Again…
The Ukraine maybe holding round and making small gains in gertting back territory…
But?
The Russian’s keep rocket bombing their cities into ashes…..
The Ukrainain’s like the British in WWII are holding on…..
Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, labeled Russia a terrorist state. Air defenses fired through the night. A new system of searchlights, intended to spot nocturnal drones, swept Kyiv’s sky. Air-raid alerts sounded and booms echoed through the city’s streets. Still, in one central area of the capital, some New Year’s parties could be heard continuing even after the blasts.
The momentary good cheer masked some hard realities for a country that remains under assault.
Over the fall, Kyiv turned the tide in ground combat in the southeast, leading seesaw fighting to resume. But whatever its successes on the battlefield, ten months into the war, Ukraine can do little to stop Russia from launching missile strikes, even if its air defenses lessen their impact.
There is little choice now for Ukrainians but to endure — to take whatever Russia can shoot at them, while keeping up their resolve and defiance…..
…
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s New Year’s address to the nation usually is rather anodyne and backed with a soothing view of a snowy Kremlin. This year, with soldiers in the background, he lashed out at the West and Ukraine.
The conflict in Ukraine cast a long shadow as Russia entered 2023. Cities curtailed festivities and fireworks. Moscow announced special performances for soldiers’ children featuring the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus. An exiled Russian news outlet unearthed a video of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, now the Ukrainian president despised by the Kremlin, telling jokes on a Russian state television station’s New Year’s show just a decade ago.
Putin, in a nine-minute video shown on TV as each Russian time zone region counted down the final minutes of 2022 on Saturday, denounced the West for aggression and accused the countries of trying to use the conflict in Ukraine to undermine Russia…