Today, Sunday, the Russian military operation in Ukraine continues Russian forces are trying to establish control over Ukrainian regionswhile Kiev forces resist and try to reconquer their lands with material and military assistance from the West.
In the latest developments on the ground, Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath correspondent reported that Ukrainian forces have targeted the city of Donetsk and its surroundings in the past 24 hours with about 133 Grad missiles and one M777-155 caliber missile American-made, as well as Ukrainian-made missiles, mortars and tank shelling.
The shelling resulted in two fatalities, no deaths, and damage to infrastructure and housing in Donetsk, as the shelling affected 13 neighborhoods and towns on the outskirts of Donetsk province.
Ukraine’s capital Kiev has resumed basic services after the latest wave of Russian airstrikes hit critical infrastructure, as residents in the fog-shrouded city commute and prepare for the holiday season amid uncertainty . Russian forces said His heavy attacks prevented a shipment of foreign weapons from reaching the Ukrainian forces.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, during a working visit to the Southern Military District, inspected the grouping of forces in the area of the military operation. Shoigu appeared by helicopter over troop deployment areas, Russian media reported, and was verifying the positions of Russian units in the area of operations, fortifications and defensive lines. Shoigu also listened to commanders’ reports on the situation and activities of the Russian military in the areas of operations.
This comes as President Volodymyr Zelensky said electricity had been restored to nearly 6 million people in the country in the past 24 hours.
Ukrainian President Zelensky
Zelinsky added in a video: “The repair work continues without interruption. Naturally, a lot of effort is needed to stabilize the system.”
“There are problems with the heating supply. There are big problems with the water supply,” he said, adding that Kyiv, Vinnytsia and Lviv further west were the cities in the most difficult situation.
Kyiv’s mayor said a quarter of the capital was still without heat, but the city’s metro network was back in service and water supplies had been reconnected to all residents by this morning.
Ukrainian officials said Russia fired more than 70 missiles at Ukraine on Friday, in one of the largest bombing attacks since the military operation began on Feb. 24, prompting nationwide emergency power outages.
In a bleak winter haze on Saturday, officials reopened a famous pedestrian bridge damaged in an earlier air raid and set up a smaller-than-usual Christmas tree in a central plaza.
The vast space in front of the centuries-old Saint Sophia Cathedral is traditionally decorated with a giant evergreen tree at Christmas. But this year, officials chose a 12-meter artificial tree decorated with energy-saving lights powered by a generator.
Kyiv’s mayor said donors and companies had paid for the tree and there would be no public celebrations.
The Russian Foreign Ministry ruled out direct talks between Russia, Ukraine and the International Atomic Energy Agency on the establishment of a protection zone for the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
Russia’s representative in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, described it as impossible to hold these talks at the moment.
On the other hand, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the European Union is determined to harm its interests in the energy sector, underlining that the unilateral European measures against Russia have complicated the energy situation across Europe, including the Balkans. .
