Daily Archives: January 5, 2024

Russia battered Kyiv and Kharkiv with missiles and drones overnight, killing at least four people and injuring 92 more, after President Vladimir Putin said he was seething and would intensify attacks on Ukraine.

Moscow hit the capital with a combination of Iranian-made Shahed drones and waves of missiles for almost six hours, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration.

As a result of such a massive missile attack in the capital, unfortunately, there is destruction of residential buildings, damage to infrastructure. There are victims, said SerhiyPopko, head of the Kyiv military administration.

Since December 31st, Russian monsters have already fired 170 Shahed drones and dozens of missiles of various types at Ukraine, the countrys President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on social media. The absolute majority of them targeted civilian infrastructure. I am grateful to all of our partners who are helping us strengthen our air shield.

Putin said on Monday that he was seething at strikes on the Russian city of Belgorod over the weekend that the Kremlin blamed on Kyiv, and vowed to intensify strikes on Ukraine.

They want to a) intimidate us and b) create instability in our country, Putin said during a New Years Day visit to a military hospital, according to the Kremlins readout of the presidents comments. We will intensify the strikes, he added, saying that no crime and this [the attack on Belgorod] is certainly a crime against the civilian population will go unpunished.

Russia blames Kyiv for the air attack on Belgorod, which killed at least 25 people and wounded more than 100, according to the Kremlin.

Since Saturday, Moscow has hit Ukraine with nonstop drone and missile assaults.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said one woman from Kyivs Solomyanskyi district died and dozens more were injured.

In Ukraines northeastern city of Kharkiv, strikes killed at least one person and damaged civilian infrastructure.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukrainesaidits air defenses had shot down all 35 of the Iranian-made drones Russia launched against several cities on Tuesday. But debris from the missiles hit several civilian facilities across the area, damaging gas pipelines and cutting off water and electricity in some areas, Klitschko said.

Its probably the biggest attack on Kyiv & [Ukraine] as a whole since the start of full-scale invasion. Urgent action in providing additional air defense capabilities needed, said Ukrainian MP IvannaKlympush-Tsintsadze in a post on social media.

This story is being updated.

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'Seething' Putin hammers Ukraine with massive missile and drone attacks - POLITICO Europe

Russia has intensified its bombardment of Ukraine, launching one of the most brutal attacks since the war began nearly two years ago.

A total of 158 missiles and kamikaze drones were fired towards six cities over the weekend, reported The Times, with targets including a maternity hospital and a kindergarten. At least four civilians were killed and almost 100 injured, according to UN estimates. The head of the Ukrainian air force said it was the largest missile attack of the war so far.

On Tuesday, Russia fired "a second massive barrage" on Kyiv, said the Financial Times. Ukraine has also "hit back", said BBC News, with attacks on the Russian city of Belgorod that have left 25 dead. In a New Year message, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia would "feel the wrath" of Ukraine's military in 2024.

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Vladimir Putin is "buoyed by Ukraine's failed counteroffensive and flagging Western support", said The New York Times (NYT) last month. But "in a recent push of back-channel diplomacy", the Russian leader "has been sending a different message", added the paper. "He is ready to make a deal."

Ttwo former senior Russian officials told the NYT that Putin had been "signalling" that he was "open to a ceasefire that freezes the fighting along the current lines, far short of his ambitions to dominate Ukraine".

"Russia has stockpiled missiles for a winter campaign designed to sap the morale of Ukrainians," said The Times's defence correspondent George Grylls in Kyiv. Ukraine's defence minister told the paper that it was "obvious" that Russia will continue attacking.

But domestic support for the invasion seems to be ebbing. About half of Russians want the war to end in 2024, according to a poll by Russian Field published on Friday. The number who fully support the war has almost halved since February last year, independent polling organisation Chronicle found.

The survey, published in December, "revealed that those who favour peace far outnumber pro-war voices", said Euronews. This is despite the "notoriously difficult" nature of polling in authoritarian states, especially as Moscow has "criminalised criticism of the war and spends millions on pro-war propaganda". Independent Russian polling company Levada found in November that the majority of Russians would support peace talks.

The Kremlin is "likely concerned" about the impact of public opinion on Russia's 2024 presidential election, according to an analysis of Chronicle's findings by US think-tank The Institute for the Study of War. Dissent is growing over mass conscription and poor medical care for soldiers. According to recent US intelligence estimates, Russia has lost "nearly 90%" of the personnel it had when the conflict began, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, a grass-roots movement has been "gaining momentum" recently, said The Guardian. The movement is led by wives and mothers of some of the 300,000 Russians conscripted in September 2022, an event that triggered a "wave of anxiety and unrest" and the biggest fall in Putin's ratings since he came to power in 1999.The Russian leader is known to care deeply about such metrics.

