Massive Russian missile attacks on Ukraine are in retaliation for Kiev’s attacks on Russian territory, Putin said. Biden says that such attacks are unacceptable and told the Ukrainians that the US stands by them.
29.11.2024 06:25
Photo: SITA/AP
In this photo provided by Ukraine’s emergency services, pyrotechnicians examine a Russian X-55 missile that was shot down in Kiev, Ukraine, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024.
6:30 Russia’s recent large-scale attack on Ukraine shows the “importance” of Kiev’s support, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday. At the same time, he expressed strong support for Ukraine before the newly elected President Donald Trump took office, AFP reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin says the heavy missile strikes on Ukraine are in retaliation for the use of Western weapons against Russia.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the massive attacks on Ukraine were a response to ongoing attacks by American weapons. Russia produces 10 times more missiles than all NATO countries combined, Putin said, according to Russian news agency TASS: “Next year this production will increase by another 25-30%.” All Western missiles delivered to Kyiv have Russian counterparts with longer range and more power, the Russian president added. According to him, no attack on Russian territory will go unanswered. According to him, the Orešnik rocket has no parallel in the world. In the case of its massive use, the force of the strike will be comparable to a nuclear weapon, Putin claims: “Although, of course, Orešnik is not a weapon of mass destruction.”
“This attack is unacceptable and serves as another reminder of the importance and urgency of support for the Ukrainian people against Russian aggression,” Biden said in a statement. He was responding to Thursday’s attack by Russia, which attacked Ukraine’s energy grid with almost 200 missiles and drones. As a result, over a million people were left without electricity.
“On this day, my message to Ukrainians is clear, the United States stands with you,” added Biden, who is trying to step up support for Kiev in the final weeks of his tenure in the White House. It is expected that Trump will bring about a change in policy towards Ukraine, writes AFP.
President-elect Trump has promised a quick end to the conflict by brokering a ceasefire agreement between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. But critics have warned that Trump is likely to use pressure on US military aid to do so. He could thus force Kyiv to accept an agreement for which it will lose the occupied territories, or even give up the possibility of joining NATO.
On Wednesday, Trump announced that he would appoint General Keith Kellogg, co-author of a document calling on Washington to use military aid as a means of pushing through peace talks, as the US special envoy for Ukraine.
6:25 The Rostov region in southwestern Russia faced a large-scale airstrike by Ukrainian drones on Friday night, local authorities said. According to the governor, air defense shot down three dozen drones. After the raid, reports appeared on social networks that, according to eyewitnesses, a fuel warehouse near the city of Kamensk-Shachtinsky was on fire, the Ukrainska Pravda server reported. He reminded that the same warehouse serving the Russian army was also attacked by Ukrainian drones in the summer.
“The anti-aircraft defense reflects a large-scale aerial attack by the enemy,” Governor Yuri Sljusar wrote on the social network, according to which the defense destroyed three dozen drones. According to him, the debris of the downed drones caused damage to the roofs of private houses in two villages, but no injuries or victims were reported.
Air defense destroyed 47 Ukrainian drones during the night, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced on social media this morning. It specified that 29 drones were destroyed by Russian soldiers over the Rostov region, eight over the Krasnodar region, three each over the Belgorod, Bryansk and Voronezh regions, and one over the annexed Crimea. The ministry did not mention possible damages, injured and other details.
Even before midnight, the authorities of both countries informed about enemy drone attacks. In Kyiv, where air defense intervened, the impact of the debris of a downed drone caused a fire in one of the Kyiv polyclinics, mayor Vitalij Kličko said on the social network. He later clarified that the injuries were sustained by a police officer of the polyclinic. Reports of three dozen drones over five Ukrainian regions appeared on social networks, the BBC News server noted. The Ukrainian Air Force informed about further waves of Russian drones in the country’s airspace.
Aviation alerts were also announced in Russia’s Belgorod and Voronezh regions. The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, reported on one downed Ukrainian drone, the debris of which damaged two private houses, one van and a gas pipeline in the village of Skorodnoye, which caused a fire. Later, Gladkov wrote on the social network that the city of Šebekino was also targeted by two drones. Both airstrikes resulted in no casualties or injuries.
Source: spravy.pravda.sk
