The New Year in the Ukraine and Russia begins with rocket bombing…..
By BOTH sides….
The Ukraine is beginning to attack Russian military target’s far from its border …..
The latest took out from to 63 to several hundred Russian soliders….
The attack has caused criticism against Russian military leaders more than. the Ukrainians….
They are doing this with American military weapons….
This IS something President Biden had NOT wanted to do…..
But one asumes the Ukrainian’s have grown tired of being attacked and not answering back….
It addition….
The Ukraine military has begun to take out drones and rockets rained on their cities…..
The ability to counter Russian rockets attacks have bolstered the Ukrainian’s and begun to neutralise the Russian effort to bomb the Ukraian into submission ….
There are also reports of sporadic Russian engagements with Ukraine troops along several Northern border area’s that have made no gains, but have forced the Ukraine to keep troops in place in these area’s
It should be noted that a trove on new US militaery weaopns are due to arrive in the Ukraine in the next few months….
In addition….
Freashly US/NATO trained Ukrainain troops are due back in country in the next few months…
Leaked info is that Biden has to make his mind on sending heavier duty armoured vehicles also….
All this means that the Ukraine and Russian are probably only a few months away from increased engagemnets on the battle field right when the Ukraine, Europe and the US may hold a effort for a ‘Peace Summit’…..
Here’s what we know:
Russia said it lost 63 soldiers, while Ukraine claimed that 400 Russians were killed. Even the lower toll would represent one of Moscow’s biggest losses in a single strike.
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A Russian proxy official calls the attack in Donetsk a ‘massive blow.’
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A U.S.-made long-range rocket system has helped give Ukraine momentum in the war.
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In his first address of 2023, Zelensky strikes notes of defiance and gratitude.
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Away from the spotlight, Ukraine and Russia trade border fire in rural villages.
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Putin’s jailed critics offer New Year messages of hope and defiance.
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Ukrainian officials are cracking down on a branch of the Russian Orthodox Church…..
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The attack in Donetsk comes as Russia continues targeting key infrastructure facilities in Ukraine’s capital, with the latest wave of strikes over New Year’s weekend leaving at least four civilians dead.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
- Russia’s Defense Ministry said 63 service members were killed in a Ukrainian strike in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day. The ministry said Monday that Ukrainian forces struck a building near the city of Makiivka, where Russian service members were stationed. The Post could not independently verify the reports of a strike or the number of casualties, which varied widely. Without claiming responsibility for the attack, Kyiv’s military command said at least 400 Russian soldiers were killed and hundreds more injured.
- The Ukrainian military fired four long-range missiles from U.S.-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) at Makiivka, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry, The Post reported. Two of the missiles were shot down. “A massive blow was dealt to the vocational school from American MLRS Himars,” Daniil Bezsonov, a senior Moscow-backed official for the region, wrote on Telegram. “There were dead and wounded; the exact number is still unknown.”
- Several waves of drones that Russia had launched targeted infrastructure facilities in the Kyiv region on Sunday evening and into Monday, said Oleksiy Kuleba, Kyiv’s regional governor. The Kyiv City Military Administration said 20 drones were shot down, with Kuleba saying on Telegram: “Air defense works.” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said early Monday that the attacks had damaged energy facilities, forcing emergency power outages in the city. He said earlier that a 19-year-old man was hospitalized during the attacks on Kyiv.
- At least four civilians were killed and dozens injured during attacks throughout Ukraine on New Year’s Eve,officials said. The dead included one in Kyiv, one in Zaporizhzhia and one in Kherson, according to regional and federal officials. In the city of Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine, a 22-year-old woman who was wounded in Saturday’s attacks died of her injuries, the regional governor said.
- Russian and Ukrainian forces are probably fighting over a key supply route near the eastern town of Kreminna in the Luhansk region, Britain’s Defense Ministry said. Both sides “have probably been fighting for control of the P66 highway” north of Kreminna, a Russian stronghold, for the past five days, the ministry said. That highway helps Russia supply sections of its eastern front, and “if Ukraine were able to secure the route, [it] would highly likely further undermine” Russia’s defense of the town, the ministry added.
- Ukrainian forces shot down 45 drones launched by Russia on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his first nightly address of the new year. He said “drones, missiles, anything else will not help” Russia win the war.
- Fighting continued in northern Ukraine, where Russians made more than 100 shelling strikes, damaging a church and a cultural center, said Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, the governor of the region, via Telegram….
top image….Kyiv residents look at a building that was hit by a Russian strike on New Year’s Day….Spencer Platt/Getty Image bottom image…Ukrainian soldiers ride through damaged streets in Bakhmut, Ukraine, part of the Donetsk region, on Dec. 21, 2022. Libkos/AP