WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Russian forces stage deadly attacks in southern, northern Ukraine
Russian forces launched deadly attacks on Wednesday on frequent targets in the south and north of Ukraine, in Kharkiv and Odesa regions, killing seven people and injuring many more, officials said.
In Odesa district in the south, an early evening missile attack killed four people, including a 10-year-old girl, and injured 14 more, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said.
Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Kiper said four of the injured were in serious condition with doctors "fighting to save their lives". One man had had his legs amputated.
In northeastern Kharkiv region, which has been subjected to intensified Russian attacks on cities and energy sites in recent weeks, a strike on a pharmacy killed a 14-year-old girl and two women in the village of Lyptsi, regional Governor Oleh Synehubov said.
Two people were injured and rescuers combed rubble for other possible victims.
Two guided bombs destroyed a clinic in the village of Vovchansk, injuring one person, Synehubov said. Separately, Russian troops dropped an explosive on a bus, wounding a man, according to the interior ministry.
On the Russian side of the border, Roman Starovoyt, governor of Kursk region, said three people, two of them children, were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on a car.
Reuters could not independently verify battlefield accounts from either side.
In Odesa, Kiper said missiles, presumed to be Iskander-M ballistic missiles, struck between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. (1500-1530 GMT) and also damaged transport infrastructure, including nearby trucks.
"People in cars and on foot were heading home at the end of the work day and became victims of a treacherous double strike," the Ukrainian military said on Telegram.
A petrol station had been hit and was still burning late in the evening, it said. Shops, warehouses and administrative buildings all sustained damage.
Odesa, one of Ukraine's busiest ports, has been a frequent target of Russian attacks in the 25-month-old war.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy decried the deaths in his nightly video address, saying, "Russian terror persists day and night at our border and in frontline areas".
Zelenskiy said he had discussed Ukraine's domestic production of missiles at a meeting of top commanders and military industry officials and said Ukrainian industry had achieved "the necessary results".
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
US drones faring poorly in Ukraine conflict – WSJ
Small drones sent to Ukraine by US manufacturers have largely proved ineffective on the battlefield due to Russian electronic countermeasures, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Ukraine conflict has seen the widespread use of small expandable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for reconnaissance, as well as for dropping small explosives and serving as loitering munitions. US products have proved unsatisfactory, however, forcing Kiev to rely on Chinese models instead, the WSJ reported on Tuesday.
“The general reputation for every class of US drone in Ukraine is that they don’t work as well as other systems,” Adam Bry, CEO of drone maker Skydio, told the newspaper. He admitted his own company’s products are “not a very successful platform on the front lines.”
Even some of the drones that the Pentagon has deemed fit for American soldiers have not fared well in the conflict, according to the report. The list of problematic weapons mentioned by the WSJ included AeroVironment Switchblade 300 loitering munitions, Velos Rotors V3 helicopter drones, and UAVs made by Cyberlux.
Ukrainian troops are burning through some 10,000 small drones a month, the report added. Many of them are off-the-shelf models produced by Chinese manufacturer SZ DJI Technology, or are assembled from Chinese components on Ukrainian soil.
The Chinese firm, which has been banned from US military use for supposedly posing a national security risk, told the newspaper that it “absolutely deplores and condemns the use of its products to cause harm anywhere in the world.”
Many American commercial drones cost tens of thousands of dollars more per piece than their Chinese competitors, the WSJ noted. US producers aiming to sell their UAVs to the Pentagon must meet its regulations, including restrictions on using Chinese parts and software updates.
Russia has significantly increased domestic production of military drones amid the hostilities with Ukraine. Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu reported last November that the country was supplying 16 times more drones compared to January 2023.
Forbes suggested in December that Ukrainian assessments that Russia makes as many as 40,000 smaller first-person-view kamikaze quadcopters per month may be too conservative.
Reuters/RT