Moscow/Kyiv, Jan 9 (EFE).- With daily bombing raids on Ukraine’s civilian and military infrastructure, Russia is trying to break the morale of the Ukrainian people, who lack the necessary anti-aircraft defenses in many regions, in the largest attack since the start of the war.
“We are maintaining the initiative along the entire front line,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said about the situation on the battlefields at a meeting with the top commanders of the Russian armed forces.
Russia accuses Ukraine of leading its own soldiers to the “slaughter-house”
Shoigu claimed that Russia is “methodically reducing the combat potential of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” stressing that in the past year alone, “the enemy has lost more than 215,000 men and 28,000 pieces of weaponry.”
The defense minister did not provide data on his own casualties, which he has not done since September 2022, when he said that 5,937 Russian soldiers had been killed in Ukraine.
Shoigu then accused the Ukrainian government of leading its soldiers “to the slaughter-house and looking for any way to replenish the ranks of the Ukrainian army” at the behest of its “Western sponsors.”
According to Shoigu, none of this will change the situation on the front and “will only prolong the war.”
The Russian defense chief accused the United States of trying to satisfy its “ambitions for world leadership at the expense of Ukrainian lives” despite the depletion of the Ukrainian armed forces’ human resources and the lack of results on the battlefield.
Missile attacks expose Ukraine’s vulnerability
The three massive missile attacks launched by Russia in recent days have exposed the weaknesses of Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses in several regions of the country, except in the vicinity of Kiev where they have demonstrated a high level of effectiveness.
“Ukraine is dependent on supplies of Western arms, including anti-aircraft missile systems,” Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on Tuesday, assuring that the country replenishes stocks of such missiles as they are used and that it also receives anti-aircraft missiles for Soviet systems from countries that have them in their arsenals.
Ihnat admitted that the country used a significant stockpile of missiles to repel the recent massive attacks, but stressed that the United States and Europe are increasing production of this type of weaponry.
“Germany, in particular, has multiplied the production of anti-aircraft defense systems and missiles for them. There is a shortage of anti-aircraft missiles, nobody denies that. I think our partners are aware of the situation,” the spokesman added.
According to Ihnat, after the recent massive airstrikes, Russian arsenals have the same number of missiles as they did two months ago, which the GUR, the Ukrainian military intelligence, estimated at about 900 units.
The GUR estimates that Russia produces dozens of Kalibr cruise missiles per month, but only a few units of the hypersonic Kinzhal and Iskander, both of which are more difficult to intercept.
Kremlin does not react on North Korean missiles Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused at a press conference on Tuesday to comment on Washington’s statements that Russia had received North Korean short-range ballistic missiles with a range of up to 900 kilometers and had already used them against Ukraine.
“I would like to draw your attention to the fact that against our territory and civilian targets (…) shells and missiles produced in Germany, France, Italy, the United States and other countries are constantly fired,” Peskov said, refusing to answer a question on the matter.
John Kirby, one of the White House spokesmen, said on Thursday that according to newly declassified US intelligence Russia used short-range ballistic missiles from North Korea to carry out several strikes against Ukraine during the last week. EFE
mos-mg/ics/mcd
