-so-subtle threats that Russia might contemplate the use of nuclear weapons.

Russian-Ukraine counterattacks on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant triggered by an explosion of a major bridge on Friday morning

The barrage continued on a day when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to human rights activists in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, an implicit rebuke to Russia and its president, Vladimir V. Putin, for his invasion of Ukraine.

The rockets at Nikopol, across from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, damaged power lines, gas pipelines, and a raft of civilian businesses and residential buildings, Ukrainian officials said. Both Russia andUkraine have accused the other of firing at the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest. It’s run by its pre-occupation Ukrainian staff under Russian oversight.

Putin blamed “special services” from Ukranian for the attack on the bridge, butUkraine did not claim responsibility. He said Monday’s strikes were in response to the attack, but Ukrainian intelligence says the strikes had been planned since early last week.

The Ukrainian military later warned that Russia was preparing to strike the city from new positions across the river. The main transit route for Russian supplies to and from the east bank of the Kherson River was severed by the explosion of a major bridge on Friday morning, residents said.

“We have already established the route of the truck,” he said, adding that it had been to Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia and Krasnodar — a region in southern Russia — among other places.

The Bridge Explosion Injures a Demonstration in the Moscow Center for Human Rights and Property Rights: Tetyana Lazunko, Oleksii, and a German Shepherd

Klitschko’s office says several residential buildings were damaged. Rescuers pulled 18 people from the rubble of a building, and are looking for two more. Many of the city’s central streets are closed for emergency services to respond.

Tetyana Lazunko, 73, and her husband, Oleksii, took shelter in the hallway of their top-floor apartment after hearing air raid sirens. possessions flew as the building was shook by the explosion As they surveyed the damage of their home, Lazunko burst into tears.

About 3 kilometers (2 miles) away in another neighborhood ravaged by a missile, three volunteers dug a shallow grave for a German shepherd killed in the strike, the dog’s leg blown away by the blast.

Abbas Gallyamov, an independent Russian political analyst and a former speechwriter for Putin, said the Russian president, who formed a committee Saturday to investigate the bridge explosion, had not responded forcefully enough to satisfy angry war hawks. He said that the attack inspired the opposition while the loyalists were demoralized.

“It demoralizes them if they are told that everything is going according to plan and we’re winning and it’s not true,” he said.

Footprints of a Russian Revolution in Bakhmut and the recovery of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on Ukrainian territory with the Kerch bridge

dictators tend to hardwire recently claimed territory with expensive, record breaking infrastructure projects. In 2018, Putin personally opened the Kerch bridge – Europe’s longest – by driving a truck across it. That same year, one of the first things Chinese President Xi Jinping did after Beijing reclaimed Macau and Hong Kong was to connect the former Portuguese and British territories with the world’s longest sea crossing bridge. The road bridge opened after two years of delays.

The resort is a popular vacation spot for Russians. The people trying to drive to the bridge and onto the Russian mainland were stuck in traffic on Sunday.

The first 20 bodies were removed from a mass burial site in the Ukrainian city of Lyman, which was recently re-controlled by the Ukrainian army. Initial indications are that around 200 civilians are buried in one location, and that another grave contains the bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers. The civilians, including children, were buried in single graves, while members of the military were buried in a 40-meter long trench, according to police.

Russian units have been pressing an offensive towards the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk for months but have suffered heavy losses as Ukrainian forces have targeted them in what is largely open rural territory.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Europe’s largest nuclear power plant had been able to get back on the grid after being hit by shelling.

Ukraine’s air security during the Kremlin attack on Thursday morning: Hundreds of people killed, and public transportation problems in Dnipro, Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine — All of Ukraine spent much of Thursday morning under air raid alerts after Russia launched its largest air barrage in nearly two weeks. There were sirens in the cities near the Russian border. The scale of the damage remained unclear, but Ukrainian air defenses repelled several drones and missiles throughout the attack,

Ukraine’s Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that Lviv, Kyiv and Odesa were particularly hard hit, and experiencing emergency power outages – when the electricity is protectively turned off to diminish damage from the grid shorting out.

The US and NATO countries have been grappling in recent months with how to help Ukraine defend itself against relentless Russian strikes, which have, according to Ukrainian officials, destroyed about half of the country’s energy infrastructure.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said there was no need for more “massive” strikes for now. There were attacks in the eastern region of Donetsk that left eight civilians dead, as well as two in the south of Zaporizhzhia, and one in the northeastern region of Kharkiv.

In a message, Zelensky said that Russia launched deadly rocket strikes into downtown Kherson on Christmas eve, killing at least 10 people and injuring dozens. Zelensky described those attacks as “killing for the sake of intimidation and pleasure.”

In Kyiv, Ukraine Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko says that at least two museums and the National Philharmonic concert halls sustained heavy damage. A nearby strike damaged the country’s main passenger terminal, causing trains to be delayed this morning in the rush hour.

The head of the department of transport for the Dnipro city council, Ihor Makovtsev, stood by the wreck, as he stated that lots of public transportation was operating in the city during rush hour. He added that the bus driver and four passengers had been taken to the hospital with serious injuries.

Viktor Shevchenko’s “Artillery Operation” in Kiev awaited the U.S., according to a letter to Zelenskyy

“It’s difficult for me to find any logic to their so-called artillery work because all our transportation is only for civilian purposes,” Makovtsev said.

At the bus stop next to the first floor balcony, 81-year-old Viktor Shevchenko gazed out from what used to be the windows of his balcony. Shattered glass covered the ground below. He went to the kitchen to make breakfast just before the explosion, but had been watering the plants on his balcony.

“The explosion blew open all of my cabinets, and nearly knocked me to the ground,” he said. I would have been on the balcony full of glass five minutes before.

The Russian government denounced the transaction and said the US would prolong the Ukrainian people’s suffering.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader who has been an critic of Russia’s Defense Ministry, wrote a letter to Zelenskyy warning him that Russia had not started yet.

The Explosion of the Kerch Straight Bridge in Ukraine: The emergence of a Red Line to mark Vladimir Putin’s 70th Birthday

Editor’s Note: Michael Bociurkiw (@WorldAffairsPro) is a global affairs analyst. He was a spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and is now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. He is a regular contributor to CNN Opinion. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.

Even amid irrepressible jubilation here in Ukraine in the aftermath of a massive explosion that hit the hugely strategic and symbolic Kerch Straight bridge over the weekend, fears of retaliation by the Kremlin were never far away.

The significance of the strikes on central Kyiv, and close to the government quarter, cannot be overstated. Western governments should see it as a red line being crossed on this 229th day of the war.

There were no air raid sirens as of midday, but there were reports of missiles and drones being shot down. (Normally at this time of the day, nearby restaurants would be heaving with customers, and chatter of plans for upcoming weddings and parties).

Other videos showed cars driving in the city center beeping horns as people on the sidewalks shouted “Glory to Ukraine!” In the other instance, people reached out to touch the soldiers in the open windows of the military vehicle.

Businesses have been told to shift work online as much as possible, and millions of people in the country will be taking most of the day in bomb shelters, at the urging of officials.

Just as many regions of Ukraine were starting to roar back to life, and with countless asylum seekers returning home, the attacks risk causing another blow to business confidence.

The only bridge linking mainland Russia and Crimea is a great symbol for Putin. That the attack took place a day after his 70th birthday (the timing prompted creative social media denizens to create a split-screen video of Marilyn Monroe singing ‘Happy Birthday, Mr President”) can be taken as an added blow to an aging autocrat whose ability to withstand shame and humiliation is probably nil.

The reaction among Ukrainians to the explosion was instantaneous: humorous memes lit up social media channels like a Christmas tree. Many shared their sense of jubilation via text messages.

Moscow response to the weekend Russian missile attacks in Kharkiv. Emergency services have been evacuated and the emergency services are ready for a new attack on Crimea

It was also an act of selfish desperation: facing increasing criticism at home, including on state-controlled television, has placed Putin on unusually thin ice.

Major General Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate at theUkrainian Defense Ministry, had told Roman Kravets that by the end of the year there would be a plan in place to enter the republic of Crimea.

What is crucially important now is for Washington and other allies to use urgent telephone diplomacy to urge China and India – which presumably still have some leverage over Putin – to resist the urge to use even more deadly weapons.

Furthermore, high tech defense systems are needed to protect Kyiv and crucial energy infrastructure around the country. There is a dire need to protect heating systems.

The time has also come for the West to further isolate Russia with trade and travel restrictions – but for that to have sufficient impact, Turkey and Gulf states, which receive many Russian tourists, need to be pressured to come on board.

Anything short of these measures will allow Putin to continue to act in ways that will only increase the humanitarian crisis in Europe. A weak reaction will be taken as a sign in the Kremlin that it can continue to weaponize energy, migration and food.

There were fresh rounds of missile strikes by the Russians over the weekend. The attacks left at least six people dead and a man injured in the four regions.

Critical and civil infrastructure was hit in 12 regions and the capital, where more than 30 fires broke out, the emergency services said, adding the blazes have been put out.

Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional military administration, said at least 10 missiles struck various targets in the north of the region, damaging energy and a hospital. There was power restored in the city after getting knocked out for a while. The mayor of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov, has told residents to use makeshift centers where they can get food and drink, and replenish their cellphones, as a result of the large damage to the city.

The attacks snatched away the semblance of normality that city dwellers, who spent months earlier in the war in subways turned into air raid shelters, have managed to restore to their lives and raised fears of new strikes.

The Russian attack on Ukrainian cities on Monday night: a warning to U.S. troops and to Russian diplomats from the onset of the Ukrainian war

The world could see the message. Putin does not intend to be humiliated. He won’t admit defeat. And he is quite prepared to inflict civilian carnage and indiscriminate terror in response to his string of battlefield reversals.

But the targets on Monday also had little military value and, if anything, served to reflect Putin’s need to find new targets because of his inability to inflict defeats on Ukraine on the battlefield.

The bombing of power installations on Monday seemed to show that the Russian President was going to ruin peoples’ lives as winter sets in.

The attacks on civilians, which killed at least 14 people, also drove new attention to what next steps the US and its allies must take to respond, after already sending billions of dollars of arms and kits to Ukraine in an effective proxy war with Moscow.

President Joe Biden Monday spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and offered advanced air systems that would help defend against Russian air attacks, but the White House did not specify exactly what might be sent.

The National Security Council’s John Kirby suggested Washington was willing to listen to Ukraine’s requests and was in touch with the government almost every day. “We do the best we can in subsequent packages to meet those needs,” he told CNN’s Kate Bolduan.

Kirby said it was a rumour but he couldn’t say if Putin was shifting his focus from a losing battlefield war to a campaign to attack civilians and damage infrastructure in Ukrainian cities.

“It likely was something that they had been planning for quite some time. Now that’s not to say that the explosion on the Crimea bridge might have accelerated some of their planning,” Kirby said.

An onslaught on civilians would be consistent with the resume of the new Russian general in charge of the war, Sergey Surovikin, who served in Syria and Chechnya. Russia is accused of committing serious human rights violations, including bombarding civilian areas and razing built-up districts.

The President of France underscored the concern that the rush-hour attacks in Ukrainian could be the beginning of another pivot in the conflict.

A former director for European affairs on the National Security Council has said that by attacking targets designed to hurt Ukrainian culture, Putin is sending a message about how he will prosecute the war in the future.

Imagine if we had modern equipment that we could shoot more drones and missiles out of the sky, not kill innocent civilians or hurt Ukrainians.

Everything Putin has done to weaken a nation he does not believe has the right to exist has only strengthened and unified it.

Olena Gnes, a mother of three who is documenting the war on YouTube, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper live from her basement in Ukraine on Monday that she was angry at the return of fear and violence to the lives of Ukrainians from a new round of Russian “terror.”

She said this is another terror that is meant to scare people in other countries or to show to his people that he is still a bloody tyrant.

I want to thank everyone who helps Ukraine. We’ve made a lot of friends. And in order to understand that we have a lot of good things, unfortunately, we had to go through terrible things. Many people are doing miracles for Ukraine.

State television flaunted the suffering on Monday. It showed plumes of smoke and carnage in central Kyiv, along with empty store shelves and a long-range forecast promising months of freezing temperatures there.

Russia and the West: Implications of the War on Ukrainian Air and Missile Defense Systems, and a New US Aid Package to Ukraine

Russia has thrown untrained soldier on the front line to soak up bullets and shells in the same way that the weapons have been effective at soaking up Ukrainian air defenses. The cost and sophistication of the military countermeasure is what makes it one of the most potent and efficient to exhaust Russia in a less expensive campaign.

As Ukraine races to shore up its missile defenses in the wake of the assault, the math for Moscow is simple: A percentage of projectiles are bound to get through.

The Russians are not able to maintain their high-tempo missile assault into the future, so the barrage of missiles is going to be used for shows of extreme outrage.

This week some of that inventory was dispatched. But Russia has recently resorted to using much older and less precise KH-22 missiles (originally made as an anti-ship weapon), of which it still has large inventories, according to Western officials. They are designed to take out aircraft carriers. A KH-22 was responsible for the dozens of casualties at a shopping mall in Kremenchuk in June.

The Russians have also been adapting the S-300 – normally an air defense missile – as an offensive weapon, with some effect. These have wrought devastation in Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv, among other places, and their speed makes them difficult to intercept. They are not accurate.

He said that this was the first time that Russia had targeted energy infrastructure since the beginning of the war.

“These air defense systems are making a difference because many of the incoming missiles [this week] were actually shot down by the Ukrainian air defense systems provided by NATO Allies,” he said.

Iran acknowledged for the first time providing some drones to Russia months before the war in Ukraine but denied continuing to supply them, on Nov. 5. Zelenskyy said Iran was lying due to the fact Ukrainian forces shoot down at least 10 Iranian drones a day.

The US announced a new $1.8 billion aid package to Ukraine, which included the “first-ever transfer to Ukraine of the Patriot Air and Missile Defense System, capable of bringing down cruise missiles, short-range ballistic missiles, and aircraft at a significantly higher ceiling than previously provided air defense systems.”

The Patriot system – advanced long-range air defense that’s highly effective at intercepting missiles – offers an immensely expensive means of defending a very limited number of high value targets. It isn’t a total solution to Ukraine’s air defense problem nor is it a quick one with one earliest possible in-service date estimated in February.

Western systems are beginning to trickle in. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Tuesday that a “new era of air defense has begun” with the arrival of the first IRIS-T from Germany, and two units of the US National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAM) expected soon.

“This is only the beginning. And we need more,” Reznikov said Wednesday before tweeting as he met with Ukraine’s donors at the Brussels meeting:” Item #1 on today’s agenda is strengthening (Ukraine’s) air defense. Feeling optimistic.”

Bronk said that Ukrainian systems such as the IRIS-T that arrived from Germany and the NASAMS expected from the US were badly needed.

The Dec. 8 Explosion of a Crimean Bridge as a Test of Ukranian Intelligence and Diplomacy in the Middle East: The Case of the Oct. 8 Attack

General Valerii Zaluzhki, commander of the Ukrainian army, thanked Poland as “brothers in arms” for training his air defense battalion that destroyed nine Shaheeds.

He said Poland had given Ukraine “systems” to help destroy the drones. There were reports that the Polish government was buying advanced Israeli equipment and transferring it to Ukrainian people who were against the policy of not selling defensive technology to them.

Ukrainian intelligence believes that Russian forces planned the attack to intensify the war in Ukraine, says an advisor to the president.

The bridge incident gave the Russian military a good alibi for their losses in southern Ukranian, according to Podolyak.

Credible theories abound in Ukraine and abroad about who is responsible for the Oct. 8 attack and how they did it. “Despite all of the public information, it’s quite difficult to be sure about this,” Andrew Barr, a researcher at the University ofSheffield, said.

The damage is consistent with an explosion in the center of the bridge span as anything else would have caused damage to the pier, says Barr, who analyzes blast damage in war zones.

Nick Waters, an analyst with the digital forensics firm Bellingcat, points out that the bridge’s underside shows barely any blast damage, dismissing a popular Ukrainian theory that a special naval operation destroyed the bridge from below.

Soon after the explosion, Ukrainian experts quickly dismissed the notion that a Ukrainian missile had targeted the bridge, citing the 180-mile distance from Ukrainian-held territory as a technical limitation. The United States and other countries that supply weapons to Ukraine do not give missiles that travel that far.

The video of an “examination of the truck” and “X-ray” was posted by the FSB. Where on the x-ray was another axle with wheels and frame missing? pic.twitter.com/onKbOndxVO

After Russian state media posted the government’s evidence for a truck bomb — the alleged truck involved and a X-ray scan of its cargo — Ukrainian journalists pointed out that the two images showed different trucks.

He says the Crimean bridge is designed to have a single section of road floating above several piers and detached from other sections. When one span falls into the water, it pulls several other spans with it.

Based on the ways the flames repeatedly shot out from the blast site, Barr also suggests that the truck was loaded with specialized compounds that burned hot enough to ignite a passing fuel train traveling on a parallel rail bridge, severely weakening it.

The fire and sparks are probably from a thermite bomb according to Mika Tyry, a retired military demolition specialist. Russia’s military has been known to use thermite, though Ukraine could have recovered the substance from unexploded Russian munitions.

The attack was timed with the train and had advanced explosives. That’s very suggestive of a carefully planned military operation, not a single actor or group.

Not for the first time, the war is teetering towards an unpredictable new phase. “This is now the third, fourth, possibly fifth different war that we’ve been observing,” said Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme.

With the cold months nearing and likely bringing a slowdown in ground combat, experts say the next weeks of the war are now expected to be vital, and another potential spike in intensity looms over Ukraine as each side seeks to strike another blow.

Giles said that anything that seemed a distant prospect for something to be described as a Ukrainian victory is now more realistic. “The response from Russia is likely to escalate further.”

