Russia plans to ‘exhaust Ukraine with prolonged attacks after NYE drone attack
Ukraine believes it is about to be hammered by a shocking new Russian tactic, as it reels after a NYE attack, including at a children’s playground.
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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia is planning to exhaust his country with a prolonged wave of drone attacks in a bid to demoralise the country.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had received intelligence reports which suggested Moscow would launch the attacks using Iranian-made Shahed drones.
It comes after Ukraine carried out a strike that it said killed hundreds of Russian troops in the Donbas region.
“We must ensure - and we will do everything for this - that this goal of terrorists fails like all the others,” he said.
“Now is the time when everyone involved in the protection of the sky should be especially attentive,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address.
Russian drone strikes on Ukraine appear to have increased in recent days, with Moscow launching attacks on cities and power stations across the country over the past three nights.
Mr Zelensky said Ukrainian air defences had already shot down over 80 Iranian-made drones in the opening days of 2023.
RUSSIA’S ‘SICK’ NYE ATTACK ON KYIV
Russia attacked Ukraine with a drone stamped with a sick taunt of “Happy New Year!!!” — while reportedly losing dozens if not hundreds of its own troops in an attack on dormitory housing during the ongoing invasion.
According to the New York Post, Kyiv police chief Andrey Nebytov shared images of debris from the downed “kamikaze” drone covered in messages in ink, including drawings of fireworks and a gift.
The largest part was the message “с Новым Годом!!!” — the Russian for “Happy New Year” — as well as “бум,” or “boom.”
Nebytov said the “cheap and tasteless” message was found on the Iranian-made Shahed drone in “a playground where children play.”
“This is all you need to know about the terrorist state and its army,” he wrote.
Ukraine’s government also shared images of the debris and its “cynical greeting from Russian terrorists.”
“While Ukrainians did their best celebrating 2023 despite everything, Russia sent multiple ‘gifts,’” officials wrote, noting that air raids in the capital Kyiv had lasted over four hours.
The government claimed to have shot down at least 45 such drones on New Year’s Eve, including 32 above the capital.
The attacks continued overnight, with at least 40 drones “headed for Kyiv” getting shot down, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Monday.
Ukraine said it is using sophisticated Western-supplied weapons to shoot down Russia’s missiles and drones, “despite having learned to operate them only a few weeks ago.”
“Western weapons in Ukraine are already helping to prevent death and destruction. The more modern weapons, the lower the risk to human life becomes,” the government said.
As Ukraine celebrated its defensive skills, Russian officials were left reeling from reports that large numbers of Russian troops had been killed in a strike on a dormitory where they were being housed in occupied Ukraine alongside an ammunition dump.
Unverified footage posted online showed a huge building reduced to smoking rubble.
Kyiv and Russian nationalist bloggers said hundreds of Russian troops died in the attack on Makiivka, in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk province.
Ukraine’s defence ministry said as many as 400 Russians had been killed.
AFP reported Russia said only 63 had been killed.
Daniil Bezsonov, a senior Russian-backed regional official in the Moscow-controlled parts of the Donetsk region, said the vocational school had been hit by US-made HIMARS rockets at around midnight, as people in the region would have been celebrating the start of the New Year.
“There was a massive strike on the vocational school from American MLRS HIMARS,” Bezsonov said on the Telegram messaging app. “There were dead and wounded, the exact number is still unknown. The building itself was badly damaged.”
Igor Girkin, a nationalist and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014 and then organise pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine, claimed “the number of dead and wounded runs into many hundreds.”
Girkin said ammunition had been stored in the same building where the recruits had been accommodated.
Russian military blogger Archangel Spetznaz Z said that “what happened in Makiivka is horrible” — while criticising having the troops there.
“Who came up with the idea to place personnel in large numbers in one building, where even a fool understands that even if they hit with artillery, there will be many wounded or dead?”
The attacks came as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offensive in Ukraine enters its 11th month.
After a series of humiliating military defeats, Russia in October began targeting Ukraine’s infrastructure, leaving millions in the cold and dark.
Russia has accused Ukraine of targeting its military sites and infrastructure. Russian forces on Thursday shot down a drone near Engels, a base for Russia’s strategic aircraft, located hundreds of kilometres from Ukraine’s border.
Russia also said on Monday it downed a drone over Engels airfield and that falling debris killed three people.
On December 5, Moscow said Ukraine’s Soviet-made drones had attacked that base and another in the Ryazan region, leaving three people dead.
The Engels drone raids were the deepest reported strikes into Russian territory since the start of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine on February 24.
PUTIN ‘EXPECTING’ XI IN RUSSIA
Russian leader Vladimir Putin is expecting Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit the Kremlin on an official state trip in 2023 in a public display of solidarity from Beijing amid Moscow’s flailing military campaign in Ukraine.
“We are expecting you, dear Mr Chairman, dear friend, we are expecting you next spring on a state visit to Moscow,” Mr Putin told Mr Xi in his opening remarks from a video conference between the two leaders broadcast on state television on Friday.
Mr Putin said the visit would “demonstrate to the world the closeness of Russian-Chinese relations”.
During the conversation, Mr Putin told Mr Xi that he wants to ramp up military co-operation and hailed the two countries’ efforts to counter Western influence.
Battered by unprecedented Western sanctions over Moscow’s assault against Ukraine, Mr Putin has hoped to strengthen political and military ties with China.
Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine is a sensitive issue for Beijing. China has sought to position itself as neutral over the conflict but has offered diplomatic backing to its strategic ally Russia.
“We aim to strengthen co-operation between the armed forces of Russia and China,” Mr Putin told Mr Xi by video link at the start of the talks, calling the Chinese leader a “dear friend”.
The Kremlin chief also hailed the efforts of Moscow and Beijing to counter “unprecedented Western pressure and provocations”.
“In the context of growing geopolitical tensions, the importance is growing of the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership as a stabilising factor,” Mr Putin said.
“We share the same views on the causes, course and logic of the ongoing transformation of the global geopolitical landscape.”
The Russian leader described relations between the two nations as “the best in history,” saying they could “withstand all tests.
As the West seeks to cut reliance on Russian oil and gas, Mr Putin has looked to energy markets in Asia.
“Russia has become one of the leaders when it comes to oil exports to China,” Mr Putin said.
Mr Xi echoed Putin’s message of unity, saying that the two countries should “strengthen strategic co-ordination” and “inject more stability into the world,” according to Chinese state media Xinhua.
China is “ready to work” with Russia to “stand against hegemonist and power politics” to oppose unilateralism, protectionism and “bullying,” as well as to safeguard sovereignty, security, international equity and justice, Xi said, Chinese state media reported.
Xi also said China is ready to resume normal cross-border travel with Russia and other countries “in an orderly manner,” according to Xinhua.
– With AFP
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