Ukraine general says Russia digging in for long war as both sides rule out Christmas truce
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Bodies of Russian soldiers to be exchanged for the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on Dec 14.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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DONETSK - A Ukrainian general said on Thursday that Moscow was digging in for a long war and still wanted to conquer the whole of Ukraine, as Russian forces pounded two strategic cities while Kyiv’s troops shelled Russian-controlled Donetsk in the east.
Both sides have ruled out a Christmas truce and there are currently no talks aimed at ending the nearly 10-month-old conflict, Europe’s largest since World War II.
Russian shelling killed two people in the centre of Kherson, the southern city liberated by Ukraine last month, said Mr Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president’s office. The shelling also knocked out the city’s electricity, officials said.
Russian forces also attacked critical infrastructure in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, causing several explosions, its mayor, Mr Ihor Terekhov, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
“The Kremlin... is seeking to turn the conflict into a prolonged armed confrontation,” a senior Ukrainian officer, Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov, told a news briefing.
“The main strategic objective of the enemy remains seizing all the territory of our country (and) not allowing Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration,” said General Gromov, who also dismissed the possibility of a truce over the festive period.
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had said a Christmas ceasefire was “not on the agenda”.
Earlier on Thursday, Mr Alexei Kulemzin, the Russian-installed mayor of Donetsk, said Ukraine had fired 40 rockets from BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers at the city, in what he said was the heaviest attack there since 2014, when Russian-backed separatists wrested it from Kyiv’s control.
There were no reports of deaths in Donetsk, though Mr Kulemzin said five people had been hurt, including a child.
Reuters footage showed firefighters dousing smoking embers in a Donetsk apartment building struck by a missile and also a woman clearing shattered glass in a hospital ward also hit.
Like zombies
Ukraine’s military General Staff said Moscow’s main focus remained on the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, but that it was also shelling Kherson daily and trying to get a stronger foothold in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.
“The Russians fired at different areas along the entire front line all night and in the morning,” the Ukrainian governor of Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Telegram, adding there had been two air strikes on Avdiivka.
One person was killed and four injured near Bakhmut, he said.
“(The Russians) are crawling like zombies on our positions in Bakhmut, creating pressure in the south of the Donetsk region,” Mr Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential office, wrote on Telegram.
“They understand that if they do not stretch the front now, then this winter will be a disaster for them.”
In a move that would significantly bolster Kyiv’s air defence, US officials said a decision on providing the Patriot missile system to the Ukrainian military
The Kremlin said the United States was getting “deeper and deeper into the conflict in the post-Soviet republic”, and that US Patriot systems would be legitimate targets, something that Russia’s foreign ministry said on Thursday applied to all weapons supplied to Ukraine by the West.
Asked about the possibility of Ukraine getting the US Patriot systems, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: “It hasn’t been confirmed yet but it will show quite how concerned people are by Russia’s deliberate targeting of civilian, critical national infrastructure.”
The United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Volker Turk said in a speech to the Rights Council following a visit to Ukraine that Russia’s strikes were exposing millions to “extreme hardship”.
On Wednesday, Kyiv suffered the first major drone attack in weeks.
In one snowy Kyiv district, residents said they heard the loud whirring engine of an Iranian Shahed drone followed by a powerful explosion at a building next to their homes.
“I want this all to be over ... For (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, that bastard, to die,” said Yana, 39, who had been getting ready for work when the attack took place.
Rescuers and police officers examining the site of a building destroyed by a Russian drone attack in Kyiv on Dec 14.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Power shortages
Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions more displaced and cities reduced to rubble since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb 24
Russia has fired barrages of missiles on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure
National grid operator Ukrenergo said on Thursday Ukraine continued to suffer a “significant” deficit of electricity due to the strikes, including new ones in the east, adding that the situation was exacerbated by the wintry weather conditions.
European Union member states failed to agree on a ninth package of Russia sanctions in talks late on Wednesday, diplomats said, after Poland called for a tougher stance.
Member states disagree over whether the EU should make it easier for Russian fertiliser exports to pass through European ports to help poorer countries even if the fertiliser companies concerned are owned by blacklisted oligarchs.
Further financial and military aid to Ukraine will feature prominently on the agenda of EU leaders meeting in Brussels for a summit later on Thursday. REUTERS