Oleksii Hromov, a senior Ukrainian military official, said last week that Kyiv’s forces have recaptured some 120 settlements since late September as they advance in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson regions. On Wednesday, Ukraine said it had liberated more five settlements in its slow but steady push in Kherson.

The counter-offensives have shifted the war’s trajectory and disproved a suggestion made by Russia and the west thatUkraine wasn’t able to seize ground.

“The Russians are playing for the whistle – (hoping to) avoid a collapse in their frontline before the winter sets in,” Samir Puri, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the author of “Russia’s Road to War with Ukraine,” told CNN.

“If they can get to Christmas with the frontline looking roughly as it is, that’s a huge success for the Russians given how botched this has been since February.”

If there was to be a blow to the rebels in Donbas, Ukraine would be eager to improve on the gains made and the impact of rising energy prices around Europe would be felt.

“There are so many reasons why there is an incentive for Ukraine to get things done quickly,” Giles said. “The winter energy crisis in Europe, and energy infrastructure and power being destroyed in Ukraine itself, is always going to be a test of resilience for Ukraine and its Western backers.”

NATO leaders have promised to stand behind Ukranian troops regardless of how long the war takes, but several European countries that relied heavily on Russian energy face a costly cost-of-living crisis if no progress is made on the battlefield.

“We know – and Russian commanders on the ground know – that their supplies and munitions are running out,” Jeremy Fleming, a UK’s spy chief, said in a rare speech on Tuesday.

“Russia’s use of its limited supply of precision weapons in this role may deprive Putin of options to disrupt ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensives,” the ISW assessed.

Justin Bronk, a military expert with the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), agreed with that assessment, telling CNN that, “Ukrainian interception success rates against Russian cruise missiles have risen significantly since the start of the invasion in February.”

Some help for Putin may be on the way, however. There are fears of deeper military cooperation between the close allies, after the announcement by Alexander Lukashenko that a group of troops from Russia andBelarus will be deployed. There have beenUkrainian threats to the security ofBelarus in recent days which may be a sign of some level of involvement.

Giles said the reopening of a northern front would be a new challenge for Ukraine. It would provide Russia a new route into the Kharkiv oblast (region), which has been recaptured by Ukraine, should Putin prioritize an effort to reclaim that territory, he said.

Ten months into Russia’s war on Ukraine, Zelensky spoke of endurance and pushing through to the end, while acknowledging that “freedom comes at a high price.”

Ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Ukraine needed more systems to stop missile attacks.

A Russian investigative investigation into a shooting at the Belgorod region of a Russian military firing range in December 2001, a day before Putin’s visit to Russia

The coming weeks are therefore crucial both on the battlefield, as well as in Europe and around the globe, experts suggest. “As ever, where Putin goes next depends on how the rest of the world is responding,” Giles said. The failure of the western countries to confront and deter Russia is what has shaped their attitude.

Meanwhile, Russia opened an investigation into a shooting in that region Saturday in which two men from a former Soviet republic who were training at a military firing range killed 11 and wounded 15 during target practice, before being slain themselves. The Russian Defense Ministry is the one that called the incident a terrorist attack.

“The incident occurred during a shooting training session with volunteers preparing for a special operation. The terrorists fired their weapons at the personnel of the unit.

“The Main Military Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia initiated a criminal case on the fact of criminal acts in the Belgorod region,” the statement said.

Donetsk, Ukraine: Russia felt war on its own territory after the February 17 attack and the Kiev-Bakhmut missile barrage

That isn’t to say that mobilized forces won’t be used. If used in support roles, like drivers or refuelers, they might ease the burden on the remaining parts of Russia’s exhausted professional army. They could also keep an eye on some of the areas along the line of contact and man checkpoint’s in the rear. They’re unlikely to become a capable fighting force. There are some signs of discipline problems in the Russian garrisons.

In that case, Mr. Putin could go after more than one country. If missile supplies remain, the attacks on civilian infrastructure could be expanded acrossUkrainian territory while Russia would be able to hit the Ukrainian leadership with strikes or special operations.

Struggling on the battlefield in southern and eastern Ukraine, Russia felt war on its own territory on Sunday as more than a dozen explosions ripped through a Russian border region, and a series of blasts severely damaged the offices of Russia’s puppet government in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk.

Western intelligence officials said that Russia included criminals with long sentences for serious crimes in return for pay and access to the military.

Explosions rattled villages and cities across Ukraine on Thursday, damaging civilian infrastructure and killing at least three people in what Kyiv has called one of Moscow’s biggest missile barrages since the war began in February.

As the Russian army intensifies its campaign to take Bakhmut, the shelling comes ever nearer to Kostiantynivka, 25 kilometres (about 15 miles) to the west. The director of the hospital says that since the beginning of the month, the town has been hit a lot.

— France, seeking to puncture perceptions that it has lagged in supporting Ukraine, confirmed it’s pledging air-defense missiles and stepped-up military training to Ukraine. The French defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said in an interview that as many as 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers will be embedded with military units in France, rotating through for several weeks of combat training, specialized training in Logistics and other needs and training on equipment supplied by France.

The institute for the study of war accused Moscow of conducting massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians, which it said likely amount to ethnic cleansing.

Russian authorities this week said that several thousand children from a southern region occupied by Moscow had been placed in rest homes and children’s camps. RIA Novosti reported on Friday the original remarks made by the deputy prime minister of Russia.

Russian authorities admitted to placing children from Russian-held parts ofUkraine who were orphans, for adoption with Russian families, in a possible violation of an international treaty on genocide prevention.

Serhiy Hrabskiy, a retired colonel and commentator on the war for Ukrainian news media, said that Ukraine’s military has not hesitated to hit airfields, fuel tanks and ammunition depots that are legitimate military targets. Targeting sites in Crimea and cross-border artillery duels have become routine as the war has moved closer to Russia and the occupied peninsula.

— A Russian commander wanted for his role in the downing of a Malaysian airliner over eastern Ukraine in 2014 has been deployed to the front, according to social media posts by pro-Kremlin commentators. Posts by Maksim Fomin and others said Igor Girkin, also known as Strelkov, has been given responsibility for an unspecified Russian front-line unit.

An international wanted list was put on him over his alleged involvement in the shooting down of the Malaysian Airlines flight, which killed almost 300 people. He is the most high-profile suspect in a related murder trial, with a verdict expected in November.

Recently, Girkin’s social media posts have lashed out at Moscow’s battlefield failures. A $100,000 reward will be given to anyone who captures him, according to the defense intelligence agency.

There were attacks on infrastructure near the main rail station in the city, but the lines were operating as normal.

The enemy can attack our cities, but they won’t be able to break us. The occupiers will get only fair punishment and condemnation of future generations, and we will get victory,” wrote Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy’s chief-of-staff, Andriy Yermak, again called on the west to provide Ukraine with more air defense systems. “We have no time for slow actions,” he said online.

The picture of the bomb removed from the post was labeled Geran-2 by the Russian Federation, which is a designation for the Iranian drones.

Kamikaze Drone Attacks on a Ukrainian Building: A Killing of a Russian Su-34 Jet in Yeysk

A meeting of the European Union foreign ministers is scheduled for today. The EU’s top diplomat said before the meeting that the bloc would look into concrete evidence of Iran’s involvement in Ukraine.

A wave of kamikaze drone attacks pummeled Kyiv early Monday, killing at least one person and setting off warning sirens across the Ukrainian capital as commuters headed to work.

Kamikaze drones, or suicide drones, are small, portable aerial weapon systems that are hard to detect and can be fired at a distance. They can be launched quickly and hit behind enemy lines, which will result in the destruction of the enemy.

It’s unclear how many casualties there have been, but one person was found dead under the rubble of a destroyed building in Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Another person is trapped, he said.

At least 13 people have died after a Russian SU-34 fighter jet crashed into a residential building in the western city of Yeysk during a training flight Monday, according to Russian state media and authorities.

“According to the report of the ejected pilots, the cause of the plane crash was the ignition of one of the engines during take-off. Fuel from the Su-34 crashed in a courtyard of a residential quarters according to the ministry.

RIA reports the explosion of a Russian port town in the Sea of Azov on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2005: authorities are still looking for help

RIA reported that 13 bodies, including those of three children, were removed from the debris as of Tuesday morning, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Earlier state media reports said at least 25 people were injured.

Yeysk is a port town on the shore of the Sea of Azov and is separated from occupied Russian territory in southern Ukraine by a narrow stretch of the sea.

Images and videos of the crash’s aftermath showed smoke billowing and fire blazing in the residential area. A building, believed to house hundreds of people, was later engulfed in flames, say officials.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told authorities to provide all necessary assistance to the victims of the crash, the Kremlin said in a statement, adding that Putin has received reports from the ministers and the head of the region on the situation.

Officials have opened an investigation into the incident, according to the prosecutor’s office of the Krasnodar Krai region and the military prosecutor’s office of the Southern Military District.

The remains of the plane are gone. The residents of the houses that were to be evacuated have decided not to go. Veniamin Kondratyev, the head of the Krasnodar Krai region, told his Telegram followers that the fire had been contained.

According to the head of the affected district in Yeysk, Roman Bublik, the residents of a nine-story building that caught fire will be provided with all the necessary support.

