(Kyiv) Vladimir Putin promised Thursday to continue strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, a response according to him to attacks from Kyiv, particularly in Crimea, an annexed peninsula whose vulnerability Moscow has admitted.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Russian forces of intensely mining and trapping the territories they abandoned during their withdrawals, assuring that “mine terrorism will be among the charges brought against Russia”.
“Terrorists deliberately try to leave behind as many deadly traps as possible,” he said in his daily web address. “Buried landmines, tripwires, mined buildings, cars and infrastructure… This is more than 170,000 square kilometers of dangerous territory,” Zelensky estimated.
Presenting medals to soldiers and other personalities on Thursday in the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin for his part brushed aside Western criticism of Russian strikes which in recent weeks have left millions of Ukrainians without electricity, even without water and without heating, in winter temperatures.
“Yes, we do, but who started it? “Launched Mr. Putin, presenting these bombings as a response to the explosion which damaged the Crimean bridge built by Russia in early October and to other attacks attributed to Kyiv.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
This fall, the bridge connecting Crimea to Russia was partially destroyed by a huge explosion that Moscow attributed to Ukrainian forces.
He also blamed Kyiv for having “blown up the power lines of the nuclear power plant in Kursk”, a Russian region bordering Ukraine, and for “not supplying water” to the pro-Russian separatist stronghold of Donetsk, in the east of the country.
“From our side, as soon as we start doing something in response, the noise, the clamor, the crackle spreads throughout the universe,” Putin quipped. “It will not hinder us in fulfilling our combat missions,” he said.
“Risks” in Crimea
Earlier Thursday, the Kremlin admitted to being vulnerable to Ukrainian attacks in Crimea, a peninsula annexed in 2014, after several attacks attributed to Ukraine far from the front.
On Thursday, a drone was shot down by the Russian fleet in Sevastopol in Crimea, local authorities said, a sign of the risks that continue to hang over the annexed peninsula that Kyiv has vowed to take back.
These attacks, combined with a series of Russian reverses in Ukraine, seem to testify to the fact that, nine months after the start of the offensive, Russia is struggling not only to consolidate its positions, but also to protect its rear bases.
Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, based in the port of Sevastopol, was hit in late October by what authorities called a “massive” drone attack, which damaged at least one vessel.
And in early October, the bridge connecting the peninsula to Russia was partially destroyed by an explosion that Moscow attributed to Ukrainian forces.
‘Spies’ Arrested
With front lines in danger of freezing with winter, Ukrainians are increasingly turning to drones to strike Russian bases in the rear, away from the front, as Russians bomb Ukraine’s energy infrastructure , even if it means plunging civilians into the cold.
According to the Ukrainian operator Ukrenergo, the electricity system was still the victim of a “significant deficit” on Thursday after the last Russian strikes on Monday.
Sign of tensions in Crimea, the Russian security services (FSB) announced Thursday the arrest of two residents of Sevastopol suspected of having transmitted to Ukraine information on military targets.
The Ukrainian army has moved closer to Crimea in recent weeks thanks to a victorious counter-offensive which enabled it to retake the strategic city of Kherson in the south of the country on November 11.
In this area, where the bulk of the forces of the two camps are separated by the Dnieper River, the situation remains tense, with regular Russian strikes on Kherson.
Oleksiï Kovbassiouk, a resident of the region we met, crosses the river despite the risks and the freezing temperatures to help the inhabitants trapped on the left bank, occupied by the Russians, to flee.
“I’ve already had two bullet holes in my boat,” he said.
On the sidelines of the Ukrainian file, Moscow and Washington carried out a major prisoner exchange on Thursday at Abu Dhabi airport in the United Arab Emirates.
Russia has recovered arms dealer Viktor Bout, detained for more than ten years in the United States, while American basketball player Brittney Griner, imprisoned for several months in Russia for cannabis trafficking, returns to the United States.