“Russian Night of Terror” Strikes Ukraine: Zelensky Condemns Attacks and Defense Minister Announces Spring Offensive

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday condemned what he described as a “Russian night of terror”, after Ukrainian cities were targeted by a barrage of Russian missile attacks. And the Russian bombing, on the night of Thursday – Friday, killed at least 22 people in the first large-scale air strikes in nearly two months. The attacks by Russia are the latest in a series of missile strikes and drone attacks since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and came at a time when Kiev is preparing to launch a counterattack in an attempt to regain territory occupied by Russian forces. “Russian terrorism must be adequately answered by Ukraine and the world,” the Ukrainian president said.

For his part, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced that preparations for the Ukrainian offensive scheduled for the spring are nearing completion. “In general, we are already very prepared,” Reznikov said in Kiev yesterday.

Two days after Moscow warned of the possibility of the situation in Ukraine slipping into a new “world war”, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu re-warned yesterday that the world is approaching a major confrontation. He accused Washington of working to expand the Western alliance and dragging countries into military confrontation with Russia and China. The minister added, in a speech during his participation in the meeting of defense ministers of the “Shanghai Cooperation Organization” in New Delhi, that the conflict in Ukraine showed “the focus of Washington and its allies in the West on provoking other countries, in an attempt to drag them into a broad military confrontation.”
Shoigu accuses Washington of working to set off a broad confrontation with Russia and China