According to the Ukrainian army, several hundred Russian soldiers were killed in an attack on New Year’s Eve. The Ukrainians were able to fend off Russian drone attacks. Former NATO general Domröse expects a ceasefire this year.
Ukraine kills several hundred Russian soldiers in one attack
According to their own account, the Ukrainian armed forces have disabled several hundred Russian soldiers in the Donetsk region in the east of the country. In Makiivka, an unspecified attack on New Year’s Eve destroyed a building that was used as accommodation for newly mobilized Russian troops.
Around 400 Russian soldiers were killed and 300 others wounded, the Ukrainian military leadership said. The information could not initially be verified independently.
According to Russian Telegram channels, the building is a school/university. She was attacked with several projectiles from a Himar rocket launcher. There is talk of a “high number of dead and wounded”. On Sunday evening, people were still looking for victims in the rubble.
New Russian drone attack on Sunday evening
On Sunday evening, Russian armed forces again flew attacks with “kamikaze drones” against targets in Ukraine. Two groups of Shahed drones were sighted near Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, the state agency Ukrinform reported. “Air alert, two groups of mopeds,” regional military administrator Vitali Kim wrote on Telegram.
A total of 45 drones were apparently fired. According to their own statements, the Ukrainians managed to fend off all these attacks. Because of their engine noise, the drones are now called “mopeds” by the Ukrainian population. Air alert was sounded throughout the south of the country.
Former NATO general Domröse expects a ceasefire in 2023
Former NATO general Hans-Lothar Domröse expects a ceasefire in Ukraine in the course of the new year. “We will have a ceasefire in the course of 2023,” Domröse told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
Both Ukraine and Russia would launch another offensive in the next few months to try to achieve their military goals after all. But he expects a standstill in early summer. Then Russia and Ukraine would realize that it made no sense to continue fighting if it was no longer possible to gain ground.
“That would be the moment for armistice negotiations,” said Domröse, who was also an army general in the Bundeswehr. There remains only a negotiated solution that is acceptable to both sides.
One solution could be for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to waive the demand to immediately reintegrate areas occupied by Russia, such as Crimea, into Ukraine and instead agree on a transitional period, such as the 50-year transitional period that was used when Hong Kong was handed over to China give.
Selenskyj speaks of “pathetic Russian terrorists”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has strongly condemned the Russian drone attacks on cities in his country on New Year’s Eve. The Russian military then launched a new wave of attacks with so-called kamikaze drones against targets in Ukraine on Sunday evening.
“The Russian terrorists were already pathetic and started the new year the same way,” Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Sunday. But these attacks could not harm the Ukrainians. “Our sense of togetherness, our authenticity, life itself – all of this is so much in contrast to the fear that prevails in Russia.”
The Russian military is palpably afraid, Zelenskyj claimed. “And they are right to be afraid, because they will lose.” Even with drones and rockets, the Russian military would not get very far. “Because we stick together.” The Russian side, on the other hand, is only held together by fear, he argued.
The Russian military had launched a wave of so-called kamikaze drones against Ukrainian cities on New Year’s Eve. According to information from Kyiv, the Iranian-made Shahed drones flying towards the capital Kyiv and the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv were shot down by the Ukrainian air defense before they reached their targets. The unmanned flying robots are usually equipped with explosive charges and are designed to fall on their targets in a manner similar to rockets. A total of 45 drones were destroyed, said Zelenskyj.
For weeks, Russia has been targeting the Ukrainian energy grid with cruise missiles, rockets and drones. The severe damage caused so far has led to massive failures in the water and electricity supply. With this tactic, Russia obviously wants to wear down the civilian population of Ukraine in winter.
view of the day
After the latest Russian drone attack, a balance of possible damage and casualties or even just a kill balance of the Ukrainian air defense is expected.
