01/06/2024 9:35 pm (current 01/06/2024 9:40 pm)
Russia is responsible for more deaths ©APA/Telegram / @VadimFilashkin_donoda
According to regional authorities, eleven people were killed in a Russian missile attack on the city of Pokrovsk, in eastern Ukraine, on Saturday. Five children were among the dead, Donetsk region governor Vadym Filaschkin wrote in Telegram. Pokrovsk is located about 80 km northwest of Donetsk, the Russian-controlled center of the region. The attack was carried out with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, Filaschkin said.
Filashkin had previously reported that six private houses in the municipalities of Svirove and Pokrovsk were damaged by Russian shelling. One person was rescued from the rubble, two other people were buried. A search operation is underway, the governor said, according to Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform. In the village of Rivne, a rocket hit the home of a family of six, the military governor added.
President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his condolences to the family. He assured that search and rescue work would continue and that the injured would be treated. Russia fired on purely civilian targets. “And Russia must feel – always feel – that none of these attacks will end without consequences for the terrorist state,” he demanded.
The Ukrainian army also announced on Saturday night that three Russian attacks near Bakhmut had been repelled. 33 vehicles were destroyed and prisoners were also taken. “We managed to reduce the number of Russians on Ukrainian soil by 131 people,” added ground forces spokesman Volodymyr Fitio, according to Ukrinform.
Ukrainian intelligence announced an attack on Russian air defenses in Belgorod. Special forces “neutralized” two Pantsir-S1 defense systems across the border, the Defense Ministry’s intelligence department said. As Ukrinform also reported, President Zelensky promoted intelligence chief Vasyl Maljuk to lieutenant general and his deputy, Oleksandr Poklad, to major general.
While Russian attacks have focused on the Donetsk region for weeks, Ukraine has targeted the occupiers' military infrastructure on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea. The Ukrainian military announced on Saturday that a Russian command point at Saky airport in Crimea was destroyed overnight. “Saky airfield: all targets were shot down,” Air Force chief Mykola Oleshchuk said on Saturday, according to Ukrainian media reports. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that four Ukrainian missiles were shot down by its own air defense system in Crimea overnight.
Reports cannot be independently verified. In the past, however, Ukraine has repeatedly succeeded – despite initial reports from Moscow indicating otherwise – in attacking and damaging or even destroying Russian military objects. For example, Ukraine hit the Russian Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea with missiles. The flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, the missile cruiser “Moskva” and, more recently, the large landing ship “Novocherkassk” were also sunk.
Russia, for its part, wants to produce more than 32,000 drones a year by 2030. That is almost three times the current production volume, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Beloussov said on Saturday, according to state news agency TASS .
The Russian military is making extensive use of drones in its war against Ukraine. Iranian Shahed drones, which are manufactured relatively cheaply, are often used. These drones were initially difficult to detect by Ukrainian air defense; shooting them down with expensive air defense missiles was not the most profitable strategy. Ukraine is now using small drones to defend itself.
Taking into account Ukraine's almost daily attacks on the Russian border region, local authorities quickly announced that Orthodox Christmas midnight masses in the city of Belgorod would be cancelled. Belgorod Mayor Valentin Demidov said in online media that he had agreed with Church representatives that “evening masses in Belgorod would be canceled due to the operational situation.” In Russia, Orthodox Christmas is celebrated on January 7th, with midnight masses taking place the night before. Several serious Ukrainian attacks have been reported in Belgorod in recent days. In the most serious of these, 25 people died on December 30th. On Friday, authorities even offered the population to evacuate the city. Schools in the region had already been instructed on Thursday to extend the winter holidays.