The Russian military operation in Ukraine continues today, Tuesday, as the Russian army tries to take full control over several Ukrainian regions, while Kyiv forces resist the Russian bear with Western material and military support.
In the latest event, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Russian troops fighting in Ukraine, where he thanked the fighters “valiantly performing tasks in the area of the special military operation, and presented awards from the state. soldiers for their dedication and heroism,” the department said in a Telegram message.
Sirens sounded on the ground to warn of airstrikes in several regions of eastern Ukraine, according to an air raid warning map issued by Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Ministry. Sirens sounded to warn of airstrikes in the Kyiv-controlled part of Zaporozhye.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that the recent attack on the Dnieper shows his country’s urgent need for quick solutions from international partners to provide it with new and advanced weapons.
President Zelensky also called on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to make more efforts to return Ukrainians forcibly transferred to Russia by Russian troops. During a meeting with the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation, Bujar Osmani, Zelensky noted that no international organization has yet access to places where Ukrainian prisoners are held in Russia.
The death toll from a Russian strike on a residential building in Dnipro in eastern Ukraine rose to 40 yesterday at the end of the week, and the death toll is expected to rise and is one of the highest since the start of the war.
The Kremlin denied responsibility for this, blaming the Ukrainian side. Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov spoke about the “tragedy” that could be caused by Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, through his spokesman, condemned the deadly Russian missile strike, calling it a “war crime” and a new example of “alleged violations of the law of war.”
And on Monday, 48 hours after the strike, emergency services said 40 bodies were recovered, bringing the number of injured to 75. However, the fate of 29 people is still unknown as rescue operations continue to try to find survivors under the rubble.
Cranes worked on Monday to make it easier for rescuers to reach inaccessible apartments or lift concrete blocks.
In an interview with CNN, Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska confirmed that the Russians had failed to break the spirit of resistance among Ukrainians. “Almost a year has passed and we can hold out longer,” she said, noting that “children in the country can now distinguish between the sound of a missile, a drone and air defense systems.”
Faced with rocket fire and the Russian threat of another attack, the Westerners stepped up their military aid to Ukraine.
A meeting on the supply of Western weapons to Kyiv is scheduled for January 20 at the Ramstein US base in Germany.
Thanks to the growing military and financial assistance, Ukrainian troops pushed back the Russian army and inflicted a number of defeats on it in the spring and autumn.
And Kyiv announced that it needed heavy tanks, light armored vehicles, long-range missile systems and air defense systems to restore all Moscow-occupied territories in eastern and southern Ukraine.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Ukrainian troops arrived Sunday at a military base in Oklahoma (south-central US) for the necessary training on the use of Patriot air defense systems, which Washington will transfer to Kyiv.
