With artillery strikes, special forces raids and swarms of drones, Ukraine responds to the intensification of Russian attacks, strengthened thanks to North Korean supplies of short-range missiles which according to Kiev, “undoubtedly”, have already been used during of the conflict. “The mask has fallen, the Russian Federation has struck the territory of Ukraine for the first time with missiles received from North Korea,” denounced Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Never before in history has the classic 'Axis of Evil' appeared so blatantly, grotesquely evil: Russia, Iran, North Korea,” he urged. On the ground, while Moscow confirmed that it had prevented an IAEA inspection days ago of three reactors of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, occupied since March 2022, for “security reasons”, the Ukrainians have returned to targeting the region Russian Belgorod, forcing the authorities to order the evacuation of the population, and Crimea, already hit in recent days. «All those who want to go to safe areas away from attacks will be helped. We are ready to transport you to Stary Oskol and Gubkin (places furthest from the border), where you will find yourself in comfortable conditions, in warm and safe rooms”, underlined governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, addressing the over 300,000 inhabitants of Belgorod and inviting them to evacuate. In the last 24 hours, Russian anti-aircraft shot down ten drones, but the coordinated artillery attack hit several buildings causing at least 2 injuries.
Then, the Kiev media report citing intelligence sources, Russian anti-Putin partisans also went into action in the area. A meeting of Russian commanders about 80 kilometers from the city was targeted. The partisans “mined the only road in the area and attacked a platoon of soldiers”, the number of losses inflicted “is still being ascertained”. In Crimea, however, the attack by dozens of drones forced a new closure of the Kerch bridge, which connects the peninsula to Russia. Moscow says it shot down 36 drones and destroyed an anti-ship missile. And it is again Russia that confirms the surge in attacks from the sky by the Ukrainian side: in the last week alone, 253 aircraft were shot down, announced the Moscow Defense Department. The massive use of drones in war, which marks an epochal turning point in the military sector, is pushing Kiev to increase production, with Zelensky aiming for one million within the year. For this reason, Ukraine has signed an agreement with Lithuania, the defense ministers of the two countries confirmed without providing further details. Patriot, mobile anti-aircraft and tanks have arrived from Germany and will go into action in the next few days. Russia does not stand idly by, and pursuing its strategy of multiple attacks (aircraft, missiles, drones) has more than doubled the production of cruise and ballistic carriers, bringing it to around 100 per month. And it also started producing its own version of Iranian shahed, cheaply. The only glimmer of hope still comes from Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a conversation with Zelensky that Ankara is ready to host talks between Moscow and Kiev with the aim of ensuring peace in Ukraine. The priority objective of the mediation is the ceasefire.
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Moscow: 4 Ukrainian missiles launched on Crimea shot down
The Russian Defense Ministry said anti-aircraft systems destroyed four Ukrainian air-launched guided missiles over the Crimean peninsula. Tass reports it. «On January 6, at approximately 00:30 Moscow time, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using air-launched guided missiles against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation was foiled. Four Ukrainian missiles were intercepted and destroyed by air defense systems in service on the Crimean peninsula,” the ministry said.
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