Ukraine’s nuclear crisis in the light of the Nov 12 incident at the Crimea bridge: The case of a Ukrainian MiG pilot in Vinnytsia

Earlier on Monday, an eyewitness told Russian state media TASS of the chaos that ensued after the crash: “Plane crashed in our city … Ambulances and firefighters are coming from all over the city, helicopters are in the air,” said the eyewitness.”

Nuclear deterrence exercises are going to be held by NATO. NATO warns Russia not to use nuclear weapons onUkraine but says it is a regular training activity.

Russian agents detained eight people on Oct. 12 suspected of carrying out a large explosion on a bridge to Crimea, including Russian, Ukrainian and Armenian citizens.

It’s hard to imagine any other country being permitted by the world to wage the kind of campaign Russia has in Ukraine (and in Syria before it); still less with an overt agenda of exterminating the Ukrainian people.

Here you can read past recaps. For context and more in-depth stories, you can find more of NPR’s coverage here. Also, listen and subscribe to NPR’s State of Ukraine podcast for updates throughout the day.

One Ukrainian MiG pilot won folk hero status in Ukraine this month for shooting down five Iranian Shahed-136 drones over the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, only to be forced to eject after crashing into the debris of the last one. The pilot, identified by his nickname Karaya, said in the local news media that they would be able to destroy the weapon within a short time.

After colliding with the airborne debris, he said, Karaya steered his MiG away from Vinnytsia and ejected. The jets crashed into houses in an outlying area but nobody was hurt. Karaya later visited the site to apologize.

The first day of the war with Russia: Anatoliy Nikitin, Stas Volovyk, and Sergei Koszul

He wrote that he went to the scene, apologized for causing the residents irritation and thanked them for their steel nerves. He joked that it was a violation of military protocol. He lost them while leaving the office.

MYKOLAIV, Ukraine — On the second day of the war with Russia, Anatoliy Nikitin and Stas Volovyk, two Ukrainian army reservists, were ordered to deliver NLAW anti-tank missiles to fellow soldiers in the suburbs north of Kyiv. After they stood exposed on the highway, they were given new orders, claims the battle nickname Concrete.

There are Russian tanks coming at you, a man on the radio said. Try to hit one and livestream it!,” recalls Nikitin, sitting on a park bench in the southern city of Mykolaiv, as artillery rumbles in the distance.

Neither soldier had ever shot an NLAW. They hid amongst the trees and looked up a video on how to do it. They took their positions, prepared the missiles.

The commander said, “Oh, it’s ours!” It’s ours!'” recalls Volovyk, who goes by the nickname Raptor. We didn’t fire. It was a very close call.

The on-the-job training of Volovyk and Nikitin was a mixture of terror, adventure and black comedy. The first few days of the war have been described by the two men as being filled with confusion.

“It was total chaos,” recalls Nikitin, who is 40, wears a salt-and-pepper beard and heads a construction company. “It’s lucky for us that the Russians were more chaotic than us.”

Volovyk is a 33-year-old software engineer who learned English by playing video games. He says Russian tactics and decision-making have improved in the war, but he found some of their early actions puzzling. For instance, the Russians deployed riot police who headed toward Kyiv, only to be wiped out.

“We see how they advance, we see how they fight and we were like, ‘Okay, is this their best or are they just mocking us?'” recalls Volovyk, who wears a camouflage cap with the message “Don’t Worry, Be Ready.”

In late March the Russians retreated from the suburbs. After this, the two men followed orders and headed south to fight a very different kind of war. They left behind the protection of suburban buildings and forests outside the capital for sweeping farm fields with little cover. They started by working the trenches.

“It sucks,” says Volovyk. “You dig. You dig. If you don’t dig, you’re pretty much dead, so that’s the only thing you can do.

After two weeks, the men were offered new jobs doing reconnaissance. It’s dangerous to get close to enemy lines in order to avoid detection. The men jumped at the chance to get out of the trenches.

They now operate drones, which help to guide fire on Russian tanks in the Kherson region.

Nikitin and Volovyk say they prefer military-grade surveillance drones to commercial ones. The military drones have secure data transfer and are much harder for the Russians to jam.

The soldiers have had some very difficult moments. When they came across the Russian soldier, they traveled with a team of engineers.

“He looked at me, I looked at him and he just jumped into the bushes,” says Nikitin. He ordered the engineers to shoot the Russians and anyone else he could think of.

The army reserve became active after the Russians invaded the peninsula. Nikitin says they weren’t prophets, but they knew Russia would try to take the rest of Ukraine. Here down south, their goal is to liberate Kherson, the regional capital.

Videos filmed by Ukrainian drones showing Russian infantry being hit by a artillery shell in poorly-prepared positions have supported those assertions, along with stories in Russian news media of soldiers telling their families about high casualty rates. The location of the videos on the front line is not known and they could not be verified.

Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander of the Ukrainian military, said in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app on Thursday that Russian forces had tripled the intensity of attacks along some parts of the front. He did not say what the attackers were or where they came from.

The Institute for the Study of War, an analytical group based in Washington, said in an assessment that the increase in infantry in the east did not result in Russia gaining new ground.

If Russia had waited until enough personnel had arrived to amass a force large enough to overcome Ukrainian defenses, it would have had more success in offensive operations.

The Russian forces shelled Ukrainian-held areas of the partially occupied Kherson region 71 times over the past 24 hours, including 41 attacks on the city of Kherson, the region’s Ukrainian governor Yaroslav Yanushevich reported on Sunday.

With Russian and Ukrainian forces apparently preparing for battle in Kherson, and conflicting signals over what may be coming, the remaining residents of the city have been stocking up on food and fuel to survive combat.

And Ukraine will be watching America’s midterm election results this week, especially after some Republicans warned that the party could limit funding for Ukraine if it wins control of the House of Representatives, as forecast.

Russian Shells Pummeled the Southern Ukrainian City of Kherson: U.N. Forces, Security Aid and the Security Assistance to Ukraine

Also Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. Erdogan insists Sweden must meet certain conditions before it can join NATO.

The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday is scheduled to discuss an International Atomic Energy Agency report, in which Ukraine is expected to be on the agenda.

Russia has been accused of energy terrorism by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said the aerial bombardments have left many people without heat. Ukrainian officials say Moscow is “weaponizing winter” in its effort to demoralize the Ukrainian resistance.

Russia once again joined a U.N. brokered deal to ship grain and other agricultural goods from Ukraine. Moscow had suspended its part in the deal a few days prior after saying Ukraine had launched a drone attack on its Black Sea ships.

The Pentagon announced $400 million in additional security aid to Ukraine, on Nov. 4, to include 45 refurbished T-72 tanks, 1,100 Phoenix Ghost drones and other vehicles, technology and training.

BLAHODATNE, Ukraine — Ukraine’s troops entered the key city of Kherson on Friday, its military said, as jubilant residents waved Ukrainian flags after a major Russian retreat.

The Kremlin still considered Kherson to be a part of Russia even as its soldiers fled.

Videos shared by Ukrainian government officials on social media showed scenes of civilians who had endured nearly nine months of occupation cheering the arrival of a contingent of Ukrainian troops.

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian shells pummeled the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Saturday, killing at least 10 people and injuring 55 in the city that Moscow’s troops were forced to abandon last month.

The region is a Russian one, according to the spokesman for the Kremlin. It has been fixed. There can’t be changes here.

On the disappearance of Russian troops and civilians in Kherson and Bucha, Ukraine: a telephone-based message from a wounded Ukrainian soldier

As he spoke, Ukrainian soldiers continued to move through towns and villages in the region, greeted joyously by tearful residents who had endured nine months occupation.

Oleh Voitsehovsky, the commander of a Ukrainian drone reconnaissance unit, said he had seen no Russian troops or equipment in his zone along the front less than four miles north of Kherson city.

He said that the Russians left all the villages. We did not see a single car when we looked at dozens of villages with our drones. We don’t see how they are leaving. They retreat quietly, at night.”

Serhiy, a retiree living in Kherson who asked that his last name not be published for security reasons, said in a series of text messages before Ukrainian soldiers swept in that conditions in the city had unraveled overnight.

At night, a building was burning in the center, but it was not possible to call the fire department. There wasn’t a phone signal, no electricity, and no heating.

Ukrainian officials have warned about a group of soldiers from Russia left behind to engage the Ukrainians in street battles or sabotage operations.

It said that Russian forces were setting up defensive positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro and shelling the advancing Ukrainians across the river.

“The enemy is massively attacking Ukraine. There is an increased threat. Stay in shelters,” Oleksiy Kuleba, the head of the Kyiv regional military administration, wrote on the Telegram messaging app, asking residents not to ignore the alarm.

Residents in Bucha said that when Russian soldiers interrogated them, they often seized their phones. Suspecting the soldiers may also have taken the phones of victims, our reporters obtained from Ukrainian authorities a database of all calls and messages placed from the Bucha region to Russia during March. As we interviewed victims’ relatives, we collected their phone numbers and checked if they were in the database. A chilling pattern emerged: soldiers routinely used the phones of victims to call home to Russia, often only hours after they were killed.

