NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called for more arms deliveries to Ukraine. “It may sound paradoxical, but military support for Ukraine is the fastest way to peace,” he said. The head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, must be convinced that he will not achieve his goal of taking control of Ukraine. Stoltenberg described Ukrainian attacks against targets in Russia as legitimate.
“Every country has the right to defend itself. So does Ukraine,” he said. In the case of the Ukrainian attacks, the context must also be seen. These are massive attacks by Russia on civilian infrastructure aimed at depriving Ukrainian civilians of water, heat and electricity in winter.
russian bases attacked
The Ukrainian army only announced late on Thursday that it had attacked Russian bases near the industrial port city of Berdyansk. About 50 Russian soldiers were “liquidated” in the process, the General Staff in Kyiv said. The military in Kyiv has not provided any information about the weapons systems used to attack Berdyansk. The city on the Sea of Azov is almost 100 kilometers behind the current front lines. On Thursday, Ukraine was attacked by Russian rockets in several regions of the western part of the country.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged that most regions of the country are suffering from power outages following massive Russian missile strikes. “But this is nothing compared to what could have happened if not for our heroic anti-aircraft and air defense forces,” Zelenskyy said in a videotaped speech late on Thursday. Air commandos in central, southern, eastern and western Ukraine repelled 54 Russian missiles and 11 drones during one of the biggest Russian airstrikes since the war broke out in February.
“We will persevere”
“This year there are two more days, maybe the enemy will try again to make us celebrate the New Year in the dark,” Zelenskyy warned of further attacks. “But no matter what they plan to do, we know one thing about ourselves: we will persevere.”
Zelenskyi strongly condemned Russia’s actions. With each new rocket attack, this comes closer to an international tribunal. “With every missile strike like this, Russia is just heading towards a dead end,” he said a few hours after the last large-scale Russian strike. “And every rocket just confirms that everything has to end with a court, that’s exactly how it’s going to be,” says Zelenskyy. In his talks with foreign heads of state and government, the Ukrainian leader is trying to gain their support for an International Criminal Court along the lines of the Nuremberg Tribunal, before which Moscow politicians and military will answer for the war of aggression against Ukraine.
Journalist Denis Trubetskoy said Thursday night on ORF’s “ZiB2” that the Russians were unable to break people’s morale with rocket and drone attacks. In a Skype video call to Kyiv recorded before the broadcast, he described the weather in Ukraine not as good but as “normal”.
However, Ukrainian presidential adviser Alona Werbytska reported that 15,000 people are missing in Ukraine, “among them many civilians”. The fate of these people is totally uncertain, the ombudsman said. “We don’t know what happened to them,” she said. “Are they also in Russian captivity, were they kidnapped from Russian-occupied areas or maybe they were killed a long time ago?
After the discovery of a Ukrainian missile in Belarusian territory, the Ministry of Defense of Kyiv offered to cooperate in the investigation of the incident. A ministry statement released late on Thursday said the agency was ready for an “objective investigation into the incident”. State media in the Belarusian capital Minsk reported that a missile launched by the S-300 air defense system landed in Belarusian territory on Thursday morning.
US President Joe Biden signed the multi-trillion dollar budget on Thursday night, which includes $45 billion (€42.26 million) in support of Ukraine. Britain also wants to continue sending billions of dollars to Kyiv. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said £2.3 billion in military aid would flow in next year. This corresponds to the amount transferred this year. (apa, dpa, Portal)