Russia Complains That Ukraine Is Hitting Back

How fair is a war if the enemy hits back?

Putin lashed out at Ukraine for aerial attacks on Belgorod, a Russian city about 600km from the Russian capital, Moscow. It has served as a major base for the Kremlin’s forces to launch attacks towards Ukraine and is a legitimate target of war.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said in a statement the attack would “not go unpunished”.

This after Russia launched a massive blitz a few days ago against civilian buildings in Ukraine, killing more than 40 people.

The ministry said its anti-aircraft units had destroyed 13 Ukrainian rockets over the Belgorod region on Friday.

Russian forces also shot down 32 Ukrainian drones across the country, Moscow officials said earlier on Saturday.

Drones were seen in the skies over the Moscow, Bryansk, Oryol, and Kursk regions, the ministry said in a statement. All the drones had been destroyed by air defences, it added.

In other bad news for Russia, its ongoing third annual winter offensive around Avdiivka has either stalled or is actually losing ground. Elements of two Russian field armies — together possessing 40,000 troops and thousands of vehicles — attacked the Ukrainian garrison. Ukraine’s continued control of Avdiivka has prevented Russia from using Donetsk and its resources as a communications hub and prevented Russian breakthroughs. More information further down.

Regarding the Ukraine bombardment, Russia had the nerve to request a meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to discuss the deadly strike. They said it was “a terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime against a civilian city,” claiming that it targeted a sports centre, an ice rink and a university.

Only the day before Russia had targeted residential areas. Its missiles struck shopping centres, a maternity ward, a shopping centre, a medical facility and three schools.

The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 87 cruise missiles and 27 drones of a total 158 aerial “targets” fired by Russia. Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said it was the “most massive air attack of this war” and involved 18 strategic bombers. “Russia attacked with everything it has in its arsenal… Approximately 110 missiles were fired, most of which were shot down,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.

Russia then pounded the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv with missiles and drones in the hours leading into New Year’s Eve, Ukrainian officials said, hours after the Ukrainian attack on Belgorod.

Russia accused the US and the UK of being responsible, in the guise of inciting terrorist attacks. They lost sight of the fact that the entire war is a Russian terrorist attack.

Russia also got a verbal reaming from the delegates from the Czech Republic, AKA Czechia, which Russia has accused of sending material to Ukraine. The Czechs said Russia and Russia alone was responsible for the war.

The Ukrainian attack comes as it welcomes the latest arms package from the United States to aid its fight. The package, valued at $250m and announced on Wednesday night, will include air defence system components, ammunition for HIMARS, 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, stinger antiaircraft missiles, and medical equipment.

President Zelenskyy said it would “cover Ukraine’s most pressing needs…US leadership in the coalition of over 50 countries providing Ukraine with military aid is critical to countering terror and aggression not only in Ukraine but around the world.”

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov told Russian state media that the Group of Seven countries — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, along with the European Union (EU) — intend to discuss the “peace formula” proposed by Zelenskyy, which they agreed on at a “secret summit” held about 10 days ago.

Far from the conference tables, Ukrainian Special Forces have been infiltrating the Dnipro River crossings during night missions in Kherson region. Putin has acknowledged that Russian forces had pulled back in some areas.

Ukraine has had many reasons to celebrate during 2023. According to Kiev Independent reporter Daria Shulzhenko:

· Days before the first anniversary of Russia’s all-out war, U.S. President Joe Biden made history by paying a surprise visit to Kyiv. Biden’s first-ever trip to Ukraine as president aimed at demonstrating his “unwavering” support for Ukraine as it continued to fight against Russian aggression. During his five-hour visit on Feb. 20, Biden met President Volodymyr Zelensky at his official residence, Mariinskyi Palace, visited St. Michael’s Monastery, and honored the Ukrainian soldiers that have fallen since Russia’s war began in 2014.

· The International Criminal Court (ICC) made a decision in March that gave Ukrainians hope that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will one day be held accountable for his crimes. The ICC issued arrest warrants for Putin and Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova for overseeing the forced deportations of Ukrainian children to Russia. Zelensky called the ICC’s decision “historic,” adding that there was a “real prospect” of seeing justice served.

· Ukraine liberated numerous small communities, relieving the local population of Russian occupation. The liberation of the village of Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia Oblast in late August was likely the biggest achievement of Ukraine’s southern counteroffensive. Robotyne served as a Russian strongpoint in the region before days of heavy fighting brought it under Ukrainian control. Among the other villages in Ukraine’s south liberated by the summer counteroffensive were Storozheve, Blahodatne, Urozhaine, and Neskuchne.