A soldier in Kherson, a villager who served in the German Army during the First World War II. After he left, he walked into the courtyard

An elderly neighbor greeted him with a bouquet of blue and yellow flowers, wrapped her arms around his shoulders and wept, according to a video Kostenko provided NPR.

“We’ve missed you a lot,” said a villager wearing a black watch cap and pointing at the colonel and the soldiers accompanying him: the brother and cousin of Kostenko.

Kostenko then walked into the courtyard of the one-story house where he had grown up and where Russian troops had lived since March. They painted the wall with a sign and then he stepped inside.

The windows were broken according to Kostenko. “Almost all the furniture and things were stolen,” including his body armor and medals. The Russians left behind a grenade and a bed in addition to the other items.

“We pretty much denied those troops their supply chains,” says Stanislav Volovyk, a Ukrainian drone operator who helps guide the fire of howitzers. “We blew up the bridges. They got their supply routes under fire control.

The Ukrainians were routed by the Russians in this part of Kherson due to various factors, but one factor that stood out for them was the level of accuracy from the HIMARS.

A reconnaissance soldier from Kherson who goes by the battle nickname Fox said he helped target a HIMAR that flew 24 miles before killing 20 Russian soldiers hiding in a bunker — a direct hit.

Before the war, Fox worked as a seaman on a cargo ship. He joined the army on the first day of the war and became part of a team that analyzed enemy territory. Last weekend, he returned to his neighborhood to a hero’s welcome. His neighbors had no idea he’d become a soldier.

“They were completely surprised,” said Fox, who arrived in full battle gear. I didn’t tell them that I joined the army because it could have made their problems worse.

Fox said that his return filled him with joy, and that he has not remembered a better moment in his life.

Russian sabotaged the city’s water, electrical, and mobile communication systems before they left, according to the local military administration.

The Russians were able to fight on even after crossing the Dnieper River because they were in a good shooting range of the city.

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian and Russian forces traded fire on Monday from across the broad expanse of the Dnipro River that now divides them after Russia’s retreat from the southern city of Kherson, reshaping the battlefield with a victory that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, declared marked “the beginning of the end of the war.”

The Dnipro has become the new front line in southern Ukraine, and officials there warned of continued danger from fighting in regions that have already endured months of Russian occupation.

Through the afternoon, artillery fire picked up in a southern district of the city near the destroyed Antonivsky Bridge over the Dnipro, stoking fears that the Russian Army would retaliate for the loss of the city with a bombardment from its new positions on the eastern bank.

The shells hit near the bridge, sending up puffs of smoke. There was loud, metallic booms near the river. It was not immediately possible to assess what had been hit.

Mines are a threat to Ukraine, and one resident of Skadovsk, Ukraine, says he is not afraid to leave

The mines are a significant danger. An 11-year-old and three other people were killed when a family ran over a mine outside the city. Another mine injured six railway workers who were trying to restore service after lines were damaged. Ukrainian officials said in statements that there were at least four more children who had been injured by mines.

The deaths underscored the threats still remaining on the ground, even as Mr. Zelensky made a surprise visit to Kherson, a tangible sign of Ukraine’s soaring morale.

“We are, step by step, coming to all of our country,” Mr. Zelensky said in a short appearance in the city’s main square on Monday, as hundreds of jubilant residents celebrated.

The Russian troops fired at the local market in Beryslav, which was probably from a tank, the official said. Three of the wounded are in serious condition and will be evacuated to Kherson.

“Occupants rob local people and exchange stuff for samogon,” or homemade vodka, said one resident, Tatiana, who communicated via a secure messaging app from Oleshky, a town across the river from Kherson City. They start getting drunk and become even more aggressive. We are so afraid that we can’t do anything. She wanted her name to be kept out of her mouth for security.

Ivan wrote in a text message that Russians are roaming around and 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- 888-609-. He lives in Skadovsk, which is south of Kherson city, and asked that his name be not used because he is worried about his safety. We try to get someone local to stay at the place. It’s not abandoned, and Russians don’t take it.

The Battle of Lviv: The War Between the West and the Kremlin Between the EU and the Middle East? CNN’s David Andelman

David Andelman is an award-winning CNN contributor, and the author of A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars that Might Still Happen. He was once a reporter for The New York Times in Europe and Asia. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has more opinion.

The first missile to have landed in Poland – a NATO member – on Tuesday may well have been a Ukrainian anti-aircraft rocket intercepting an incoming Russian missile a short distance from one of Ukraine’s largest cities, Lviv, as suspected by Polish and NATO leaders. (President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, has insisted the missile was not Ukrainian)

The claim by Putin that he sent troops into Ukraine to protect Russia’s security is condemned by the West as a clear sign of Moscow’s responsibility for the war.

Beyond these most recent missile attacks lies a laundry list of horrors that Putin has launched that has driven his nation further away from the pack of civilized powers that he once sought to join.

A growing number of Russian soldiers refuse to fight and disobey what they are being asked to do. The Defense Ministry of the UK believes that Russian troops may be prepared to shoot retreating soldiers.

Some 3,500 calls have been made from a hotline and Telegram channel launched by a Ukrainian military intelligence project as a way to assist Russian soldiers who want to defect.

Putin has also tried, though he has been stymied at most turns, to establish black market networks abroad to source what he needs to fuel his war machine – much as Kim Jong-un has done in North Korea. The United States has already uncovered and recently sanctioned vast networks of such shadow companies and individuals centered in hubs from Taiwan to Armenia, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, and Luxembourg to source high-tech goods for Russia’s collapsing military-industrial complex.

Putin has become increasingly isolated on the world stage. He was the only head of state to stay away from a session of the G20, which Zelensky dubbed the “G19.” After his expulsion from the G8 after his seizure of the Black Sea, a return to the G7 seems a distant goal for Putin. Comparison with North Korea was made more striking by Russia banning all 100 Canadians, including Canadian-American Jim Carrey.

Above all, many of the best and brightest in virtually every field have now fled Russia. This includes writers, artists and journalists as well as some of the most creative technologists, scientists and engineers.

One leading Russian journalist, Mikhail Zygar, who has settled in Berlin after fleeing in March, told me last week that while he hoped this is not the case, he is prepared to accept the reality – like many of his countrymen, he may never be able to return to his homeland, to which he remains deeply attached.

The F-35 Project in Mykolaiv: a case of urgency for the international security council to investigate the situation in the Middle East

Rumbling in the background is the West’s attempt to diversify away from Russian oil and natural gas in an effort to deprive the country of material resources to pursue this war. “We have understood and learnt our lesson that it was an unhealthy and unsustainable dependency, and we want reliable and forward-looking connections,” Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission told the G20 on Tuesday.

The conflict has caused a lot of problems for the Western countries and is proving to be a problem for the alliance. On Monday, word began circulating in aerospace circles that the long-stalled joint French-German project for a next-generation jet fighter at the heart of the Future Combat Air System – Europe’s largest weapons program – was beginning to move forward.

Even though he continues to hold that attempts to rewrite and rewrite world history are becoming increasingly aggressive and are seeking to divide our society, and weaken Russia, he does not think there is any chance of that happening.

Ukrenergo said in a statement that the three nuclear power plants were disconnected from the grid as a safety measure.

The company said the nuclear reactors have been turned back on, but are still not connected to the national grid.

In the southern region of Mykolaiv, the military administrator, Vitaliy Kim, also said the nuclear plant in his area has been cut from the grid, leading to a risky shutdown of the reactors there.

Many cases when power cuts happen, the heat and water are turned off. The water in pipes can freeze if the temperature is below freezing.

President Maia Sandu wrote on Facebook about Russia that it was not possible for them to trust a regime that left them in the dark and cold.

How Russians use cluster munitions against us: A request for arms in the United States during the 2014 Ukrainian War on Reissner-Norway

Preparing for the winter is what Ukrainians are doing. If there are power cuts, President Zelenskyy stated that 4,000 centers would be set up to take care of civilians.

They’ll provide heat, water, phone charging, and internet access, according to him. Many will be in schools and government buildings.

“So what, Russians use cluster munitions against us,” a Ukrainian official told CNN. The US is concerned about damage done to property. We are going to use them against Russian troops, not against the Russian population.”

Senior Biden administration officials have been fielding this request for months and have not rejected it outright, CNN has learned, a detail that has not been previously reported.

Cluster munitions are imprecise by design, and scatter “bomblets” across large areas that can fail to explode on impact and can pose a long-term risk to anyone who encounters them, similar to landmines. They also create “nasty, bloody fragmentation” to anyone hit by them because of the dozens of submunitions that detonate at once across a large area, Mark Hiznay, a weapons expert and the associate arms director for Human Rights Watch, previously told CNN.

The Biden administration has not taken the option off the table as a last resort, if stockpiles begin to run dangerously low. But sources say the proposal has not yet received significant consideration in large part due to the statutory restrictions that Congress has put on the US’ ability to transfer cluster munitions.