Many are "staging public protests", said the paper, and calling for "total demobilisation" of civilian fighters. During the first Chechen war in 1994, a similar anti-war movement of wives and mothers "helped turn public opinion against the conflict and played a role in the Kremlin's decision to stop the fighting".

At the moment, Putin "sees a confluence of factors creating an opportune moment" for a ceasefire, officials told the NYT a stalemate on the battlefield; Ukraine's stalled counteroffensive; its "flagging support in the West"; and the "distraction" of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Although the Kremlin "needs a ceasefire", it is "determined to achieve this on favourable terms", wrote Pavel Luzin, senior fellow with the Democratic Resilience Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), in November. These terms include keeping control over all disputed Ukrainian territory.

However, there is "no evidence" that Ukraine's leaders who have vowed to retake their territory would accept such a deal, said the NYT. Ukraine has been "rallying support for its own peace formula", which would require Moscow to surrender captured territory and pay damages.

Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that he saw no sign that Russia was willing to negotiate. "We just see brazen willingness to kill," he said.

Some argue that Putin "wants to delay any negotiation until a possible return to office" by former US president Donald Trump, said the NYT. But others say the "ideal timing" of any ceasefire would be before Russia's presidential election in March.

Nevertheless, wrote political scientist Luzin, "as during the initial phase of Russia's war of aggression from 2014-2022, there is no doubt that Russia would continue to strike Ukraine even after a ceasefire".

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Will Putin agree to a Ukraine ceasefire in 2024? - The Week

Russia hit Ukraine with missiles and drones hours before the leaders of the two countries used New Years Eve speeches to their people on Sunday to offer starkly different messages at the end of another year of brutal war.

Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said the Russian invasion had already demonstrated his countrys strength and resilience and he called on Ukrainians to make an extraordinary effort and to do more.

Each of us fought, worked, waited, helped, lived and hoped this year, Mr. Zelensky said in a 20-minute video address delivered from his presidential office. No matter how many missiles the enemy fires, no matter how many shellings and attacks, he vowed, we will still rise.

A listener to the New Years address given by his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, might be forgiven for thinking that the biggest land war in Europe since World War II was not taking place just across the border.

I want to wish every Russian family all the best, Mr. Putin said in a message that was just four minutes long, and delivered in a familiar setting for the Russian leaders end-of-year address, with the nighttime Kremlin illuminated in the background. We are one country, one big family.

In a speech that appeared intended to send a reassuring signal of normality to the Russian people, Mr. Putin only fleetingly spoke of the Russian soldiers waging war on his behalf, calling them our heroes who are on the front line of the battle for truth and justice. And he did not mention Ukraine or the West.

The familiar staging signaled a return to business as usual and was a striking departure from the New Years speech the Russian leader offered a year ago. That evening, angry, defiant and humiliated by a Russian retreat in northeast Ukraine that precipitated the Kremlins unpopular and chaotic military draft, Mr. Putin accused the West of cynically using Ukraine.

His short message on Sunday seemed to reflect his confidence in Russias ability to continue waging war without uprooting the lives of its citizens, given the failure of Ukraines counteroffensive and the flagging support for Ukraine in the West.

Mr. Putin made no mention of the tens of thousands of Russians who died this year in the bloody battles for Ukrainian cities like Bakhmut and Avdiivka. And he invoked only obliquely his narrative about Russias existential conflict with the West. There is no force that is able to divide us, force us to forget the memory and faith of our fathers, or halt our development, he said.

A day earlier, Russia sustained what appeared to be the deadliest single strike on its soil since Mr. Putins forces started the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The attack on the Russian city of Belgorod left 24 people dead, Russian officials said, and wounded more than 100 others.

Russian officials blamed Ukraine for the attack, and on Saturday night they retaliated with strikes on Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, just 60 miles across the border from Belgorod. Residents there were jolted by multiple air-raid sirens overnight, as several waves of ballistic missiles and attack drones rained on the city center, injuring nearly 30 people and damaging private homes, hospitals and a hotel, according to Ukrainian officials.

These are not military facilities, but cafes, residential buildings and offices, Kharkivs mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said in a post on social media that included a video of firefighters trying to extinguish a blaze amid a pile of rubble.