· On the eastern front, Ukrainian forces liberated the villages of Klishchiivka and Andriivka, near the embattled city of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast, in September. Months of intense battles inflicted severe damage on both villages.

· Ukraine finally received some of the weapons it had been pleading for since the beginning of the full-scale invasion this year, successfully using them on the battlefield. The first batches of modern Western tanks, including the German-made Leopard 2 and British-made Challenger 2, arrived in Ukraine in February and March. In April, Ukraine enhanced its defense capabilities with the deployment of the first U.S.-built Patriot air defense system. With the use of the Patriot system, Ukraine’s Air Force was able to shoot down Russia’s notorious Kinzhal ballistic missile for the first time.

· A major political victory happened on Dec.14th: the European Council agreed to open EU accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova. “It shows the credibility of the European Union, the strength of the European Union. The decision is made,” European Council President Charles Michel told reporters in Brussels. Ukraine and Moldova were granted candidate status in June 2022.

It says a lot about Russia’s lack of progress during the second year of its 3-day Special Operation, that Ukraine was not mentioned by name in Putin’s New Year address. Putin did not even mention the “special military operation” — the Kremlin’s dubious term for its war against Ukraine — in his short and muted New Year address on Dec. 31.

Symbolic of this stalemate has been the Russian offensive against Avdiivka, which has been at the front line since 2014 when the conflict in eastern Ukraine started. After Russia invaded Ukraine last February, many predicted that the town would quickly fall. Yet it is still controlled by Ukrainian forces. In a way, Avdiivka has become a symbol of Russia’s failure in the Donbas. Ukraine’s continued control of Avdiivka has prevented Russia from using Donetsk and its resources as a communications hub and prevented Russian breakthroughs.

The Russian operation around Avdiivka is ongoing but after advancing a short distance — a mile or so — north and south of the city last month, the Russian 2nd and 41st Combined Arms Armies at best have stalled. Some analysts believe they actually are losing ground on Avdiivka’s northern flank. On this flank the Ukrainian 47th Brigade, with its mix of American-made M-2 Bradley fighting vehicles and German-made Leopard 2 tanks, is killing Russians “by the truckload.”

The Russians can’t win a war of attrition if they continue to lose many more vehicles and troops than the Ukrainians lose. The Russian field armies have lost at least 411 tanks, fighting vehicles and artillery pieces trying, and failing, to capture Avdiivka. The Ukrainians have lost just 30 pieces of heavy equipment.

Having run out of equipment, the Russian commanders have been sending their men in on foot. Yes assaults that used to be done by ten-man squads are now being done by two- and three-man squads.

Russia has launched around 3,800 kamikaze drones at Ukraine since September 2022, Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said on national television on Dec. 31.

Russia has lost 359,230 combat personnel since its invasion of Ukraine last year, according to the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces. A further 5,977 tanks and 11,070 armoured combat vehicles have been lost.

Combined with the people who have fled Russia and those who have been invalided out of the service, Russia has lost some two million men in the combat. Thus far.

The RAND Corporation, a California think-tank, described the losses as a “ticking social time-bomb” in Russia, a country with just 143 million people. Ukraine, with 44 million people, also has lost a lot of soldiers: at least 70,000 killed and several times that number wounded. But in recent months the loss ratio — Russian losses compared to Ukrainian losses — greatly has favored Ukraine, with at least a ten-to-one advantage. Russia cannot sustain the kinds of losses it has experienced in the battle for Avdiivka. Not over the long term. And outlasting Ukraine is its whole plan for victory — a plan that the Ukrainians are exposing as a failure.

Indirectly addressing the political situation in the US, where Republicans threaten to block aid for Ukraine, Zelenskiy has said Ukraine must have “sufficient potential” to achieve its goals irrespective of “political changes or moods” in other countries.

In a post on X, he added:

A newly released video by BBC News shows that at least a few of the Russian people agree with Ukraine, as the conflict nears a new milestone. The video showed some reactions from everyday Russian citizens, to the war and to the state of the country in general. The interviews were filmed in the town of Orekhovo-Zuyevo, roughly 60 miles east of Moscow.

“How can there be hope?” one unnamed woman asked. “It’s the same old bureaucrats running things…Our government deceives. That’s what worries me. They rake in the money.”

“The main thing is that the war ends soon,” an unnamed man said. “Because our young generation are being killed. So many of them. We didn’t need this war. But it wasn’t us who started it.” [delusion runs rampant]

In response, many commentators on social media sent encouraging messages to Ukraine as 2024 began, with this theme:

They fight for all of us.

We hope that 2024 is the Year of Ukraine!