Complicating the situation is that those restrictions apply to munitions with a greater than one percent unexploded ordnance rate. The administration indicated that it was unlikely that Joe Biden would be able to overrule the restriction.

According to an agreement between the United States and Ukraine, targets in Russia won’t be struck with American-supplied weaponry. The Biden administration won’t involve the US in a direct confrontation with Russia. But American officials clarified they will not object to Ukraine striking back with its own weaponry.

The Defense Ministry told CNN it does not comment on reports regarding requests for particular weapons systems or ammunition, choosing to wait until any agreement with a supplier is reached before many any public announcement.

There is a Ukrainian official that has been asking for the weapons for several months, and he told CNN they are more effective when there is a concentration of Russian forces.

“Heroes of Russia”: Who Hit the Crimean Bridge? The U.S. Naval Forces in the Kursk Region

Speaking after an awards ceremony for “Heroes of Russia” at the Kremlin, he addressed a group of soldiers receiving the awards, clutching a glass of champagne.

He listed a series of events he blames on the Ukrainians: “Who hit the Crimean bridge? The power lines from the nuclear power plant were destroyed.

The reference to Kursk appears to reference Russia’s announcement that an airfield in the Kursk region, which neighbors Ukraine, was targeted in a drone attack. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has offered no comment on recent explosions, including in Kursk, which are deep within Russia. Officially, the targets are well beyond the reach of the country’s declared drones.

He ended his apparent off-the-cuff comments by claiming there is no mention of the water situation. No one has said anything about it. At all! He said there would be complete silence.

Russian-backed rebel annexation of four Ukrainian regions by Russian forces in Simferopol, Crimea, on Oct. 14, 2009

In October, Moscow tried to annex four Ukrainian regions that it had been trying to do for years, and they were all held by Russian-backed rebels.

The attack on Melitopol came amid social media footage and reports of several blasts in the Crimean city of Simferopol at around 9 p.m. local time on Saturday.

Yevgeny Balitsky, Russia’s acting governor of Zaporizhzhia, said the missile attack on Melitopol had “completely destroyed” a recreation center where “people, civilians, and [military] base personnel were having dinner on Saturday night.”

The Russian-backed city administration said that the missiles were launched by the Ukrainians at 5:54 a.m. The time Sunday is in the direction of the Kalininsky districts.

The unofficial Crimean media portal “Krymskyi veter” said an explosion at a Russian military barracks in Sovietske had set the barracks on fire and there were dead and wounded.

The air defense system in Simferopol worked according to Sergey Aksenov. All services are working as usual.

The news comes amid reports that 1.5 million people in the Odesa region of Ukraine have been left without power following strikes by Iranian-made drones.

“In general, both emergency and stabilization power outages continue in various regions,” Zelensky said. “The power system is now, to put it mildly, very far from a normal state.”

Odesa tragedy: Russia’s top ally blames Ukraine for the “Russian attacks” on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and it’s consequences for the world leaders

Zelensky accused Russia of deliberately causing disaster in the city by trying to bully Odesa residents.

Ukraine on Saturday received “a new support package from Norway in the amount of $100 million” that will be used “precisely for the restoration of our energy system after these Russian strikes,” Zelensky added.

In his nightly address on Saturday, Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine had shot down 10 of the 15 drones that Russian forces used. It was not immediately possible to verify his tally.

The repeated assaults on the equipment that Ukrainians depend on for heat and light have led to condemnation from world leaders and causedUkraine to get into a grim cycle in which crews hurry to restore power but lose it all again.

He said that the power system was far from normal, and urged people to cut back on their power use.

“It must be understood: Even if there are no heavy missile strikes, this does not mean that there are no problems,” he continued. “Almost every day, in different regions, there is shelling, there are missile attacks, drone attacks. It’s not uncommon for energy facilities to be hit almost every day.

The Ukrainian president has threatened to ban the Russian Orthodox Church in the nation if there isn’t an improvement in relations with Moscow, but many are watching to see if he follows through.

The Reheating of Tarasov’s Old Industrial Heartland: After the Griner Escape, U.S. Relations with Ukraine

The European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, will be in Paris for a dinner with the French President and the Norwegian Prime Minister.

France is set to host a conference with Ukraine on Tuesday in support of their people, with a video address by the Ukrainian President.

Following Brittney Griner’s release from Russian prison, fans, friends and family are celebrating the basketball player’s return to the U.S. Meanwhile, some Republican politicians have been complaining about the prisoner swap and other U.S. citizens still held by Russia.

New measures targeting Russian oil revenue took effect Dec. 5. There is a price cap on Russian oil and the European Union embargo on Russian oil imports.

The leaders of France, Turkey, and President Zelenskyy all had phone calls with President Biden, in what appeared to be an attempt to smooth over the rocky patch in relations with Russia.

The local authorities want people to leave the region for a while. But for Tarasov, as for so many in Ukraine’s old industrial heartland, fleeing his home for a safer area had seemed impossible.

Tarasov, 48, was in the basement and was able to shelter from the shelling. He decided to buy vegetables to make the national dish, borscht.

Tarasov recalls how the shelling incident in Ukraine affected his life and gave birth to a son. He laughed with a companion and asked for help

His face was pale as he talked about the images in his mind. “I was wearing a leather jacket and if it wasn’t for that, I would have blown apart. I lost a lot of blood, and my guts would have been all over the place. I remember seeing it.

Tarasov believes that his life was saved by an invisible power. He is very grateful to the Ukrainian soldiers who tossed him in a truck and took him to a hospital that could help civilians wounded in the war.

When Tarasov arrived he asked the doctors to save his limb. I asked if my arm could be sewn back on. I saw that it was completely torn off and was just hanging in the sleeve. And my stomach was burning. I figured it must be the intestines coming out. There was blood everywhere.”

The power sometimes goes out, the chief surgeon explained to CNN. It comes by the hour. There was no water over the weekend because of the shelling incident.

“One of (the victims) was a volunteer, a member of the rapid response team of the international organization. During the shelling, they were on the street, they were fatally wounded by fragments of enemy shells,” he added.

A surgeon stationed at the hospital says that it has been loud recently. Lucia Marron agrees with his colleague. She thinks there is more movement in general. “We are used to the sound. You get to a point where you understand what is dangerous and what is not.”

A Russian-Inspired Official Reports on Ukrainian Drone Attacks on Engels and Dyagilevo Bases: Indications of New Subjects

“If I had a lot of money, I would rather live abroad,” Tarasov says. I have no money but everything I had saved up was invested there. I was without a place to go and no money.

In the wake of a heavy fighting in the east of the country, Ukrainian forces have unleashed the biggest attack on the occupied eastern regions since 2014, according to a Russia-installed official.

“Forty rockets from BM-21 ‘Grad’ MLRS were fired at civilians in our city,” he said Thursday, adding that a key intersection in Donetsk city center had come under fire.

The city was hit 86 times with “artillery, MLRS, tanks, mortars and UAVs,” in the past 24 hours, according to the regional head of the Kherson military administration.

The strikes in Kherson left the city “completely disconnected” from power supplies, according to the regional head of the Kherson military administration, Yanushevych.

The United States sent machinery and generators to help strengthen the power infrastructure in the west of the country.

The Energy Security Project, run by USAID, delivered four excavators and over 130 generators, Klitschko said on Telegram. The equipment was free of charge.

As the war looks set to stretch into another year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that Moscow will not negotiate with Kyiv on the basis of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s proposed 10-point peace formula, which includes Russia’s withdrawal from all Ukrainian territory, a path to nuclear safety, food security, a special tribunal for alleged Russian war crimes, and a final peace treaty with Moscow.

The Ukrainian side needs to take into account the realities that have developed over the years, according to the Kremlin.

“And these realities indicate that the Russian Federation has new subjects,” he said, referring to four areas Russia has claimed to have annexed, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.

The Prime Minister of Ukraine told a government meeting that the aim was to leave Ukrainians without light, water and heat.

It is the second time Engels has been targeted by Ukrainian drones; on Dec. 5, unprecedented drone strikes on Engels and the Dyagilevo base in the Ryazan region in western Russia killed a total of three servicemen and wounded four more. The strikes on the airbases were followed by a massive retaliatory missile barrage in Ukraine that struck homes and buildings and killed civilians.

An MiG-31K, a supersonic aircraft capable of carrying a Kinzal hypersonic missile, was also seen in the sky over Belarus during the air attacks on Friday in Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s Armed Forces. It wasn’t clear if a Kinzal was used in the attacks.

Kirby said that the defense industrial base of Russia is being taxed. They are having trouble keeping up with that pace. We know that Putin is having a hard time revitalizing precision guided projectiles.

Two US officials, and a senior administration official, say that the Biden administration is close to sending the most advanced ground-based airdefense system in the US to Ukraine. The Ukrainian government has been requesting the system to protect it from Russian missiles and drones. It would be the most effective long-range defensive weapons system sent to the country and officials say it will help secure airspace for members of the North Atlantic Treaty and America (NATO) in eastern Europe.

He declined to announce any details on the next security assistance package for Ukraine, but said that there “will be another one” and that additional air defense capabilities should be expected.

