12/10/2023 4:54 pm (current 12/10/2023 5:00 pm)
Russian president praises his own defense industry ©APA/AFP/POOL
Russian President Vladimir Putin called Ukraine's leaders “idiots and neo-fascists.” “They have gone completely crazy, or to put it simply, they have become completely brazen,” Putin said, holding a glass of champagne, at a Kremlin meeting with Russian military officers fighting in Ukraine. Pro-Kremlin Russian state television reporter Pavel Zarubin showed excerpts of this on his Telegram channel on Sunday.
Putin claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky deliberately applauded an “old Nazi”. The Kremlin chief alluded to a scandal during the Ukrainian president's visit to Canada, when a 98-year-old SS veteran was deliberately invited to his speech before parliament and applauded as an opponent of Russia. Because of the scandal, the head of the Canadian parliament had to resign. Putin saw the scene as proof of the neo-fascist attitude of the current leadership in Kiev. Russia only started the war because Ukraine began “destroying Russia in its historical territories,” he said.
At the same meeting, the Kremlin chief praised his own arms industry. “It produces many times more” compared to the start of the war, Putin said. By comparison, Ukraine's resources are depleted. The country does not have its own base, neither ideological, industrial nor financial. According to Putin, Ukraine has no future. The 71-year-old, who launched a brutal war of aggression against the neighboring country in 2022 that continues to this day, has repeatedly questioned Ukraine's right to exist.
The fact that Russia has again attacked targets in Ukraine with its strategic air force after a break of more than two months could, according to the British assessment, be the beginning of a broader campaign. On the night of December 7, the Russian Air Force carried out major strikes on Kiev and central Ukraine with its bomber fleet for the first time since September 21, the British Ministry of Defense announced on Sunday on the X short messaging service.
“This was probably the beginning of a more concerted campaign by Russia aimed at weakening Ukraine's energy infrastructure,” the British wrote in their update. However, initial reports indicate that most of the missiles were successfully intercepted. Although at least one civilian was killed, damage currently appears minimal.
However, from the point of view of the generals in Kiev, the situation on the various sectors of the front in Ukraine remains difficult. Especially in the east of the country, Ukrainian troops are continually registering new attacks from Russian units, army commander Olexander Syrskyj said on Sunday. “The enemy continues its attacks unabated,” he wrote on Telegram.
Syrsyj visited the contested frontal sections in eastern Ukraine on Sunday. There, the town of Avdiivka continued to be the focus of Russian attacks. The “necessary decisions” for defense were made with local commanders. Among other things, the soldiers themselves must be protected and the “rational consumption of ammunition” must be guaranteed.
Extremely bad weather with sub-zero temperatures caused a slight decrease in Russian attacks in some places, but their direction remained unchanged. “The enemy is not giving up on its plans to recapture Kupyansk,” military spokesman Volodymyr Fityo said on television. Kupyansk is an important transport hub in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine has been fending off a Russian invasion with Western help for more than 21 months. Kupyansk, in the Kharkiv region, was liberated from Russian occupation by Ukrainian troops in early September last year. Recently, however, the Russian army has managed to regain territory there. The front line now extends again almost seven kilometers from the city.