2024-01-01 22:56:38
For the second year in a row, Ukrainians celebrated New Year with the sound of shrapnel explosions, instead of traditional fireworks. A record number, 87, of Russian drones were shot down by the country’s air defense that worked all night to repel the Russian attack that lasted eleven hours, just after Vladimir Putin said he wanted to end the war “as soon as possible.” . The attack makes it abundantly clear that terror and violence remain the primary tool on which the invading country depends as it attempts to achieve its stated, and vaguely defined, goals of “demilitarization,” “denazification,” and neutrality of Ukraine. Russian drones or their remains caused damage in several Ukrainian cities.
In Lviv, they completely destroyed the museum of Roman Shujevych, leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army that fought both the German Nazis and the Soviet army during and after World War II, after a brief period of its leaders’ collaboration with Germany. Symbolically, the drones also attacked the university where another Ukrainian nationalist leader, Stepan Bandera, was studying. While Bandera, who remains a controversial figure among historians in Ukraine and abroad, has become for many a symbol of national resistance against Russia, others point out that the Russian attack betrays Moscow’s lack of understanding of Ukraine. Russia, ruled by Putin for 23 years, remains stuck in the past and overestimates the role of personalities in Ukraine, while Ukrainians fight for their right to democratically build their future in their own country. There were no casualties in Lviv, despite the drones exploding in a densely populated area while residents were sleeping on New Year’s Eve. However, a drone killed a 15-year-old man in his family’s apartment in a residential building in Odessa. Two people, a man and a woman, were killed in his house in the Sumy region. Two residents were injured in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, attacked by seven Russian missiles. The death toll from the December 29 Russian attack has risen to 28 in Kyiv, where the ruins of a destroyed building are still being examined for more victims.
Nighttime drone and missile attacks have become routine for most Ukrainians. Air alarms sound for hours even in the western regions furthest from the front. No region of Ukraine is immune to war, with hundreds of thousands now fighting on the frontline. The front, which extends over an immense area in the south and east of Europe’s largest country, is experiencing pressure from Russian forces. “During the day, the enemy carried out 18 unsuccessful attacks, but Ukrainian soldiers continue to hold their positions and inflict significant losses on the enemy,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian army said yesterday afternoon. The Ukrainians repelled the attacks in the Kupyansk, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Zaporizhia directions, as well as on the left bank of the Dnipro in the Kherson region, he said.
Armed with its largest pool of potential recruits, Russia is sending assault parties forward, “with piles of corpses” lying unpicked there, according to Ukrainian commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
Technology is going to be key to the outcome of the war. Ukraine is trying to ramp up its own production of increasingly important short-range “suicide” drones, with plans to buy at least a million in 2024 from several of its producers. More artillery shells and howitzers are also being produced. Still, Russia is searching for production sites, with Ukrainian security services regularly reporting arrests of informants. Relying on its arsenal of long-range missiles, also produced thanks to the limited efficiency of Western sanctions, Russia is still able to penetrate Ukrainian air defenses, spread across its vast territory. A major concern is Ukraine’s ability to continue shooting down most Russian drones and missiles. Ukraine depends here on missile supplies from its partners. and Russia is counting on these supplies to run out soon.
While the war is taking its toll on all Ukrainians, most remain hopeful for a positive outcome. Almost 90% believe in victory. There is currently no talk of elections, which cannot be held under martial law and would involve great risks amid Russian attacks. Even so, the majority, between 62% and 77% according to various polls, continue to trust Volodimir Zelensky.
The possible mobilization of between 400,000 and 500,000 new soldiers during 2024 may test this determination. However, with Russia continually attacking and the images of the killings in Bucha fresh in everyone’s memory, there seems to be no other option than to continue defending itself and trying to liberate the population of the occupied areas, around 18% of the territory of Ukraine.
#Putin #intensifies #air #terror #Ukraine