Ukraine announced on Wednesday the resumption of several localities from the Russians in the south of the country and welcomed the arrival of a new anti-aircraft defense system, predicting “a new era” after two days of intensive bombing.
The country suffered salvoes of missiles, rockets and drones aimed in particular at its civilian energy infrastructure, strikes presented by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself as retaliation for the explosive attack which damaged the Crimean bridge, a “terrorist” attack imputed by Moscow to kyiv.
Russia also announced on Wednesday the arrest of eight people suspected of participation in this attack and claimed to have thwarted two attacks fomented by Ukrainian special services on Russian territory.
Vladimir Putin has promised a ‘severe’ response to any new attacks on Russia and what it considers to be its territory and infrastructure, as Moscow proclaimed the annexation of Crimea in 2014, then four other Ukrainian regions in September.
kyiv has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the explosion on the bridge linking Russian territory to Crimea, but Ukraine has always stressed that it intends to reconquer this peninsula, like all the territories occupied by the Russia since the invasion launched on February 24.
Putin’s ‘miscalculation’
In the Kherson region, one of the four which Moscow has claimed to be annexed, five new localities have been reconquered, the Ukrainian presidency said on Wednesday, which would be the latest setback for the Russian army which is retreating in this area. area as in the northeast and east since early September.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine have liberated five more settlements in the Beryslav district of the Kherson region: Novovasylivka, Novogrygorivka, Nova Kamianka, Tryfonivka, Chervone,” the Ukrainian presidency said.
She noted, however, that the Russian artillery was putting up resistance.
“The enemy continues to bombard the positions of our units to deter the counter-offensive along the line of contact,” she noted.
Ukraine has inflicted humiliating setbacks on Russian forces since September, leading the Russian president to order the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists to try to reverse the trend.
The explosion which gutted part of the Crimean bridge appears, in this context, as a humiliation, as this viaduct was presented as a symbol of Russian power, a project wanted by Mr. Putin. The bridge is also essential for supplying Russian troops in southern Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that his Russian counterpart had “clearly” misjudged the situation in Ukraine and had “made a complete miscalculation” about the resistance he would encounter.
He also judged “irresponsible” that Mr. Putin could have threatened to use a tactical nuclear weapon to defend what he considers to be his conquests. The American leader nevertheless said he “did not think” that Mr. Putin would use such a bomb.
“Protecting the skies of Ukraine”
After two days of Russian bombardment that notably targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure, leaving villages and towns with power and hot water cuts, Ukraine said it had started receiving the anti-aircraft defense systems it had been asking for months to shoot down Russian missiles more effectively.
“A new era of air defense has begun” in Ukraine, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said in a tweet. “Germany’s Iris-Ts are already here. The American NASAMS are coming”.
“This is just the beginning,” continues Mr. Reznikov, “and we need more. No doubt that Russia is a terrorist state. There is a moral imperative to protect the skies of Ukraine in order to save our people”.
On Tuesday, in a virtual meeting with the G7, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for help to create an “air shield” over Ukraine, warning that Mr. Putin “still had the means for an escalation” .
These massive Russian strikes, in addition to infrastructure, also hit a park, a playground, a bridge and a pedestrian walkway in the center of kyiv on Monday. The capital had not been targeted since the end of June.
New mass graves
In the east, the Ukrainian authorities have announced the discovery of two new mass graves in towns in the Donetsk region recently retaken from Russian troops.
In Lyman, a railway junction taken over in early October, a forensic team dressed in protective gear exhumed dozens of bodies, noted an AFP journalist.
“We have already found more than 50 bodies of soldiers and civilians. We have a long trench, a mass grave, where we discovered bodies and body parts,” said Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region.
Russia has been accused of numerous abuses – torture, rape, summary executions – in the cities from which it has withdrawn. Moscow has consistently denied the involvement of its soldiers despite mounting evidence.