The Russian military operation in Ukraine continues today, Thursday, as units of the Russian army are trying to establish control over the Ukrainian regions, while Kiev’s forces are resisting with material and military support from the West.
In the latest developments on the ground, electricity has been cut “completely” from the Ukrainian city of Kherson, which Kiev had recently reclaimed from Russian forces, due to “heavy shelling” against its “basic infrastructure,” it said. the governor of the region. He added, via “Telegram”, Thursday at noon, that “electricity is completely cut off from Kherson”, adding that “heavy shelling of a basic infrastructure site continues” on a neighborhood of this large city located in the south of the country, which was liberated by Ukrainian forces from Russian occupation last month. .
A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said on Thursday that all weapons supplied by the West to Ukraine are legitimate targets of Russia and will be destroyed or seized.
For his part, a senior Ukrainian official said Russian shelling killed two people today in central Kherson in the south of recently liberated Ukraine.
Kyrilo Tymoshenko, deputy director of the president’s office, said via Telegram that the two were killed about 100 meters from the district administration building which was shelled yesterday.
For his part, the representative of the Donetsk People’s Republic said that the city of Donetsk this morning was subjected to the heaviest Ukrainian shelling since 2014, according to Russian media reports.
Natalia Shutkina, deputy head of the Center for Monitoring and Recording War Crimes from Ukraine, added: “This morning Donetsk was subjected to the heaviest bombardment in the history of the conflict since 2014. 40 Grad rockets fell on it . included 3 squares in the central part of the city, the damage is currently being investigated, and it seems that there are really many because the bombings targeted densely populated residential areas.
According to her, the shells fell on the Voroshilovskiy and Kievsky districts and damaged multi-storey residential buildings and infrastructure facilities.
For his part, Donetsk Mayor Alexei Kolmazin said Ukrainian forces shelled civilians with 40 Grad rocket launchers early this morning. Ukrainian sources, on the other hand, spoke of activation of the air alert in six Ukrainian provinces.
Launch a swarm of drones against Kiev
Yesterday, Wednesday, Ukraine announced that it has destroyed all drones launched by Russia in the early morning on Kiev. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has praised the effectiveness of Ukraine’s air defenses, confirming that all 13 Iranian-made Shahed drones have been shot down.
“I’m proud,” he said in a video clip, reminding residents to be vigilant when sirens sound. He added: “There is no calm on the front lines,” describing Russia’s destruction of eastern cities with artillery: “There is nothing left but rubble and craters.”
on his side, The Kremlin has refused any respite for Christmas and New Yearonce again vowing to continue the battles.
Asked whether the fighting in Ukraine could be halted as the year-end holidays approached, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the press: “No proposals have been made by either side, this issue is not on the order of the day”.
Moscow has suffered a series of embarrassing military setbacks since October, while Russian forces have regularly launched heavy drone and missile attacks.
Low temperatures and snow
While low temperatures and snow are falling, the national energy company, Okrinergo, said that “the situation of the Ukrainian energy system is still difficult due to the extent of the damage to infrastructure” following the Russian bombing.
According to the company, the east is the most affected area because strikes are launched there “almost daily”. The company confirmed in a statement that “repair work is slow, due to the risk to the lives of employees”.
Wednesday’s attack on Kiev comes a day after an international conference in support of Ukraine hosted in Paris as Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to continue his military campaign.
In a speech on the occasion of the presentation of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought to the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian president again called for the establishment “as soon as possible” of a tribunal to examine possible Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
On the eastern front, in the Donetsk region, artillery battles are raging, especially on the outskirts of the city of Bakhmut, today largely destroyed and which Russia has been trying to control since the summer, and the city of Avdiivka, second to the Ukrainian presidency.
He also confirmed that Russian attacks had been repulsed in the Kharkiv region (northeast), which the Ukrainian army regained full control of in September, inflicting a resounding defeat on Russian forces.
