Ukrainian drones made several strikes inside Russia overnight into Saturday, including an infrastructure facility storing fuel in central Russia’s Oryol region, sparking a fire and smashing windows in homes. The Oryol governor, Andrei Klychkov, said early on Saturday that a “mass attack” on an infrastructure site caused fuel to catch fire. The governor of Krasnodar region, Vladimir Kondratyev, said air defences destroyed Ukrainian drones in several areas of the region south and east of Ukraine. One drone smashed windows in village houses, but there were no injuries. Air defences destroyed seven drones over Bryansk region on Ukraine’s northern border, said the governor, Alexander Bogomaz. And in Russia’s Belgorod region, the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said Ukrainian strikes hit two villages, injuring one resident and triggering a fire in a house.
The Ukrainian attack came one night after Russia hammered Ukrainian energy facilities in a massive aerial attack. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russia had used 93 missiles and more than 200 drones in the attack on Friday. He said Ukrainian forces had managed to shoot down 81 of the missiles, including 11 that were successfully targeted by F-16 planes. Six energy facilities were damaged in the western region of Lviv that borders Poland, officials said. An industry source told Reuters the attack had targeted power substations and that there had been more strikes on gas infrastructure than in past assaults.
Zelenskyy called for a “massive reaction” from the world in response to the strikes. “This is [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s plan for ‘peace’ – to destroy everything. This is how he wants ‘negotiations’ – terrorising millions of people,” Zelenskyy said. “A strong reaction from the world is needed: a massive strike – a massive reaction.” Reacting to the attacks, the Ukrainian foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, called for “the urgent delivery of 20 Nasams, Hawk, or Iris-T air defence systems”.
Moscow described its assault as retaliation for Ukraine using US-supplied Atacms missiles to attack a Russian military airfield during the week. The Russian defence ministry said air and sea-based long-range precision weapons and drones had been used against “critical facilities of Ukraine’s fuel and energy infrastructure that support the military-industrial complex”. Russia says it does not target civilian infrastructure, but that it sees the power grid as a military target.
The Kremlin has praised the US president-elect Donald Trump’s criticism of Ukrainian strikes with US missiles deep into Russian territory and said the position was fully in line with Moscow’s own position. Trump criticised Ukraine’s use of US-supplied missiles in a Time magazine interview published on Thursday. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Trump’s statement was in line with “our vision of the causes of escalation … It appeals to us.”
Zelenskyy will attend a meeting with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Nato and the EU in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss support for his country in its war with Russia. “It won’t be a meeting that has concrete decisions, but more political to discuss the coming weeks and months,” a source told Reuters. Zelenskyy and some of his European allies have called for European troops to be deployed to Ukraine to act as a deterrent to further military action by Russia after any ceasefire. The gathering, hosted by the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, will be held on the day leaders were already due to meet for the EU-western Balkans summit in Brussels, and involve a joint meeting and several bilateral meetings with Zelenskyy.
The new commander of Ukraine’s ground forces plans a “massive transformation” of his branch to improve troop training, management and recruitment as Ukraine’s outmanned and outgunned army is struggling to halt a grinding Russian march in the east. The overhaul by Maj Gen Mykhailo Drapatyi, who assumed his post last month, would cover training regimes as well as battlefield and logistics management, including by cutting corruption, embracing technology and strengthening the role of noncommissioned officers. “Today, the ground forces need changes, new energy among its soldiers, and a modern approach to the development of their capabilities,” the military quoted Drapatyi as saying at a high-level security meeting.
