2024-01-03 06:32:24
A Ukrainian soldier near a residential building destroyed by Russian missiles, in kyiv, January 2, 2024. RAFAEL YAGHOBZADEH FOR “THE WORLD”
The Russian winter maneuvers have indeed begun. After firing some 120 missiles at Ukraine on December 29, 2023, its largest wave since the first days of the conflict that began twenty-two months ago, the Moscow army reiterated its strikes on the night of Monday 1 to Tuesday January 2. This time, nearly a hundred missiles and 35 drones were launched on the cities of kyiv and Kharkiv, according to Ukrainian authorities. Around twenty MiG-31 fighters and Tupolev Tu-95 and Tu-22 heavy bombers were notably used by the Russians to carry out this attack with a more worrying mode of operation for Ukraine than those undertaken the previous winter.
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These bombings targeted energy infrastructure, temporarily depriving nearly 260,000 people of electricity in the kyiv region, but also civilian buildings, such as residential buildings, businesses and even a church. At least five civilians were killed and 119 others injured, according to Ukrainian authorities. “The inhumane Russians strike again”declared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a short speech broadcast Tuesday on social networks, denouncing a new campaign of “Russian terror”, after that suffered during the winter of 2022-2023.
A little over a year ago, Moscow launched its first waves of explosive missiles and drones at Ukrainian targets far behind the front line. For weeks, electrical power stations and substations, district heating networks and telecommunications equipment had been targeted, with the aim of depriving civilian populations of water, electricity or heating. A strategy comparable to a war crime but which should, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, make the conflict unbearable for the Ukrainian people and break the unity of the country.
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“Projectile Combination”
The ace ! Not only had the Ukrainian electricity network held up, but the country’s anti-aircraft defense had strengthened over the months, thanks to the delivery of Western systems, such as the American Patriot, the Nasams (for Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System ) Norwegian, the German IRIS-T or the Franco-Italian SAMP/T. According to the Ukrainian army, 72 of the 99 Russian missiles fired during the night from Monday to Tuesday were shot down before reaching their target, an interception rate ” outstanding “, according to a French military source. The ten Kinjal hypersonic missiles – flagships of the Russian arsenal – launched during this attack were all destroyed in flight.
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