Russia attacks Ukraine with many drones

The situation at a glance

Russia attacks Ukraine with many drones

The EU states are racking their brains over a way out of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The situation for the defenders is becoming more serious. On one section of the front, soldiers are threatened with encirclement.

After a break of several days, Russia attacked Ukraine again overnight with a large number of combat drones. The first air alarm was sounded for the capital Kiev on Thursday evening after four days of calm. The Ukrainian Air Force reported on its Telegram channel about groups of enemy combat drones over almost all areas in the center, north and east of the country.

“Attention! City of Kiev! Stay in shelters. Enemy combat drone approaching from the north,” the citizens of the metropolis were warned. According to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, parts of a drone fell in a district close to the center without causing a fire or injuring people.

Explosions were reported in Sumy, Kharkiv and Vynnytsia in the west. There was initially no exact information about damage. In addition to the drones, the Russian army also used guided glide bombs that are dropped from aircraft, according to the army. Russia has stepped up attacks with Iranian-made combat drones in recent weeks, sometimes deploying more than 100 aircraft in a night. Conversely, according to Moscow military information, Russia shot down numerous Ukrainian drones over the border areas of Belgorod and Rostov.

Meanwhile, on the front in eastern Ukraine, the situation of the Ukrainian defenders continues to deteriorate. According to Ukrainian military observers, an unspecified number of soldiers were threatened with encirclement south of Kurakhove in the Donetsk region. They had held positions there for a long time on both sides of the Sukhi Jaly River, but the Russian advance into the town of Uspenivka cut off their route of withdrawal. “It is difficult to understand the point of holding the ‘Sack of Uspenivka’ when the enemy continues to gradually capture Kurakhove,” the military blog DeepState said.

The General Staff did not comment in detail on the situation on this sector of the front, but only reported heavy fighting around Kurachowe. Pokrovsk is also hotly contested. More civilians who had previously remained there were brought to safety from this city.

Two days after a Russian rocket attack that killed eleven people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to the city of Zaporizhia, which was also increasingly affected by the war. He visited the damaged clinic where a rocket hit on Tuesday and remembered the victims. He also visited a newly built underground school for 1,000 children.

“There is a lot to do in Zaporizhzhia: the security situation, the protection of the skies,” Zelensky said in a video message. In the southern city, which had 700,000 inhabitants before the Russian war of aggression, the president discussed the situation on the approaching front with the military. If Ukrainian troops have to evacuate the last cities in the eastern Donetsk region, there will only be 130 kilometers of open steppe land to Zaporizhia on the Dnipro.

Regarding the ongoing international discussion about ways out of the war, the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said that the country is currently not strong enough to negotiate with Moscow. “Today we are not there yet. We lack weapons, we lack status,” he said on Ukrainian TV. “We are talking about an invitation to NATO and clear guarantees that would ensure that (Kremlin chief Vladimir) Putin does not return in two or three years.”

In Berlin, the foreign ministers of several European countries pledged Ukraine’s steadfast support and commitment to viable security guarantees if negotiations on a ceasefire were to take place after Donald Trump took office as US President in January. It is unclear what the guarantees might look like. There are currently no concrete plans for a European peacekeeping force. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the situation in Warsaw on Wednesday. Macron called for solidarity with the USA.