The Kremlin affirmed on Tuesday that it would do “everything” to stop Ukrainian strikes on the Russian town of Belgorod, targeted by kyiv since Russia once again carried out large-scale bombings in Ukraine.
Russian authorities said today that a woman was killed by Ukrainian shelling in the Kursk border region, while three other people were injured in a new drone attack in the Oriol region.
“Our army will continue to do everything in its power to first minimize the danger and then eliminate it,” assured President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov about the attacks on Russian soil.
He accused kyiv of deliberately targeting “civilians” on Russian soil using military equipment supplied by the West.
These comments come after ten days marked in Russia by the multiplication of Ukrainian attacks on Belgorod, a town of 335,000 inhabitants located less than 40 km from the border with Ukraine.
The day after a large-scale bombing of Ukraine on December 29 which left dozens dead, the city of Belgorod was the target of a strike killing 25 people, the deadliest Ukrainian attack against civilians. on Russian soil since February 24, 2022, the date of the launch of the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
In retaliation, Vladimir Putin said he wanted to “intensify” strikes against Ukraine, his army continuing its major bombings on kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, like on January 2 and 8.
The Ukrainian authorities, for their part, have revised upwards the death toll from the Russian attack on December 29 on the capital, to 33 dead, and that of the strikes on the night of Sunday to Monday, now to five civilians killed.
A woman killed
But a sign that concern is growing in Belgorod, “around 300” people have already evacuated this town according to the regional authorities, who have also postponed the start of the school year by ten days, to January 19.
As for the municipality, it called on the population last week to secure the windows to prevent further bombings.
And the Ukrainian attacks appear not to be decreasing in intensity.
In the border village of Gornal, in the Kursk region, “a woman was killed by shrapnel” on Tuesday afternoon, said Governor Roman Starovoit.
The one from the Oriol region, Andreï Klychkov, reported on Telegram “three minor injuries” in a Ukrainian drone attack on energy installations.
The Ministry of Defense for its part announced that Russian forces had shot down eight drones over the Oriol and Kursk regions, before adding in the evening that they had destroyed a rocket and another Ukrainian drone in the region of Belgorod.
Two months before the presidential election which should see Vladimir Putin returned to power at least until 2030, the Kremlin wants to do everything to continue to give the feeling that the conflict with Ukraine does not directly affect the daily life and security of Russians.
In the same vein, Sergei Shoigu, the Russian Minister of Defense, assured Tuesday as usual that his army was in a better position than its adversary, despite a front largely frozen since the fall of 2022 after a series of Russian retreats .
Russian troops, however, foiled the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the summer of 2023, which the Russian government presents as a victory.
“We retain the strategic initiative across the entire front line,” assured Mr. Choïgu during a meeting with high-ranking officers.
Move to the Eastern Front
His Ukrainian counterpart, Roustem Umerov, and army commander Valery Zaluzhny visited soldiers on the eastern front, in the vicinity of Kupiansk, according to the Defense Ministry.
These fighters are repelling “constant attack attempts” by the Russians in the area, the ministry assured on Telegram, without specifying the date of this trip.
The fact remains that since the failure of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, the tone has been much more optimistic in Moscow, despite significant losses on the ground, estimated by the United States at 315,000 soldiers wounded or killed in less than two years.
For its part, Ukraine must face a debate within its society on a possible mobilization of hundreds of thousands of men to strengthen its positions and replace the dead and exhausted veterans after almost two years of a conflict. high intensity.
kyiv, which is increasingly demanding more anti-aircraft defense systems to counter Russian attacks, is loudly worried about the erosion of Western support, against a backdrop of political dissension within the European Union and the United States.