WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Ukrainian drones strike Russia as Kyiv reels from consecutive massive air attacks
Ukrainian drone strikes on southern Russia killed a 9-year-old boy and set fire to a major oil terminal, officials said Saturday, the day after Moscow launched a massive aerial attack on its neighbor that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said was one of the heaviest bombardments of the country’s energy sector in the nearly three-year war.
The boy died when a drone struck his family’s home outside Belgorod, a Russian city near the border with Ukraine, local Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported on Saturday morning on the Telegram messaging app. His mother and 7-month-old sister were hospitalized with injuries, Gladkov said.
He posted photos of what he said was the aftermath of the attack, showing a low-rise house with gaping holes in its roof and front wall flanked by mounds of rubble.
Elsewhere in southern Russia, Ukrainian drones overnight hit a major oil terminal in the Oryol region, sparking a blaze, Ukraine’s General Staff reported. Photos published by the General Staff and on Russian Telegram news channels showed huge plumes of smoke engulfing the facility, backlit by an orange glow.
Oryol Gov. Andrey Klychkov confirmed that a Ukrainian drone strike set fire to a fuel depot. He said later the blaze had been contained and that there were no casualties.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday claimed its forces shot down 37 Ukrainian drones over the country’s south and west the previous night.
Russia pummels Ukrainian energy targets
The Ukrainian strikes came a day after Russia fired 93 cruise and ballistic missiles and almost 200 drones at its neighbor, further battering Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, around half of which has been destroyed during the war. Rolling electricity blackouts are common and widespread, and Zelenskyy charged Friday that Moscow is “terrorizing millions of people” with such assaults.
According to Ukraine’s air force, Russia kept up its drone attacks on Saturday, launching 132 across Ukrainian territory. Fifty-eight drones were shot down and a further 72 veered off course, likely due to electronic jamming, it said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces used long-range precision missiles and drones on “critically important fuel and energy facilities in Ukraine that ensure the functioning of the military industrial complex.”
The strike was in retaliation for Wednesday’s Ukrainian attack using U.S.-supplied the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMs, on a Russian air base, it said.
Kyiv’s Western allies have provided Ukraine with air defense systems to help it protect critical infrastructure, but Russia has sought to overwhelm the air defenses with combined strikes involving large numbers of missiles and drones called “swarms.”
Russia has held the initiative this year as its military has steadily rammed through Ukrainian defenses in the east in a series of slow but steady offensives.
But uncertainty surrounds how the war might unfold next year. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next month, has vowed to end the war and has thrown into doubt whether vital U.S. military support for Kyiv will continue.
North Koreans reportedly in combat in Kursk
Zelenskyy said Saturday that a “significant number” of North Korean troopswere being deployed by Moscow in assaults in Russia’s southern Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have held on following a stunning cross-border incursion this summer.
In a televised address, Zelenskyy said that North Korean soldiers have so far not entered the fight on Ukrainian soil, but claimed they are already taking “noticeable” losses.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian officials reported that Russian shelling on Friday and overnight killed at least two civilians and wounded 14 others in front-line areas Ukraine’s south and northeast.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Biden planning last-minute Ukraine arms surge – CNN
The outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden is preparing a significant surge in weapons deliveries to Ukraine in the final weeks of his tenure, a senior official told CNN on Thursday.
President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Biden’s handling of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, and campaigned on a promise to resolve the hostilities “within 24 hours.” However, since his election victory in November, he has not disclosed any detailed plans for achieving that goal.
The US Department of Defense “is undertaking a historic effort to move massive quantities of weapons into Ukraine in the next five weeks,”the unnamed official told CNN.
Washington reportedly plans to deliver “hundreds of thousands of artillery rounds, thousands of rockets, hundreds of armored vehicles, and other critical capabilities”between now and January 20, when Trump returns to the White House.
According to the source, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is leading an interagency effort to facilitate the deliveries. In November, he directed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to “accelerate” the movement of various arms, including armored vehicles and missiles.
The unnamed official stressed that despite the increased military support, there are no American troops deployed in Ukraine, and that this situation will not change.
Since the start of the conflict, US weapons have been transported to Ukraine via Europe, but the upcoming surge will reportedly involve a substantial number of flights and sea vessels to ensure swift arrival.
On Thursday evening, Biden authorized a new $500 million weapons package for Ukraine, which includes air defense, artillery, drones, and armored vehicles. Since the escalation of hostilities in February 2022, the US Congress has approved over $174 billion in aid to Kiev. Biden has also given the greenlight for Ukraine’s strikes deep into Russia using US-supplied missiles.
Trump has slammed the decision as “a very big mistake”. In an interview with Time magazine earlier this week, he said such attacks are only “escalating this war and making it worse.”
That echoed the view of Moscow, which has repeatedly warned that long-range strikes will only worsen the conflict and be seen as NATO’s direct participation in the hostilities.
“In this case we take the same view of the reasons for the escalation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, adding that Trump’s opposition to Ukraine’s use of American long-range missiles “appeals” to Moscow.
AP/RT
