Ukraine prevents the attack of Russian drones at night

kyiv: Ukraine said on Friday it had repelled a night-time explosive drone attack by Russia less than 24 hours after a massive new bombing of energy infrastructure left millions of Ukrainians without electricity.

Since October and after a series of military failures on the front, Russia has switched to the tactics of hitting Ukraine’s power plants and transformers with its missiles and drones, plunging the population into cold and black in the middle of winter.

Thursday’s attack, which used dozens of missiles, was the tenth of its kind, and was followed by Shahed explosive drones overnight, according to Ukraine’s air force, which claimed to have shot down 16 Iranian-made planes that took off early Friday. .

Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko said that seven of them targeted the capital. Two were shot down “approaching” the city, and five more above.

He added that there were no casualties, but the debris damaged the windows of two buildings in the southwestern region of Kyiv.

According to the Ukrainian presidency, other drones were shot down in Cherkassy and Dnieper regions in the center of the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stressed that the war is “difficult” in a message he wrote on social media, but said that he is “sure that Russian aggression will fail (…)”.

Energy constraints

According to the updated report, 58 of the 70 cruise missiles fired by Russia on Thursday were shot down. A total of four civilians were killed and eight wounded, according to the latest report from the Ukrainian presidency on Friday.

Multiple power outages remained on Friday, while power has been severely out of whack across the country for weeks.

Millions of Ukrainians without generators are therefore preparing to celebrate the New Year without electricity, sometimes without water, heat and curfew.

According to the information of the “Ukrenergo” electric company, “the consequences of damage to the operation of the network are less than the enemy expected (…) but the situation in the south and east of the country remains difficult.”

In addition, “consumption restrictions have been imposed in all regions of Ukraine,” he added in a statement.

To cope with this, generators have proliferated in cities across the country. From Kyiv to Lviv, its devices crunch on the pavements, especially to equip and keep businesses and restaurants running.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, enters its tenth month, fighting continues for the eastern city of Bakhmut, which Russia has been trying to capture for months, and for Kremin, which has been particularly bloody. which the Ukrainian forces are trying to take back.

Russia, planning a blitzkrieg in front of Ukraine, had to withdraw from the north of the country, giving up Kiev in the spring before abandoning the northeast in September and part of the south in November. army.extremely motivated and powerful western weapon systems.

Putin-Xi interview

The prospects for peace talks are almost non-existent.

Ukraine has been demanding the complete withdrawal of the Russian military, while Moscow is demanding that Kiev at least hand over four regions it claims the Kremlin has annexed since late September, as well as Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.

Russian President Vladimir Putin justified the tactic of mass strikes that affected millions of civilians in early December, calling it a response to Ukraine’s attacks on Russian infrastructure.

It also presents its invasion as a “necessity” at the cost of heavy casualties, enabling the West to use Ukraine as a bridgehead to threaten Russia.

That’s why Russia-West relations are at an all-time low, with Europeans and Americans tightening sanctions against Moscow and increasing military support for Ukraine.

During a video conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russia’s ally, on Friday, Mr. Putin said the two countries were successfully resisting the West.

“In the context of the unprecedented pressure and provocations of the West, we are defending our positions,” Mr. Putin said, further advocating “intensification of cooperation between the Russian and Chinese armed forces.”