12/31/2022 2:10 pm (act. 12/31/2022 2:20 pm)
Kyiv Defense Minister Reznikov warns Russians against mobilization ©APA/AFP
Earlier this year, Kiev Defense Minister Oleksiy Resnikov warned of a new Kremlin mobilization with a video in Russian. There is a choice between running away from military service or dying in Ukraine or becoming a “cripple”, Resnikov said in the YouTube video. Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in his New Year message that victory over Ukraine was inevitable.
Shoigu admitted that the situation at the front remains difficult. He also spoke out in his speech against “those who try to erase our glorious history and our great achievements, destroy monuments to the victors of fascism, put war criminals on a pedestal and erase and desecrate everything Russian.”
According to British military experts, Russian missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure could be stepped up at the turn of the year. This emerges from the daily intelligence update from the Ministry of Defense in London on the war in Ukraine on Saturday.
According to her, the beatings so far have been carried out at intervals of seven to ten days. “Russia will almost certainly continue this pattern to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses,” the statement said. But there was “a realistic possibility” that Russia would strike again in the coming days “to break the morale of the Ukrainian population over the New Year period”, he said.
Hundreds of thousands of Russians fled the country last fall to avoid the partial mobilization ordered by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. Putin recently said that no new mobilization was needed. “I know very well that you still have a week to make a choice,” Resnikov said now. Then the borders would be closed so that no one could leave the country.
The New Year celebrations are a good occasion to reflect and realize that the Kremlin has lost the war, said the Ukrainian minister. There is nothing worth fighting for. In his New Year speech, the minister listed the number of Russian defeats this year. He mentioned, for example, the sinking of the flagship Moskva of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and the explosions at military airfields in the Russian countryside.
Russia has already lost more than 100,000 troops in this war, Resnikov said. “If that was the plan, only Russia’s enemies could have created it that way,” he said, also referring to Moscow’s loss of image in the world.
The minister accused the leadership in Moscow of constantly planning new waves of mobilization in order not to admit defeat in Ukraine, to stay in power and not have to take responsibility for many war crimes. Reznikov said that he spoke not only as a minister, but also as a lawyer. “The longer the war lasts, the more severe the consequences will be for ordinary people, for ordinary Russians,” he said. Generations in Russia would have to pay for the damage caused. But Ukraine is not going to give up. “We defend our land.”
Later in the year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for his support and the new course of security policy in Berlin with a tweet in German. “Arms deliveries, protection for over a million Ukrainians, G7 presidency with focus on Ukraine, financial and technical assistance, EU candidate status. Thank you for the tipping point Mr. @Bundeskanzler!” he wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
“May we complete it in 2023 with our joint victory”, said the head of state, referring to the turning point proclaimed by Scholz, with which the Berlin government also started military support for Ukraine to defend itself from the war. of Russian aggression. In the face of massive Russian drone and rocket attacks, Ukraine expects significantly more military help, for example in air defense. Experts also believe that the country needs much more weapons and ammunition to defeat Russia.