There can be “no truce talks” with Russia, the Ukrainian Government stated yesterday Friday after suffering one of the largest air attacks of the current war by its well-armed neighbor. The main Ukrainian cities woke up to explosions. The danger came from the sky. Russia launched a large-scale air attack against Lviv (in the west), Odessa (south), the capital Kyiv, Dnipro (center) or Kharkiv (northeast), among others. The Ukrainian air defense was operating at full capacity for much of the early morning and morning hours. Ukrainian authorities counted at least 31 dead and about 130 injured in another day of hell.
Kyiv considers it to be the most intense Russian attack in the current conflict due to the number and simultaneity of launches. One of the buildings hit was the maternity hospital in the city of Dnipro, he denounced. The Foreign Ministry assured that this offensive shows that any truce talks with Moscow are impossible.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who sent his army to Ukraine in February 2022, has repeatedly said that Russia is willing to talk. This statement is always accompanied by the premise that Ukraine accepts the current reality, that is, considering lost the four provinces that Moscow annexed in September 2022, in addition to of course the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. In the West it is believed that it is just posturing and that Moscow is actually waiting for Western aid to Ukraine to falter, for example after next year’s presidential elections in the United States.
“Russia does not consider any scenario other than the complete destruction of Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said yesterday in its statement.
As has been customary since the war began, the Russian Defense Ministry denies that its target is the civilian population and emphasizes that the attacks are directed only at Ukraine’s military and energy facilities and the infrastructure related to them. Yesterday he assured that the Russian armed forces have launched more than 50 missile and drone attacks in one week.
Yesterday Moscow used “almost all types of weapons in its arsenal,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Among them, drones and hypersonic, ballistic and cruise missiles. Russia fired 110 missiles, although “most of them were shot down,” the president said. Air Force Chief Mikola Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram that it was the “largest large-scale attack from the air” in the 22-month conflict.
After the first explosions, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klichkó urged citizens in a message on Telegram to stay in shelters. In the Ukrainian capital, police and officials reported the death of at least 3 people and 22 injuries after several explosions in residential buildings and an unoccupied building, in addition to the fire of a warehouse.
Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said the city suffered at least ten attacks in two waves. One death and eleven injuries were recorded in his province. In Dnipro, local authorities reported that a maternity hospital was hit.
Adding drones and missiles, Russia used 158, Ukrainian authorities counted. First it fired a wave of its Iranian drones; then the missiles. Ukrainian air defense shot down 27 drones and 87 cruise missiles, Ukrainian army chief Gen. Valeri Zaluzhni said.
“We are doing everything possible to reinforce our air shield. But the world must see that we need more help and means to stop this terror,” lamented Andrí Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff on Telegram, at a time when doubts are growing in the West about whether to continue helping Ukraine in the same measure as until now. On Wednesday, Washington sent the last tranche of military aid granted to Kyiv until further notice by the US Congress.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba called for continued military and financial assistance, writing that “only greater firepower can silence Russian terror.”
Moscow, for its part, assured that in one week, “between December 23 and 29,” it has carried out more than 50 attacks with high-precision weapons and drones “against facilities of the military-industrial complex, airfield infrastructure Ukrainian military, arsenals and warehouses. According to those responsible for Russian defense, “all objectives have been affected.”
Ukrainian army chief Zaluzhni said yesterday’s attack hit critical infrastructure and industrial and military facilities. Ukraine has been saying for weeks that Russia could be preparing an offensive this winter, just like last year, against the Ukrainian energy system, which could leave millions of people without electricity and heat service.
This offensive against Ukrainian cities could also be retaliation by Moscow, as it came three days after Kyiv attacked one of the ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the landing ship Novocherkassk, in the port of Feodosia. , in Crimea. Ukraine maintains that its missiles destroyed one of the crown jewels of the enemy navy, but Russia only acknowledges one death and damage to the ship.
