Residents of Kharkiv stand among the rubble after a Russian bombardment on January 2. Image Reuters
Russia targeted Kharkiv with missiles last week. The attack left two people dead and more than sixty people injured. The Kharkiv Public Prosecutor’s Office showed fragments of the missiles, which would prove that they were not Russian-made.
An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Russia was deploying North Korean missiles. The US government had been warning about this for some time and White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Sunday called North Korean military aid to Russia “a significant and worrying escalation.” It would be the first time that Ukraine has been hit by Korean missiles.
Kirby said the North Korean cruise missiles could hit targets up to 560 miles away. Hours after Kirby’s accusation, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for expanding the production of missile launch vehicles. Russia denies cooperating with Pyongyang.
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Michel Maas is foreign editor of the Volkskrant. Previously he was a war reporter and correspondent in Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.
While Russia appears to have no shortage of drones and missiles, Ukraine is making less and less of a secret of the fact that the country does not have enough. On Sunday, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat reported that Russia had fired another 28 drones and 3 cruise missiles at Ukraine on Saturday. The air defense is said to have shot down 21 of the 28 drones. According to Ihnat, mobile teams had been deployed to spare ‘scarce’ missiles and launch facilities.
Billion package
According to Ihnat, Ukraine had used missiles to repel two recent Russian attacks. He did not go into details about which attacks they were or how many missiles were involved. He said new missiles were on their way. At least, that there are ‘processes underway to continue supplying Ukraine with the missiles it needs to withstand future Russian air attacks’. He did not say how many missiles this concerns and where they should come from.
The shortage is partly caused by the fact that a billion-dollar package of equipment and ammunition from the United States has still not been approved by the American parliament. The Republican opposition wants to make aid to Ukraine dependent on tougher measures to stop immigrants at the border with Mexico.
Compared to the political wrangling in the US, Sweden’s attitude must be a relief for Ukraine. Foreign Minister Tobias Billström assured this weekend that aid to Ukraine is “the first task of Swedish foreign policy in the coming years.”
Russia continues its shelling relentlessly. It concentrated its latest attacks on the frontline area in the east and south. In the town of Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region, eleven people were killed, according to Ukrainian sources. Five of the victims are believed to be children.
Around the turn of the year, Russia fired three hundred missiles and more than two hundred drones at Ukraine, according to Ukraine. One massive Russian attack, on December 30, left dozens dead. Ukraine responded a day later with heavy shelling of the nearest Russian city, Belgorod. 25 people died there. About a hundred Russian residents left the city this weekend to seek temporary shelter in Stary Oskol, 115 kilometers away.
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2024-01-07 20:16:32
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