Ukraine hopes to weather the winter and Russian bombing with the help of Western military assistance packages received this week and aimed at strengthening its anti-aircraft shield, amid the massive use of drones by the Russian Army.
"There are new support packages for Ukraine, for our soldiers. These are projectiles, missiles, electronic warfare, drones and new capabilities for our anti-aircraft defense," announced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his daily televised message.
Anti-aircraft defense is key for Ukraine, especially in the winter season, during which Russia reinforces its attacks against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, in an attempt to collapse the country's electrical system. According to Zelensky, "a relevant coalition" has been created to increase Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense, led by Germany and France.
"Thank you to all the countries that participate in these efforts, to make it possible for our cities and towns to be more protected from Russian attacks. Not everything can be said publicly yet, but the Ukrainian air shield is strengthened literally every month," he said.
One of the tactics most used by the Russian forces is the use of drones, revealed today the spokesman for the Ukrainian ground forces Volodímir Fito, according to which the Russian Army would have used during the last day a total of 42 kamikaze drones only in the vicinity from the city of Bakhmut.
The unmanned devices used in this area of the front were remote viewing drones manipulated to carry explosives, and Lancet kamikaze drones that Russia uses massively in Ukraine, according to the same source. In addition, the use of drones is also common in other areas of the front such as Kupiansk (northeast), where Russia used 18 unmanned devices the day before.
This Thursday the former Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev, visited the Federal Center for Unpiloted Systems located in the Rudnevo industrial park, in the Moscow region, and called to "increase production (of drones) to the maximum in the shortest possible time." ".
In an attempt to improve the combat capabilities of the Ukrainian Army, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine today approved legal amendments that accelerate the delivery to the Armed Forces of new weapons produced in the country, by reducing the procedures necessary for this management from several months to twenty days.
The Kremlin, for its part, commented today on the continuity of Western military aid to Kiev by emphasizing that this will not affect Russia's decision to meet the objectives it set when launching its military campaign in the neighboring country. "NATO will continue to supply weapons to Ukraine, improving its tactical-technical characteristics and raising the level of its involvement in the conflict," said Russian Presidency spokesman Dmitri Peskov.
Germany announced this week a new military assistance package for Kiev of more than €1.3 billion, which included four IRIS-T SLM anti-aircraft systems, sixty drones and two dozen anti-drone radar systems.
Peskov stressed that the pressure exerted by the United States on Russia due to the conflict in Ukraine is useless and recalled that this Wednesday, at the virtual G20 meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted that Moscow has never refused to engage in negotiations, unlike Kiev. Zelensky's decree to which Putin alluded prohibits holding negotiations exclusively with the current Russian president.
Meanwhile, fighting continues in the Ukrainian theaters of operations. The General Staff of kyiv reported this Thursday of a new day of massive Russian attacks in the axes of Kupiansk (northeast), Márinka and Avdivka (east).
In this last town in the province of Donetsk - which Russia has attacked massively since October 10 to surround it - Ukrainian troops repelled around thirty attacks, according to the Ukrainian military department.
In addition, Ukraine continues on the offensive in the southern province of Zaporizhzhia, from where it attempts to advance towards the occupied city of Melitopol. In the southern region of Kherson, partially occupied by Russia, the Russian military bombed several towns with drones and cluster bombs, causing the death of four civilians.
