WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Zelenskiy tells Ukrainians to prepare for Russian winter onslaught
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned Ukrainians on Sunday to prepare for new waves of Russian attacks on infrastructure as winter approached and said troops were anticipating an onslaught in the eastern theatre of the war.
A military spokesman said Russian attacks on the shattered eastern town of Avdiivka had eased in the past day, but were likely to intensify in the coming days.
And Ukrainian military intelligence said an explosion killed at least three Russian servicemen in the Russian-occupied southern town of Melitopol, which it described as an "act of revenge" by resistance groups.
Zelenskiy issued his warning during his nightly video address a day after Russian forces carried out their first missile attack on the capital, Kyiv in some seven weeks.
"We are almost half way through November and must be prepared for the fact that the enemy may increase the number of drone or missile strikes on our infrastructure," Zelenskiy said. "Russia is preparing for Ukraine. And here, in Ukraine, all attention should be focused on defence, on responding to terrorists on everything that Ukraine can do to get through the winter and improve our soldiers' capabilities."
Last winter about 10 months into Russia's invasion of neighbour Ukraine, Russia made waves of attacks on power stations and other plants linked to the energy network, prompting rolling blackouts in widely separated regions.
Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Saturday that Ukraine would have enough energy resources to get through the winter, but added: "The question is how much future attacks can affect supplies."
Ukrainian officials last Wednesday said Russia had struck Ukrainian infrastructure 60 times in recent weeks, an indication that a campaign of attacks may already be under way.
In his remarks, Zelenskiy hailed the "heroic" efforts of troops defending Avdiivka, under pressure from attempted Russian advances since mid-October. Pictures show buildings in the town reduced to shells.
Military spokesman Oleksandr Shtupun said the number of infantry attacks in the past 24 hours was half of levels earlier in the week, but air strikes were on the rise.
"The enemy suffered significant losses the day before yesterday and has to regroup," Shtupun told national television.
The head of Ukraine's ground forces, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Telegram that Moscow's forces were "more active in the Bakhmut sector and trying to recover lost positions".
Bakhmut, north of the city of Donetsk, was captured by Russian forces in May after months of heavy combat, but Ukrainian troops have since retaken nearby villages.
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Russian accounts of the fighting on Sunday said its forces had repelled five Ukrainian attacks near Bakhmut.
Reuters could not verify accounts from either side.
In Melitopol, a hub for Russian occupation forces, the blast killed three men during a meeting at a post office used as a military headquarters, Ukraine's military intelligence directorate said. The dead were officers of Russia's National Guard or FSB intelligence service, the directorate said in a statement.
There was no comment from Russian officials.
Ukraine's military has been increasingly active in attacking Russian-held areas, but does not always acknowledge the strikes.
** Blast kills three Russian officers in occupied town, Ukraine intelligence says
At least three Russian officers were killed in the Moscow-controlled Ukrainian city of Melitopol in a blast Ukraine's intelligence said on Sunday was an "act of revenge" by local resistance groups.
The blast occurred during a meeting on Saturday of Russian officers in Melitopol, a town in southwestern Ukraine that has become a hub of Russian forces after they captured it in early days of the war.
"This act of revenge, carried out by representatives of the local resistance movement, took place in the (post) offices seized by the Russians," the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's intelligence department said on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters could not independently verify the Ukrainian intelligence claim. Russia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters' request to comment.
The Ukraine intelligence statement said the Saturday meeting was attended by Russian National Guard and FSB intelligence service officers.
"As a result of the explosion at least three National Guard officers were killed at the headquarters," the statement said. "Information of other enemy losses is being clarified."
Both Russia and Ukraine have often underestimated their military casualties in the 20-month-long war, while exaggerated the losses they claim to have inflicted upon each other.
Ukraine has carried out a number of attacks on Melitopol, a town in the Zaporizhzhia region which had a pre-war population of about 150,000 which has become key to Moscow's defence of the lands it now controls in Ukraine's south.
"The enemy does not learn anything and continues to organise its headquarters there," Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor of Melitopol, told Ukrainian public television.
Ukraine, which launched a slow and gruelling counteroffensive in the south and east in early June has retaken only a handful of small villages along the front. Kyiv said retaking Melitopol would open a route to the Crimean Peninsula for Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian forces staged a missile attack on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Russian-annexed Crimea in September. Ukrainian media said an attack last week on the occupied town of Skadovsk in Kherson region also targeted Russian officers.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Next month could decide Ukraine conflict – Macron
The Ukraine conflict could reach a turning point by the end of this year, French President Emmanuel Macron has predicted, several months into Kiev’s counteroffensive, which has so far failed to make significant gains. However, he ruled out the possibility of Ukraine opening talks with Russia in the foreseeable future.
In an interview with the BBC released on Friday, Macron claimed that if Moscow prevails over Kiev, “you will have a new imperial power” in Europe that, he argued, would threaten many of its neighbors, including former Soviet republics.
The French leader reiterated that the West should continue to support Ukraine with military assistance, arguing that next month will be critical in the conflict. However, he did not specify how events in December could affect the eventual outcome.
Regarding a possible cessation of hostilities, Macron suggested that it is “not yet” time for Ukraine to come to the negotiating table with Russia, and that a decision on the matter should be made by Kiev independently. However, he said that at some point it might be possible to “have fair and good negotiations, and to come back to the table and find a solution with Russia”.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been underway since early June, but the frontline remains largely unchanged. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has estimated Ukrainian losses at more than 90,000 service members as well as 600 tanks and 1,900 armored vehicles since the start of the push.
US network NBC News reported last week that Western officials were engaged in “delicate” talks with Kiev to see whether it could consider some concessions to Russia to end the fighting. According to the article, the calls were driven by fears in the West that the hostilities have “reached a stalemate,” and that Ukraine is “running out of forces.”
Russia has repeatedly said it is open to talks with Kiev. Last autumn, however, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed a decree banning all negotiations with the current leadership in Moscow after four former Ukrainian regions overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in public referendums.
Last year, Macron suggested that any peace talks on Ukraine would have to include discussions on security guarantees for Russia, especially regarding the positioning of NATO forces in Europe. Ukrainian officials, however, rejected the idea out of hand.
Reuters/RT
