At 8 a.m. local time on Friday, air raid sirens sounded throughout the entirety of Ukraine. In the city of Kyiv alone, there were three explosions heard, one of which was near Anna Chernikova, a reporter for VOA, who reports from Kyiv that the explosion was very loud and her apartment building shook.
The attacks are reportedly causing problems with the city’s water and electrical supplies, according to Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv. The accident scenes are currently being worked on by all rescue services. Since the metro is now not running, Kyiv’s metro stations are serving as bomb shelters.
In addition to these, there were reports of explosions in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Donetsk, and a few western regions. The electricity is out in the whole Kirovohrad area, which includes the cities of Kharkiv, Poltava, and Kremenchuk.
15 hits have been reported by local authorities in Zaporizhzhia. It is necessary to define the results.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih has local authorities who have reported strikes in a residential building. The rescue effort is still going on. Eight individuals, including three children, were hurt, and two people were reported deceased. It is necessary to verify the precise figures.
Local Kharkiv officials say that at least 10 missiles were fired at the energy infrastructure in the area.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force Command, Russia has launched over 70 missiles towards Ukraine that are aimed at vital energy facilities. The air defense system destroyed about 60 of the missiles. The Ukrainian air defense intercepted 37 missiles out of 40 over just Kyiv. In the skies over the territory of Dnipropetrovsk, ten missiles were shot down.
Moscow asserts that it is militarily acceptable to target critical infrastructure. According to Ukraine, the attacks meant to inflict suffering on civilians are war crimes.
According to Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s economy minister, the Russian Federation wants to put constant pressure on Ukrainians, force them to enter bomb shelters virtually daily, and cause them discomfort with water interruptions and power outages.
“However, Ukraine’s stance remains the same: Let there be no light, but without you.” We’ll persevere. We’ll prevail. We’ll reassemble.
The installation of “vast defensive fortifications along the front line” by Russia, according to the British Defense Ministry, is outdated and has remained “essentially unmodified” since World War II. The ministry says that the building is likely to be “vulnerable to sophisticated, precise indirect strikes.”
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The construction, according to the U.K. government, is another illustration of “Russia’s resort to positional warfare, which has largely been abandoned by most contemporary Western militaries in recent decades.”
Russia’s foreign ministry issued a warning to the United States on Thursday, saying that sending powerful Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine would be seen as “provocative” and could result in retaliation from Moscow.
Maria Zakharova, a ministry spokeswoman, said that if the U.S. sent Patriot missiles to Ukraine to defend against Russian airstrikes, it would mean that the U.S. was doing more to help the Kyiv government fight Russia’s 10-month war and “could have consequences.”
She did not specify what Moscow’s possible retaliation might be, but she advised the United States to “draw the appropriate conclusions” from its warnings that American-made equipment may be legitimately targeted by Russia. She claimed that by selling arms to Ukraine, the US had “essentially become a party” to the conflict.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has long argued that Ukraine needs the Patriot missile system to defend itself against an onslaught of Russian airstrikes targeting critical infrastructure, such as power and water facilities. This week, U.S. officials confirmed to reporters their plans to send the Patriot missile system to Ukraine. However, there hasn’t been a formal announcement.
The extra teaching will take place at the Grafenwoehr training facility in Germany, according to U.S. officials, who also announced Thursday that they will increase military combat training for Ukrainian forces throughout the winter.
About 3,100 Ukrainian soldiers have already been trained by the US on how to use and maintain weapons and other equipment like howitzers, armored vehicles, and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS.
Because Ukraine’s company- and battalion-sized troops need to be better able to maneuver and coordinate strikes against Russian forces, senior military authorities in the United States have been talking about increasing such training for months.
Despite repeatedly stating that it was a top priority, White House and Pentagon officials had objected to sending the Patriot missiles to Ukraine. However, U.S. officials judged that the deployment of the air defense missiles was required due to the ongoing assault of Ukraine’s infrastructure.
Two people were killed in Kherson during the most recent Russian bombardment on Thursday, and the city in southern Ukraine lost all electricity. Russian-installed officials said that Ukrainian forces had attacked the city of Donetsk in the east.
According to a Telegram message by Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the regional administrative building in Kherson was hit by Russian airstrikes. Tymoshenko serves as the deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office.
Alexei Kulemzin, who was chosen by Russia to be the mayor of Donetsk, said that the shelling that happened overnight was one of the worst attacks that had happened there in recent years.
Parts of the Donetsk region have been under the control of separatists backed by Russia since 2014. In September, Russia announced that it was annexing the area, but the international community said no.
Volker Tuerk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said at a Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva that Russia’s war on Ukraine continues to be marked by serious violations of international human rights law.
18 million people in Ukraine require humanitarian relief, according to Tuerk, who concluded a tour there last week. He also warned that any Russian attacks “may lead to a further catastrophic worsening of the humanitarian situation and provoke more displacement.”
He said that Russian attacks on infrastructure used by the general public, especially electricity facilities, are causing “severe suffering” for millions of Ukrainians during the winter.
“My greatest desire is for this stupid war to end,” Tuerk stated.
Reuters, Agence France-Presse, and The Associated Press all contributed information to this article.