Air-raid alerts wailed in many cities and towns across Ukraine on Sunday night, as local authorities warned against incoming Russian missiles and attack drones. Early on Monday, Oleh Kiper, the governor of the southern Odesa region, said on Telegram that at least one person had been killed in a Russian drone attack in the city of Odesa.

In the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk in Ukraines east, heavy shelling from Ukraine killed four people and injured at least 13, Denis Pushilin, the Russian-appointed head of the broader Donetsk region, said on Telegram early Monday.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a Sunday statement that the attacks on Kharkiv had struck decision-making centers and military facilities, asserting that the Kharkiv Palace Hotel, which was hit by a missile, was housing members of Ukraines armed forces and intelligence services. The strike left a hole several stories high in the facade.

The hotel is one of the most famous in Kharkiv, and foreign journalists have often stayed there. The attack appeared to be the latest in a series of Russian missile strikes on venues popular with reporters. This past summer, Russian missiles struck a well-known restaurant and a hotel in the eastern cities of Kramatorsk and Pokrovsk.

The weekend air assaults in Ukraine and Russia capped a week of intensified attacks by both sides on land, sea and air signaling that neither Kyiv nor Moscow intends to de-escalate the war. In recent days, Ukraine hit a Russian warship and said it had shot down five fighter jets, while Russian forces made small advances all along the front line.

Our enemies can certainly see what our real wrath is, Mr. Zelensky said in his New Years Eve speech.

On Friday, Russia hit Ukraine with a huge and deadly air assault that breached air defenses and wreaked havoc in Kyiv, the capital. The attacks killed some 40 people, wounded about 160 others and hit critical industrial and military infrastructure, as well as civilian buildings like hospitals and schools.

The attack on Belgorod came the next day.

The Ukrainian government did not comment publicly on the strike, as is its usual policy when Russian territory is hit. But an official from Ukraines intelligence services, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the strike had been in response to Russias attack on Friday, and that only military facilities had been targeted.

Russia said on Saturday that the attack on Belgorod would not go unpunished, and it took only a few hours for Moscow to strike back, targeting nearby Kharkiv, with what Ukrainian officials said appeared to be short-range Iskander ballistic missiles. Kharkiv is so close to the border with Russia that air-raid alarms often have no time to sound before missiles hit.

Scenes of devastation emerged in the aftermath of the Russian attack. The lobby of the Kharkiv Palace Hotel was strewed with debris from the collapsed floors, a white piano and red armchairs covered with rubble. Tables that were set for dinner were swept by a gentle wind: the hotel restaurants windows had all been blown out.

In a nearby street, firefighters and city workers were busy clearing the pavement of debris that had fallen from shattered facades. Shards of glass cracked under their feet.

Mr. Zelensky said that Ukraine had endured 6,000 air raid alerts this year. Almost every night, he said, the country woke up to sirens and went down to the shelter to protect its children from enemy missiles and drones.

And almost every night, he said, after they heard the all clear signal, Ukrainians went upstairs and looked up into the sky to prove once again that Ukrainians are stronger than terror.

Laura Boushnak contributed reporting from Kharkiv, and Vivek Shankar and Jin Yu Young from Seoul.

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Putin and Zelensky Address Their Citizens on New Years Eve - The New York Times

With no end to the war in sight, U.S. intelligence estimates that 315,000 Russian troops have so far been killed or injured in fighting, as of Dec. 12, 2023. The Ukrainian government does not release casualty tolls, but Washington reported in August 2023 that the number of Ukrainian combatant deaths likely stands around 70,000. The U.N. approximates that more than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have died.

Nearly two years into the conflict, the Russian economy has weathered punitive Western sanctions surprisingly well. Thats in part because many countries of the global south have been reluctant to join what they see as a Cold War redux between the United States and Russiaand are upset about hypocrisy in Washingtons selective condemnation of Russias alleged wartime abuses versus, say, Israels.

President Vladimir Putins approval rating is at a sky-high 85 percent as of November 2023, according to the Levada Center, a reliable independent Russian pollster. The center cites public opinion surrounding Putins so-called special military operation and the conflict in Ukrainethe Kremlin has warned it will block websites that use the term war or invasion.