The air-force mission to South of the Azov, Russia, a warning warning from the Kremlin and the West

The Air Force said that the Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 drones were launched from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov.

“I thank everyone who carries out these repair works in any weather and around the clock,” Zelensky said. It is difficult, but we will pull through, and Russia will fail.

In the run-up to Christmas, Ukrainians far from the eastern and southern frontlines are looking for some semblance of normality.

An artificial Christmas tree in the center of Kyiv was installed and decorated over the weekend, set to be illuminated with “energy-saving garlands” that will be powered by a generator at specific times, the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.

The tree in Sophia Square is adorned with a number of colored balls and doves. There will be support flags from countries at the bottom.

Ukrainian children are asking St. Nicholas for air defense and weapons for “victory for all Ukrainians,” Zelensky said in his virtual address to the Joint Expeditionary Force leaders’ summit on Monday.

Sanctions have not been enough to shake Russia’s determination to restore its empire at the cost of peaceful neighboring states. The US and other Western backers of the conflict should shift the focus away from setting more targets for Russia. The international community must do more than simply tolerate Russia’s naked aggression and the savagery with which it is pursuing its war of colonial reconquest. Direct intervention is needed more than ever.

Russia and its backers around the world will present this as a massive and dangerous escalation. That is highly effective nonsense.

The West has been fooled by the Kremlin’s claim that it is only using a “special military operation” to wage a war. It’s protected Russia from the consequences of its own aggression.

Russia’s most effective tool of deterrence remains nuclear threats. Russia recently stopped talking about using nuclear weaponry, but a decade of driving the message that Russia will use nuclear weapons if they’re cornered or humiliated has already had an effect.

Russia will continue to look for replacements for its weapons as it tries to launch missiles at Ukraine. Iran might be the only country that will supply Russia in the future.

That sets a disastrous example for other aggressive powers around the world. It says possession of nuclear weapons allows you to wage genocidal wars of destruction against your neighbors, because other nations won’t intervene.

If that’s not the message the US and the West want other aggressor states around the world to receive, then supply of Patriot should be followed by far more direct and assertive means of dissuading Moscow.

More precision weapons are vital: they ensure Ukraine hits its targets, and not any civilians remaining nearby. And it means Ukraine does not go through the hundreds or thousands of shells Russia appears to burn through as it blanket bombards areas it wants to capture.

Western analysts said Russia has protested about these deliveries consistently, but it wasn’t too loud in its response to crossing what, as recently as January, might have been considered a red line.

Whatever the eventual truth of the matter – and military aid is opaque at the best of times – Biden wants Putin to hear nothing but headline figures in the billions, to sap Russian resolve, push European partners to help more, and make Ukraine’s resources seem limitless.

This is difficult. Congress’s likely new Speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy, has warned the Biden administration cannot expect a “blank cheque” from the new GOP-led House of Representatives.

Vladimir Zelensky, the Ukrainians, and the United States: What is the need for a nuclear-backed war in Ukraine?

The Trumpist elements of the party had doubts about how much help the US should give to eastern Europe.

Realistically, the bill for the slow defeat of Russia in this dark and lengthy conflict is relatively light for Washington, given its near trillion-dollar annual defense budget.

Zelensky decided to make a physical appearance in Washington to remind Republicans of the importance of the fight in Ukraine and how a victory for the Ukrainian military would lead to a nuclear-backed war between Russia and the US.

He is an inspiring rhetorician, and – as a former reality TV star turned unexpected president – the embodiment of how Putin’s war of choice has turned ordinary Ukrainians into wartime heroes.

Russia’s foreign ministry condemned what it called the “monstrous crimes” of the “regime in Kyiv,” after US President Joe Biden promised more military support to Ukraine during Zelensky’s summit at the White House on Wednesday.

Maria Zakharova stated that even if the West provides a lot of military aid to the Ukrainian government, they will not achieve anything.

Zakharova said that the tasks set within the framework of the special military operation will be fulfilled, taking in account the situation on the ground and the actual realities.

Her comments came after Zelensky delivered a historic speech from the US Capitol, expressing gratitude for American aid in fighting Russian aggression since the war began – and asking for more.

Peskov added that “there were no real calls for peace.” Zelensky stressed that “we need peace,” while he was speaking to the US Congress.

Peskov told journalists, however, that Wednesday’s meeting showed the US is waging a proxy war of “indirect fighting” against Russia down “to the last Ukrainian.”

Investigating a Regime-Dependent Investigation of the Bucha, Ukraine, War Crimes: The 234th Infantry

This investigation was reported and produced by Yousur Al-Hlou , Masha Froliak , Dmitriy Khavin , Christoph Koettl , Haley Willis , Alexander Cardia , Natalie Reneau and Malachy Browne .

Lt. Col. Artyom Gorodilov, the regiment commander at the helm of the 234th, oversaw operations of the paratrooper unit in Bucha. Times investigators obtained documents that confirmed the call sign he used when communicating over the radio with his troops. Security cameras along Yablunska Street captured some of this radio chatter, establishing that Lt. Col. Gorodilov was in command, and two soldiers in the 234th who served in Bucha confirmed in interviews that he was there.

The evidence shows that the killings were part of a deliberate and systematic effort to ruthlessly secure a route to the capital, Kyiv. Whether it was children fleeing with their families, people hoping to find groceries or people simply trying to get back home on their bicycles, the men were killed by the soldiers when they questioned and executed them.

Historically, journalists and investigators relied on a single photograph or video to expose wartime atrocities. A photo of an obese Bosnian prisoner on the cover of Time magazine was published in 1992. There was a video that captured the execution of captured Tamil Tiger fighters in the final days of the Sri Lankan civil war.

The scale and detail that link a single unit and its commander to specific killings is something that distinguishes the evidence found in Bucha. The International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) is already investigating possible war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine.

The Times pored over phone numbers and social media profiles in order to learn more about the identity of two dozen members of the 234th Infantry. We spoke to some of the soldiers who said they were in the 234th and that they served in Bucha, as well as their relatives. The Center for Advanced Defense Studies provides personal data from leaked Russian databases, which we used to cross-referenced our findings.

The Times identified for the first time how many people were killed in Yablunska Street. The majority of these victims died from gunshot wounds, and we looked at their death certificates.

Residents from all ages and professions were the victims. Among the victims killed by Russian paratroopers were 52-year-old Tamila Mishchenko and her 14-year-old daughter, Anna, on March 5. They were among four women fleeing Bucha when Russian soldiers fired on their blue minivan.

After Russian troops left the region, Lieutenant Col. Gorodilov was promoted to colonel by the then head of the airborne forces. After the shocking images from Bucha came to light, a ceremony was held.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/22/video/russia-ukraine-bucha-massacre-takeaways.html

The Decay of Donetsk, Ukraine, on Christmas Day after the Sept. 14 Russian-Nucleus Blown by a Cryogenic Elliptical

The report was written by Evan Hill and Ishaan Jhaveri. Translations and research by Aleksandra Koroleva , Oksana Nesterenko and Milana Mazaeva .

Zelenskyy posted photos on his social media accounts of the wreck after his quick trip to Washington. He noted the destruction came as Ukrainians were beginning Christmas celebrations that for many Orthodox Christians will culminate in the traditional celebration Jan. 7.

“This is not sensitive content — it’s the real life of Kherson,” Zelenskyy tweeted. The images showed cars on fire, bodies on the street and building windows blown out.

Earlier Saturday, the Donetsk regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said two people were killed and five wounded in shelling there over the past day. The deaths were in Kurakhove, a town of about 20,000 30 kilometers (18 miles) west of Russian-controlled Donetsk city.

There were no details on casualties when Stepne was also hit by shelling, according to the governor.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Ukrainians to have “patience and faith” in a defiant Christmas address after a deadly wave of Russian strikes pounded the southern city of Kherson.

He urged the nation to stay firm in the face of the dark winter and the threat of Russian attacks.

“There may be empty chairs around it. And our houses and streets can’t be so bright. And Christmas bells can ring not so loudly and inspiringly. Through air raid sirens, or even worse – gunshots and explosions.”

He said that Ukraine had been resisting evil forces for three hundred days and eight years. The hammer and sword of our spirit and consciousness. The wisdom of God. Courage and bravery. The virtues that incline us to do good and overcome evil.

He said the country would still sing christmas carols louder than a power generator even if internet and communication services were down.

“And even in total darkness – we will find each other – to hug each other tightly. We will give each other a hug if there is no heat.

Zelensky said that they will celebrate their holidays. As always. We will smile and be happy. As always. There is one difference. We will not wait for a miracle. We create it ourselves.

Ukraine has traditionally celebrated Christmas on January 7 in line with Orthodox Christian customs, which acknowledge the birth of Jesus according to the Julian calendar.

“Russian terrorists have been saving one of the most massive missile attacks since the beginning of the full-scale invasion for the last days of the year,” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Twitter Thursday. They dream that Ukrainians celebrate New Year in the dark and cold. But they can’t defeat the Ukrainian people.

