Ukraine-Russia war: Ukraine strikes Crimean port, damages Russian warship
Several buildings and a Russian warship has been damaged in a Ukrainian airstrike on a Crimean port, which killed one person and injured two others.
A Russian warship was damaged during a Ukrainian attack on the Crimean port town of Feodosia on Tuesday.
“Sadly, one person was killed and two others were wounded in an enemy attack on Feodosia,” Crimean governor Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram, adding that six buildings had been damaged and their residents evacuated.
“Transport infrastructure is functioning normally,” he said.
Ukraine’s air force said on Tuesday it had destroyed a Russian fleet ship near Feodosia suspected of carrying drones for use in Moscow’s war against Kyiv.
Mr Aksyonov had earlier said that “the port area is cordoned off”.
Ukraine frequently carries out strikes in Crimea, particularly targeting the Russian military.
In April 2022, it sank the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea fleet.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine had attacked the Crimean port of Feodosia and damaged a naval landing ship, a Kremlin spokesman told state news agencies.
“Defence minister Shoigu reported to Vladimir Putin about the strike by the Ukrainian Armed Force on Feodosia and the damage to the large landing ship Novocherkassk,” the president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, quoted by TASS news agency.
UKRAINE THWARTS DRONES
Ukraine said it shot down 28 Russian drones out of 31 launched from the annexed Crimea peninsula, as the country celebrated Christmas on December 25 for the first time in a snub to Moscow.
“On December 25, the enemy attacked with 31 attacking UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles)... 28 Shahed-136/131 drones were shot down,” the Ukraine air force said on social media.
The air force said it had also shot down two Russian missiles and two fighter jets - one over the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine and one over the Black Sea.
The defence forces in southern Ukraine said 17 of the downed drones were in the southern Odesa region and five more in other parts of the south.
In Odesa, the defence forces said port infrastructure was damaged but there were no casualties.
Ukraine celebrated Christmas Day on December 25, 2023 for the first time, after the government changed the date from January 7, when most Orthodox believers celebrate, in a snub to Russia. People took to scenic villages to take photos wearing traditional Ukrainian costumes.
UKRAINE CRIES OUT FOR 500K TROOPS
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is considering the mobilisation of half a million new troops after admitting that “no one knows” when the war with Russia will end.
Fielding questions during a major end of year address, Zelenskyy said the army has requested the mobilisation of up to 500,000 Ukranians but that he was still considering arguments for the plan.
While Zelenskyy said no one knows when the fighting will end, he added that the election of Donald Trump would have a “strong impact” on the course of the war.
He added that if elected, the “first signals” from a new president Trump would be “very influential”.
“This signal will have very significant impact on the course of the war in Ukraine,” he said, adding that even respected Ukraine commanders and their Western counterparts don’t how many years the war could continue.
“If we don’t lose our resilience, we will end the war sooner,” he said.
As the ground fighting approaches a stalemate in the harsh winter months, the US will ship more Patriot air defence systems to protect major cities and power infrastructure against increased Russian missile attacks.
“Several new Patriot systems will be in Ukraine to protect our country in the winter. I promised I wouldn’t disclose the number … ,” Zelensky said, adding that the promised weapons were a “very important result” of meetings with allies during recent trips abroad.
The defensive boost comes after Ukraine scored a “big victory” on the offensive in the Black Sea against Russia’s warships.
“Everyone can appreciate that the Russian fleet was deprived of their almost total dominance in the Ukrainian Black Sea,” Zelensky said, adding that Russia’s air advantage had an impact on operations.
“We have not controlled the air, we don’t have the proper ammunition, but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t found a way out,” he said. “Russia failed to achieve any results”.
He says Ukraine is working very hard to raise financial support from abroad, and “I am confident that the US will not let us down and what we have agreed in the US will be fulfilled”.
FINLAND’S BIG MOVE AFTER PUTIN THREAT
Finland has signed an agreement to enhance military co-operation with the United States, saying it saw a long-term threat from Russia, a day after its giant neighbour issued a warning over Helsinki’s recent entrance into NATO.