Putin, a staple of Russian politics for the past quarter century, likely needs no introduction in the pages of Foreign Policy. Yet it bears repeating that domestic office and global notoriety are nothing new to Putin. Now an indicted criminal by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, Putin began his career as an intelligence operative for the Soviet-era KGB before taking office as president in 2000. He has been in power nearly continuously since then, with a brief four-year stint as prime minister from 2008 to 2012 due to term limits. (Loyal apparatchik Dmitry Medvedev served as president during that time.)

Putins tenure at Russias helmwhether as head of state or head of governmenthas been marked by a descent into authoritarianism, rampant corruption, and systemic human rights abuses. Independent media has been all but shut down; political opponents are intimidated at best and allegedly poisoned at worst. Putin has battled Chechen separatists domestically and ensnared himself in numerous military campaigns beyond Russias borders. Even before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia had annexed the Crimean Peninsula and supported Syrias Bashar al-Assad with a brutal bombing campaign in Syria. The Kremlin also fought wars in the former Soviet republic of Georgia and counts proxies the world over.

In a sign of how much Russian democracy has regressed under Putin, the president has decided that term limits do not matter in 2024 like they did in 2008. Until recently, Russias constitution forbade more than two consecutive six-year presidential terms. (Putin extended a terms length from four to six years in 2008, effective 2012.) But in 2020, when a member of Putins coalition conveniently proposed that the charter be amended to drop this rule, the president was on board. Though it was never in doubt, Putin made his candidacy for a fifth term official in December 2023.

The Russian presidential election will be a three-day affair from March 15 to 17. It is not expected to be free or fair and will almost certainly cement Putins stranglehold on the countrys political system. After the last presidential vote in 2018, monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said candidates competed on an uneven playing field and that, in Russia, elections almost lose their purpose. That year, in a flex of territorial muscle, Russia held votes for the first time on the annexed Crimean Peninsula. This year, Putin intends to extend the presidential contest to the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.

Technically, Putin has competition. But in practice, no other presidential candidate stands a chance. His main rival, opposition leader Alexei Navalny, is behind bars and banned from running. Another potential contender, ultranationalist Igor Girkinwho has decried Putins posture in Ukraine as tepid and called the president cowardlyis also in prison. The long list of other politicians who have expressed interest in a run will likely register in the single percentage points.

Despite the bleak circumstances, voter turnout in Russia rivals that of U.S. presidential elections. In the 2018 presidential election, more than 67 percent of eligible Russian voters went to the polls.

The biggest challenge to Putins rule is likely already behind himand it didnt come at the ballot box. In June 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the paramilitary Wagner Groupa private contractor that had, until then, been seen as doing the Kremlins dirty work in military entanglements from Syria to Malirebelled against Putin in an armed revolt.

In Foreign Policy, Yale University professor Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon M. Huntsman Jr., and author William F. Browder called the mutiny the biggest existential threat Putin has faced in his more than 20-year rule.

Putin quickly quashed the revolt, and Prigozhin has since died in a plane crash, widely believed to have been caused by the Russian government. Former NPR Moscow Bureau Chief Lucian Kim wrote that, in the short-lived Wagner uprising, the full madness of Vladimir Putins dictatorship was on display. It will be that, too, when Putin extends his presidential mandate even further in March.

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In Russia's 2024 Elections, Putin Gears Up for a Fifth Term - Foreign Policy

Since November, more than 4 million Russians have passed through the exhibits of the new Russia Expo, a collection of 130 colorful, innovative, and surprisingly upbeat exhibits spread over nearly 600 acres of exhibition grounds in Moscow.

Some analysts suggest that the show is the very embodiment of Russian President Vladimir Putins electoral program in the upcoming reelection campaign, with voting to be held on March 17. They say it aims to knit Russias past and present into a single continuum of great achievements, with the emphasis on building a bright, unified, and prosperous future.

The new Russia Expo is offering the countrys public a view of its many regions and cultures. But experts say it also offers a window into Vladimir Putins vision of Russias present and future.

Andrei Kolesnikov, a Carnegie fellow who continues to live and work in Russia, says the expo is an old Soviet form thats been reinvented, modernized, and put to work to project Mr. Putins current vision of where Russia is headed.

Its not a coincidence that [a former Soviet exhibition site] was chosen for this purpose, he says. The grounds are filled with traditional symbols of Russian empire and achievement. The current message is that everything is OK; these are peaceful times. Putin can wage war in Ukraine, and develop Russia as well. We dont need the West; we can do it ourselves.

With the onset of the holiday week between New Years Day and Orthodox Christmas, Russians have been thronging the halls of the new Russia Expo, a collection of 130 colorful, innovative, and surprisingly upbeat exhibits spread over nearly 600 acres of exhibition grounds.

