HANDOUT / AFP
This photo from a video released by Russia's Emergencies Ministry on Dec. 30, 2023 shows firefighters extinguishing flames after a Ukrainian bombing in Belgorod, Russia.
RUSSIA – In his New Year's address, Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to “wreak havoc” on Russian forces in Ukraine. The last days of 2023 and the beginning of 2024 suggest that Kiev is also going on the offensive on Russian soil. Several Ukrainian attacks and strikes have been recorded since late December, leading to an unprecedented escalation between the two camps, while the front line has remained largely frozen for a year.
Latest episode to date: Russia claimed this Friday, January 5th, to have repelled a Ukrainian drone attack on the annexed Crimean peninsula early in the morning. “Deployed air defense systems destroyed and intercepted 36 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram.
The day before, Moscow announced that it had fired 10 Ukrainian rockets aimed at Sevastopol, still in Crimea. According to the city's governor, Mikhail Razvojaev, at least one person was injured by shrapnel that fell in populated areas. And on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, another missile was launched off the coast of the city where the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is located.
But it was only on December 30 that an important milestone was reached, which showed that Ukraine could suddenly and violently attack its opponent even on its soil. According to the region's governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, bomb attacks that day on the Russian city of Belgorod, 50 kilometers from the border, killed 25 people and injured more than a hundred others. Images posted online showed burning cars, buildings with broken windows and columns of black smoke rising on the horizon.
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Belgorod, a city under pressure for a week
This is so far the deadliest attack on civilians in Russia since the conflict began in February 2022. Kiev has not commented on it, but it appears to be part of a new tactic: responding to attacks on Ukrainian cities with attacks on Russian cities.
“Attacking Belgorod is what Ukraine can easily do,” General Jérôme Pellistrandi, editor-in-chief of National Defense magazine, commented to HuffPost. “We are in a consumer war: this forces the Russians to fire a certain number of missiles,” he explains. “It also means participating in the depletion of Russia’s surface-to-air defenses by saturating them in Crimea or along the border. »
Now the residents of Belgorod no longer live peaceful days and nights. On Tuesday, January 2, the city was attacked by four waves of Ukrainian rockets, killing one man and wounding eleven. This Thursday, January 4, at the end of the day, it was the target of a new series of Ukrainian bombings in which two people were injured.
Luc Lacroix, a former correspondent for France Télévisions in Moscow, shared videos on It remains on alert and its schools have been ordered to extend their closure during the holidays due to the risk of new attacks. This Friday, January 5, the town hall even asked residents to secure their windows against Ukrainian attacks, and those who wish can evacuate the city to other places further from the border.
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Operations as far as Moscow and the Russian Far East
Despite their multiplication, Jérôme Pellistrandi considers these attacks “an epiphenomenon”. “The Ukrainians are aware that the attacks they have carried out will not change the course of the war, but they are creating a climate of insecurity, especially along the border, and this shows the Russians that they too can strike,” he stressed to HuffPost.
Before these attacks on Belgorod and Crimea, Ukraine had already carried out operations in Russia at the beginning of the war, albeit on a smaller scale and more symbolic in scope. Moscow was the target of several drone attacks last year: on the Kremlin in May, on office towers in late July and early August, and even near the Ministry of Defense in July.
Even more unexpected for Russia, in early December 2023, Kiev conducted a special operation thousands of kilometers from the front line in which Ukrainian security services sabotaged trains carrying fuel in Buryatia, in the Russian Far East.
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For General Pellistrandi, a repeat of this type of long-distance operations cannot be ruled out in the future. “There may always be actions in depth, but these will be special forces actions aimed at destroying military targets.” This is essentially ground infiltration, given Ukraine's inability to do so “To send significant cargoes deep into Russia,” he believes.
See also on HuffPost:
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