“These are not military facilities,” he wrote on Telegram Saturday. This isn’t war according to the rules. It is a form of terror and it is done for pleasure.

Russian troops and civilians in Kiev mourned in the midst of a 10-month long war: a peace-making message from the Kremlin

KYIV, Ukraine — President Vladimir Putin claimed that Russia is ready for talks to end the war in Ukraine even as the country faced more attacks from Moscow — a clear sign that peace wasn’t imminent.

He said that “it’s not us who refuse talks, it’s them” — something the Kremlin has repeatedly stated in recent months as its 10-month old invasion kept losing momentum.

The think tank cited Russian military bloggers, who it said have recently acknowledged “that Ukrainian forces in the Bakhmut area have managed to slightly slow down the pace of the Russian advance around Bakhmut and its surrounding settlements.”

A total of 16 people have been killed, according to the official, including three emergency workers killed in the process of demining the Berislav district of the region. Yanushevich said that 64 more have been wounded.

There had been no emergencies or damage to infrastructure in the city, he said. He said that the government would provide assistance to the servicemen’s families.

A South ofUkraine Security and Defense Forces spokesman warned on Monday that there was a chance of an Russian strike in the region.

Earlier this month, CCTV footage appeared to show an explosion lighting up the sky in Engels. At the time, Gov. Busargin also reassured residents that no civilian infrastructure was damaged and that “information about incidents at military facilities is being checked by law enforcement agencies.”

Shelling of the Dnipropetrovsk region of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia by Russian forces during a quiet night in Ukraine

There was only one night of quiet in Ukraine from Sunday to Monday. For the first time in weeks, the Russian forces didn’t shell the Dnipropetrovsk region, which borders the partially occupied southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, its Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko reported on Telegram.

It was the third quiet night in a row since the Russians started shelling the area around the city of Nikopol. Nikopol is located across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under control of the Russian forces.

Ukrainian-controlled areas of the neighbouring Kherson region were shelled 33 times over the past 24 hours, according to Kherson’s Ukrainian Gov. Yaroslav Yanushevich. There were no injuries.

Since some cruise missiles are launched from bombers that fly from the airfields hit in the attacks, the strikes could potentially destroy the missiles on the ground at the Russian airfields before they can be deployed.

He said that he had not spoken for the government and could not confirm the strikes. There is absolutely no strategic reason not to try to do this.”

The Kinzhal is the most advanced missile in Russia’s arsenal and it’s in short supply, Mr. Budanov said.

The lead for disaster response in the Ukrainian presidential office said that a lot of residential buildings in the capital have been destroyed.

There was an explosion near the playground. In case of shortages, the mayor advised residents to charge their devices and fill water containers.

Maksym Marchenko said that Ukrainian air defense systems shot down 21 cruise missiles near Odesa. But successful missile strikes left the city without electricity or water.

Strikes of the scale have been less frequent since October 10. The head of the Ukrainian military intelligence claimed that Russia was running low on cruise missiles.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian media that he believed Moscow will continue to pursue its objectives inUkraine with persistence and patience.

Moscow intends to “intimidate, leave us in the dark for the new year, cause as much damage to civilian infrastructure as possible,” Shmyhal said on Telegram.

New Year’s Eve Violation of the Fourth Law: Ukrainian Cities are Again Covered by a New Wave of Celebration, Joy and Hope

Hryn said that life in the capital went back to normal after the sirens went off, and that he met his neighbours in the elevator with their child who was in a hurry to see the new movie. Parents took their children to school and people went to work, while others continued with holiday plans in defiance.

“On New Year’s Eve, cities should be covered by wave of celebration, joy and hope. Ukrainian cities are again covered by missile wave from Russia,” Zelenska tweeted.

There are at least three people, including a 14-year-old, who were injured and two people pulled from a damaged home on Thursday. Homes, an industrial facility and a playground in the capital were damaged in attacks on Kyiv, according to the city military administration.

It is described as Senseless barbarism. The Foreign Minister of the Ukranian republic said that if Russia launched a fresh wave of attacks on Ukrainian cities ahead of the New Year, there would be no neutrality.

“All the assigned targets have been neutralised. The attack stopped production and maintenance of military hardware and halted the redeployment of reserve forces from western regions of Ukraine, according to the defense ministry.

Ukrainian officials said that Russian and Ukrainian troops were suffering losses in the city. CNN could not confirm Russia’s claims.

It was not for the first time that the ministry did not claim territorial advances against Ukrainian forces, adding credibility to reports that the two sides are in a stalemate.

Zelensky’s message to Kiev, the Russian Embassy, and the General Staff of Ukraine in the wake of Russian-New Year air-strikes

Zelensky switched to speaking Russian in his nightly address on Saturday to send a message to the Kremlin and Russian citizens, as Moscow launched a series of deadly strikes that swept several regions of Ukraine ahead of New Year.

“All this war that you are waging, you – Russia, it is not the war with NATO, as your propagandists lie,” Zelensky said. “It is not for something historical. It’s for one person to remain in power until the end of his life.

Three people died and three more were wounded in the Donetsk region, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Telegram.

One person was wounded. Two were killed and one wounded in the Kharkiv region. Two people were wounded, one died in the Kherson region.

“26 of the enemy’s air strikes were on civilian infrastructure. The Shahed-136 UAVs were used, however, all of them were shot down. The General Staff said in its latest operational update that civilian settlements were also hit by the enemy.

“The municipal ‘life support system’ of the capital is operating normally. Currently, 30% of consumers are without electricity. Due to emergency shutdowns,” he said on Telegram.

The open section of the metro line was subject to restrictions because of the presence of missile debris.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/31/europe/russia-ukraine-new-years-eve-strikes-intl/index.html

Ukrainian strike forced the cramming of pro-Russian troops into the building of a Vocational school in Makiivka

I want to win and have more bright impressions in the future. I miss it a lot. I would like to travel and open borders. I think about professional growth and personal growth as well. I have to develop and work for the benefit of the country,” said Alyona Bogulska, a 29-year-old financier.

“This year, it’s a symbol, not that it’s a small victory, but a symbol that we survived the year,” said Tatiana Tkachuk, a 43-year-old pharmacy employee.

An apparent Ukrainian strike in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine appears to have killed a large number of Russian troops, according to the Ukrainian military, pro-Russian military bloggers and former officials.

The attack has led to vocal criticism of the Russian military from pro-Russian military bloggers, who claimed that the troops lacked protection and were reportedly being quartered next to a large cache of ammunition, which is said to have exploded when Ukrainian HIMARS rockets hit the school.

The defense ministry of Russia acknowledged the attack and said that 63 Russian servicemen died, making it one of the worst episodes of the war.

Russian senator Grigory Karasin said that those responsible for the killing of Russian servicemen in Makiivka must be found, Russian state news agency TASS reported Monday.

The Chief Commander-in-CEO of the armed forces of Ukraine’s communications agency said on Telegram, “welcome and sympathies to the people who were forced to crammed into the building of Vocational school in the occupied Makiivka.” “Santa packed around 400 corpses of [Russian soldiers] in bags.”

The high command is still unaware of the capabilities of this weapon, said a former official of the Russia-backed DONETSK administration on Telegram.

Bezsonov hopes that the people responsible for the decision to use this facility will be reprimanded. “There are enough abandoned facilities in Donbas with sturdy buildings and basements where personnel can be quartered.”

According to a propagandist who writes on Telegram, the building was almost destroyed by the secondary detonation of the ammunition stores.

“Nearly all the military equipment, which stood close to the building without the slightest sign of camouflage, was also destroyed,” Girkin said. Many people are still missing, so there are no final figures on casualties.

If the precautions relating to the dispersal and concealment of personnel had been taken, the unnecessary losses might not have happened.

Russian Defense Ministry says a new blow to Russia will be needed in the next few months and that energy infrastructure in the Kherson region will be destroyed

Russian forces “lost 760 people killed just yesterday, (and) continue to attempt offensive actions on Bakhmut,” the military’s general staff said Sunday.

Two rockets were shot down by the Ukrainian forces, a defense ministry statement said. It wasn’t saying when the strike happened.

The use of a U.S.-supplied precision weapon that has proven critical in allowing Ukrainian forces to hit key targets gave Russia a new blow.

Moscow’s invasion on Feb. 24 went awry as the ground forces struggled to hold their ground and advance. He said in his New Year’s address that the next year would be difficult and necessary.

The Gov. of the Kherson region said that five people had been wounded in Monday’s shelling.

The missile was destroyed in the Dnipropetrovsk region. He said that energy infrastructure in the region was being targeted.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/01/02/1146556299/russia-ukraine-donestk-attack

U.S. forces fire on civilians in Bryansk, Ukraine, on the back of a blistering New Year’s Eve assault

A blistering New Year’s Eve assault killed at least four civilians across the country, Ukrainian authorities reported, and wounded dozens. A fourth victim, a 46-year-old resident of Kyiv, passed away in a hospital on Monday.

In Bryansk region, on the Russian side of the Ukrainian border, a Ukrainian drone hit an energy facility, according to Alexander Bogomaz. A village was left without power as a result, he said.