A number of Ukrainian drone strikes were carried out overnight in Russia on Saturday, including a fuel infrastructure facility in central Russia’s Oryol region, sparking a fire and smashing windows into homes. The governor of Oryol, Andrei Klychkov, said early Saturday that a “massive attack” on the infrastructure site caused the fuel to catch fire. The president of the Krasnodar region, Vladimir Kondratyev, said that air defenses destroyed Ukrainian drones in several areas of the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine. One of the brown ones broke the windows of the houses in the village, but there were no injuries. Air strikes destroyed seven drones in the Bryansk region on the border with northern Ukraine, said commander Alexander Bogomaz. And in the Russian region of Belgorod, the president Vyacheslav Gladkov said that Ukraine struck two villages, injuring one resident and starting a fire in a house.
Ukraine attack one night Russia hits Ukrainian energy facilities in massive airstrike. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russia used 93 weapons and more than 200 drones in Friday’s attack. He said Ukrainian forces managed to launch 81 missiles, including 11 that were successfully targeted by F-16 aircraft. Six energy facilities were damaged in the western region of Lviv, according to Polish border officials. An industry source told Reuters that the attack had targeted power substations and targeted more gas infrastructure than there had been previous attacks.
Zelenskyy called for a “mass reaction” from the world in response to the strikes. “This is” [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s plan for peace – everything to destroy. So he wants “business” – millions of people are terrible,” said Zelenskyy. “We need a strong reaction from the world: a huge blow – a huge reaction.” Referring to the attack, the Ukrainian foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, called “for the urgent delivery of 20 Nasams, Hawk , or Iris-T air defense systems”.
Moscow described its attack as retaliation for Ukraine using US-supplied Atacms missiles to attack Russian military aircraft for a week. The Russian defense ministry said the air and sea-based long-range precision weapons and drones were used against “critical energy facilities and energy infrastructure of Ukraine that support the military-industrial complex.” Russia says it does not attack civilian infrastructure, but it needs the power to see a military target.
The Kremlin praised US President-elect Donald Trump’s criticism of Ukraine with US missile strikes deep into Russian territory and said the position was fully consistent with Moscow’s own position. Trump criticized Ukraine’s use of US-supplied missiles in an interview published by Time magazine on Thursday. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that Trump’s decision was correct, saying that “our vision of the causes of the spread … appeals to us.”
Zelenskyy will hold a meeting with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, NATO and the EU in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss support for the country in its war with Russia. “It will not be a meeting that has definite decisions, but more political ones to discuss the coming weeks and months,” a source told Reuters. Zelenskyy and some of his European allies have called for European forces to be deployed to Ukraine to deter further military action by Russia after any ceasefire. The meeting, hosted by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, will be the day leaders meet for the EU-Western Balkans summit in Brussels, and will involve one meeting and several bilateral meetings with Zelenskyy.
The new commander of Ukraine’s ground forces plans a “major transformation” of his branch to better train, manage and recruit as Ukraine’s army is outmatched and outmatched, struggling to stop the Russian offensive in the east. The overhaul by Maj Gen Mykhailo Drapatyi, who took office last month, will cover training regimes and combat and logistics management, including cutting corruption, embracing technology and strengthening the role of noncommissioned officers. “Today, the forces of the background changes, a new energy among its soldiers, and a modern approach to the development of resources”, Drapatyi brought the military and said at the highest level of the security alliance.