Il Giornale had expected it 4 days ago, yesterday the official message from the Kremlin arrived: Lieutenant General Yevgeny Nikiforov takes over from Colonel Sergei Kusovlev in command of the Russian troops deployed in the Donbass. It is the fourth changing of the guard ordered by Putin in the hottest conflict zone, but international analysts have cast doubt on Nikiforov’s choice. Known as the “Butcher of Tbilisi” for crimes committed in Georgia, he led to the failure of the invasion of Kyiv in the first weeks of the conflict. It was Nikiforov himself who assured Defense Minister Shoigu that it would be a quick operation, a no-brainer. But the advance on the capital through the Chernobyl area had then turned into a colossal failure that had upset the architecture of the special operations.
Britain’s MI6 found that the continued turnover of senior officers reflected internal divisions over Shoigu’s future moves in the war. Putin is therefore relying on a new, but at the same time old and controversial name to try to start the confrontation. The Moscow leadership also decided to start a new wave of recruitment from January 5 due to the high losses at the front. This was announced by the head of the Ukrainian 007 Budanov, reaffirming Moscow’s intention to mobilize up to 5 million people if necessary. However, the Russian establishment is increasingly expressing doubts about Putin’s tactics in Ukraine and, as The Washington Post reports, is divided between those who want an end to the operations and those who are pushing for an escalation with the direct participation of Belarus.
For his part, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy calls for a strengthening of air defense and a new delivery of weapons to the crucial points of the conflict. First of all, there is hope in the arrival of Atacms ballistic missiles with a range of up to 300 km and modern drones. Foreign Minister Kuleba remains at the window and expresses cautious optimism: “It is true that we receive more support than any other country in the 21st century, but we are at war and weapons are never enough.”
On the field, the battle continues, and on the 309th day of fighting, the Russians launched a hundred airstrikes with rockets and artillery attacks on the Kherson region. The capital alone was hit 32 times. Enemy missiles have devastated businesses, infrastructure, industry and homes. In the town of Semenivka (Chernihiv) the invaders fired artillery pieces. There would be civilian casualties while the power was shut off. Three Kalibr cruise missiles were fired from a Russian ship towards Odessa territory, while some devices exploded in the area of the water canal connecting the nearby Zaporozhye thermal power plant with the Dnieper River, about 2 km from the Zaporizhia nuclear site. In response, overnight, Kiev forces shot down 16 Iranian Shahed kamikaze drones targeting the capital, hit the headquarters of an industrial company in the city of Shebekin in the Belgorod region of Russia, and attacked six areas containing military equipment, five ammunition and a radar station. Several of these attacks were concentrated in Sevastopol, according to videos circulating on social media.