Extract from ABC News
Since Russia's invasion two years ago, it has launched more than 8,000 missiles and 4,630 drones at targets in Ukraine, according to Ukraine's air force.
In televised comments on Thursday, spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said Ukrainian air defences had shot down 3,605 of the drones, giving an idea of the scale of Russia's aerial onslaught on Ukraine since the full-scale invasion on February 24 2022.
Mr Ihnat said small mobile teams of drone hunters were now bringing down most of the drones fired at Ukraine, including Iranian-made Shaheds, and their success rate was high.
In the latest overnight attack on Thursday, eight out of 10 Russian-launched drones were shot down over four Ukrainian regions, he said.
Moscow controls almost a fifth of Ukrainian territory
After two years of war, Moscow controls almost a fifth of Ukrainian territory including the Crimea peninsula it annexed in 2014, although the front lines have largely stagnated in the past 14 months.
Ukraine's defences have been strengthened by deliveries of advanced air defence systems from Western allies, including US Patriots.
Mr Ihnat did not provide overall numbers for such assistance and Ukrainian officials have said repeatedly that they need more weapons from abroad to support the war effort.
The overall number of Ukrainian military casualties is also not made public in a war that has killed or wounded hundreds of thousands of people, destroyed cities, towns and villages, forced millions from their homes and placed hundreds of thousands more under occupation.
Mr Ihnat said Russia had prioritised targets such as agriculture facilities, port infrastructure, weapons production and the oil and gas sector this winter — a shift in tactics after focusing primarily on the energy system last winter, causing long blackouts for millions of people.
Russia says it fires only on military targets but has acknowledged targeting energy infrastructure.
Russian troops to go much further, 'probably' Kyiv
A senior ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said troops would go much further into Ukraine, taking the southern city of Odesa and may even one day push on to the capital Kyiv.
On Tuesday, Mr Putin said Russian troops would push further into Ukraine to build on their success on the battlefield after the weekend fall of the town of Avdiivka where he said Ukrainian troops had been forced to flee in chaos.
"Where should we stop? I don't know," former president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said in an interview with Russian media.
"We will have to work very hard and very seriously."
"Will it be Kyiv? Yes, it probably should be Kyiv. If not now, then after some time, maybe in some other phase of the development of this conflict."
Russian troops were beaten back from Kyiv in the first weeks of the full-scale war.
They pose no current threat to the Ukrainian capital, though it has frequently come under missile and drone attack.
But Mr Medvedev's comments appeared to reflect increasing confidence in Moscow about the course of the conflict.
After the failure of Ukraine to pierce Russian front lines last year, Moscow has been trying to grind down Ukrainian forces just as Kyiv ponders a major new mobilisation and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy sacked his top general.
Mr Medvedev said Russia also wanted to take the Black Sea port of Odesa, which it calls Odessa.
"Odessa, come home. We have been waiting for Odessa in the Russian Federation because of the history of this city, what kind of people live there, what language they speak. It is our Russian, Russian city," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment