Russia recognizes its weakness in Crimea
Orange with Media Services, Posted on Thursday, December 08, 2022 at 2:23 pm.
The pro-Russian authorities in Crimea announced the construction of fortifications as the Ukrainians captured part of the Kherson border region.
Crimea, annexed in 2014, may well suffer from attacks by Ukraine, Russia admitted on Thursday (8 December). The statements come after several strikes attributed to Ukraine on Russian targets far from the front.
In recent days, several Russian military bases, including two located about 500 kilometers from Ukraine to the Russian capital Moscow, have been attacked by drones.
Also on Thursday, a drone was shot down by the Russian navy in Sevastopol, Crimea, a sign of the risks that continue to affect the annexed peninsula that Kiev has vowed to take back.
These attacks, along with a series of Russian withdrawals into Ukraine, appear to have led to nine months after the attack began. Russia is struggling not only to strengthen its position, but also to protect its rear bases, which are far from the front.
In Crimea, “there are risks, because the Ukrainian side continues its line organizes terrorist acts“, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. However, the shooting down of the drone “shows that effective countermeasures have been taken.”
The Black Sea Fleet, based in the Russian port of Sevastopol, came under a “massive” government drone attack in late October, damaging at least one ship. And this fall, a bridge connecting the peninsula to Russia was partially destroyed by a massive explosion that Moscow blamed on Ukrainian forces.
It is in this context that the authorities announced that Moscow installed in Crimea construction of fortifications and ditches, especially after Ukrainian forces captured part of the Kherson region bordering the peninsula in November. As the front lines threaten to freeze over with winter, Ukrainians are increasingly turning to drones to strike Russian bases from behind, while the Russians bomb Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, plunging civilians into cold and darkness.
Oleksiy Reznikov, Ukraine’s defense minister, said the Ukrainian military had integrated “seven Ukrainian-made drone models” over the previous month, up from “one or two” a year before the Russian attack. .
Russia’s security services (FSB) signaled on Thursday that Russian authorities are stepping up in Crimea Two residents of Sevastopol, suspected of passing information about military targets to Ukraine, were arrested.. In a statement, the FSB said one of the suspects was recruited by Kyiv in 2016 and had been passing on “information on the location of Russian Defense Ministry facilities” since the Kremlin launched a massive offensive against Ukraine in late February.
Ukraine’s military has moved closer to Crimea in mid-November following a successful counteroffensive that recaptured the strategically important city of Kherson in the south of the country. The situation in this area, where the main part of the forces of the two camps is separated by the Dnieper River, remains tense, with Russia regularly striking the city of Kherson.
Oleksiï Kovbassiouk was welcomed by a local residentAFP, despite the risks and the cold weather, crosses the river to help the residents trapped on the Russian-occupied left bank escape. “My ship already has two bullet holes.
The Kremlin on Wednesday accused the American “Time” magazine, which named Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as the person of the year 2022, of “Russophobia” and “Ukrainian spirit” against Moscow.
Although the Moscow Kremlin has suffered several severe setbacks since the summer, forcing it to mobilize several hundred thousand reservists, Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be preparing the public for an ongoing conflict. On Wednesday, he acknowledged that the intervention in Ukraine was a “long process” and said the “emergence of new territories” that Moscow claims to have annexed was a “significant result for Russia.”
The master of the Kremlin also seemed to relativize the risk of resorting to nuclear weapons. “We are not crazy,” he said, adding that the final weapon would only be used in “revenge.” These statements were condemned by Washington, which called this “light talk” about nuclear weapons “irresponsible”.
On Thursday, Vladimir Putin awarded the “Heroes of Russia” order to soldiers deployed in Ukraine in a rare public ceremony held in the Kremlin. “I want to say to everyone on the front line that for me, for all our compatriots, you are all heroes”he said.