The Defence Cooperation Agreement formalises greater ties with the United States, including joint training of forces and military interoperability, in line with Finland’s accession to the Atlantic alliance in April.
Signing the agreement in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen hailed it as a “strong sign of US commitment to the defence of Finland and the whole northern Europe.”
“We do not expect the United States to take care of the defence of Finland. We continue to invest in our defence and share the burden in our area and beyond,” he said.
“However, this agreement significantly enhances our ability to act together in all situations.”
Finland, which fended off a Soviet invasion in the 1939-40 Winter War, for decades steered clear of formally entering NATO for fear of antagonising its giant neighbour but changed course following Russia’s assault on Ukraine, which had tried unsuccessfully to enter the alliance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an interview with state television released on Sunday local time, charged that the West had “dragged” Finland into NATO, saying Russia had long ago settled 20th-century disputes with Helsinki.
Mr Putin announced the creation of a new district within Russia’s military near Finland, with which Russia shares a 1340km border.
Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, speaking in Washington after the agreement signing, renewed accusations that Russia is trying to “weaponise migration” by sending people from developing countries through the border to the EU member.
“During the past two years, we have seen that there are very few restraints for Russia’s aggressive behaviour,” she said at the Hudson Institute.
“We see that Russia will remain a threat to global security for the foreseeable future,” she said.
Russia, she said, is “trying to distract us from its illegal war of aggression and to sow discord.”
‘SELF SUFFICIENT’: PUTIN’S STARK MESSAGE TO THE WORLD
Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to make Russia “sovereign and self-sufficient” in the face of the West, in his first campaign speech before a March vote to extend his long rule until at least 2030.
Putin will stand for a fifth Kremlin term in an election with no real opposition that will come just over two years since he launched the seismic Ukraine offensive.
The 71-year-old came to power in 2000, with a whole generation in Russia unable to remember life without him.
The vote will likely prolong his rule until at least 2030 and give him the possibility to stay in the Kremlin until 2036.
“We must remember and never forget and tell our children: Russia will be either a sovereign, self-sufficient state, or it will not be there at all,” Putin said during a congress of the ruling United Russia party.
Putin has said that he will make “sovereignty” – a loosely defined term – one of the key aims of his fifth term in the Kremlin.
“We will only make decisions ourselves without foreign advice from abroad,” Putin told United Russia members, to applause.
“Russia cannot – like some countries – give away its sovereignty for some sausage and become someone’s satellite,” he said, using a common Russian expression.
The United Russia party backed Putin’s candidacy unanimously, with party leaders and public figures making adoring speeches lending him support.
The party is headed by Dmitry Medvedev, who switched roles with Putin in 2008 to serve as president, before Putin returned to the Kremlin.
Medvedev has become one of the most hawkish figures in Russia during the Ukraine campaign.
The 2024 election will come as Moscow’s Ukraine campaign drags on for another winter, costing a high number of deaths on both sides, with criticism of the military operation banned in Russia.
RUSSIA ACCUSES WEST OF SOWING ‘INTERNAL TROUBLES’
Russia has said it is withstanding Western economic pressure. Putin accused Western countries of wanting to “sow internal troubles” in Russia. “But such tactics did not work,” he said.
The longtime Kremlin leader said “we still have a lot to do for the interests of Russia” and that the country faced “historic tasks.”
United Russia leaders and pro-Kremlin figures made speeches in support of Putin.
“There is not a single doubt that Putin should be leader in the hardest circumstances for our country,” Medvedev said, calling Western countries “dangerous and cynical enemies”.
A special forces commander of Ramzan Kadyrov’s brutal regime in Chechnya – Apti Alaudinov – said: “God gave us a leader.”
“We Russians, do not see ourselves without him,” he said.
The vote will take place amid a huge crackdown on dissent in Russia. Putin’s main political opponent, Alexei Navalny, is serving a 19-year prison sentence.
His allies have sounded the alarm last week, saying they have not had no contact with him for ten days, believing he was moved to another prison.
His team says this was done to coincide with Putin’s campaign.
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Originally published as Ukraine-Russia war: Ukraine strikes Crimean port, damages Russian warship
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