More than 4 million visitors have passed through the exhibits representing every Russian region, plus four occupied Ukrainian territories and Crimea, that make up the new Russia Expo, which runs from November to April.

That timetable also happens to coincide with the upcoming Russian presidential election campaign with voting to be held on March 17 in which incumbent Vladimir Putin is considered the top contender. After his first visit to the exhibition in early December, Mr. Putin seemed so pleased that he told a group of foreign ambassadors that they should also visit so that you can see with clear examples how Russia is developing, how it lives.

The new Russia Expo is offering the countrys public a view of its many regions and cultures. But experts say it also offers a window into Vladimir Putins vision of Russias present and future.

Some analysts suggest that the show is the very embodiment of Mr. Putins electoral program, aiming to knit Russias past and present into a single continuum of great achievements, with the emphasis on building a bright, unified, and prosperous future.

The central image on display at the exhibition is the success of Putin-era Russia. You see it reflected in every exhibit, in a multiplicity of ways, says Alexei Mukhin, director of the Center for Political Information, an independent think tank. The unspoken message of holding this big show at such a time is to demonstrate that Russia can wage war and deliver domestic prosperity at the same time. Outwardly, this exhibition is a clear projection of Putins vision for Russias future, and he is positioned as the person who changed Russia and makes that future possible.

The expo is being held on the sprawling grounds of the former Soviet Exhibition of Economic Achievements(known by its Russian acronym, VDNKh), which features vast green spaces and about 400 buildings, including many ornate Josef Stalin-era constructions that were built to highlight the former USSRs achievements, including space, atomic energy, industry, and arts.

The original Soviet exhibition was established in the 1930s to convince the population that the hard times of revolution, civil war, and famine were over and a bright communist future beckoned. After World War II, it was repurposed and expanded to showcase Soviet achievements in science, industry, and technology. It was modeled on the concept of a worlds fair, but one that would encapsulate the globally isolated Soviet Union, with its 15 diverse republics supposedly united by socialist ideology and scientific dynamism. Following the collapse of the USSR, the vast grounds fell into disrepair, and many of the pavilions were used by commercial companies to warehouse and market a bewildering array of goods.

Igor Ivanko/Kommersant/Sipa USA/AP

Children play at the Tambov region pavilion of the Russia Expo, Dec. 27, 2023, in Moscow. Every Russian region, as well as the four occupied Ukrainian territories and Crimea, has exhibits at the expo.

At every point, the VDNKh exhibitions served as an invitation to the population to come and embrace the states vision of itself,says Pavel Nefedov, curator of the museum.

This place has always been supported by the state, and it owes its continued existence to that, he says. In its original conception, it represented Utopia built on a limited territory. For the visitors, visiting the exhibition was a kind of symbolic reward. It was always a mirror held up to the country, but not one that reflected things as they were, but as the state thought they should be.

Even in the 1990s, when a veritable bazaar sprang up on VDNKhs ruins, it reflected the dominant idea of the time, a commercial marketplace. The communist symbols became vending platforms, Mr. Nefedov says.

In recent years, the Russian government has spent considerable sums renovating the territory and kept it open for people to roam the grounds. But until the Russia Expo was announced, the place seemed without purpose.

The present exhibition looks very much like a Putin-era reincarnation of its Soviet predecessor, with entries from 84 regions of Russia, plus five annexed Ukrainian regions, and pavilions for several major state corporations. It exudes a more festive atmosphere than the old Soviet fair did, with updated presentations that include holograms, robots, interactive displays, and a parade of associated events such as daily lectures, seminars, and forums on a wide variety of (mostly nonpolitical) topics.

Its not clear how much the Kremlin has spent to stage this show, but figures mentioned in the Russian media suggest its at least $60 million.

It has attracted huge crowds in its first several weeks, including large organized tours of schoolchildren. Nadya Titova, a journalists field assistant, says the fair appeals as a travel substitute.

Now that our borders are closed, people have less opportunity to travel abroad, so they are turning inward, wanting to see more of Russia, she says. An exhibition like this broadens the outlook, and maybe gives an idea of how many interesting Russian tourist destinations are still accessible.

The regional displays include attractions such as watching a simulated volcanic eruption in the Pacific territory of Kamchatka, taking tea in a Buryatian yurt, virtual river rafting in Krasnoyarsk, and listening to a robot explain the history of Birobidzhan, a Jewish autonomous region near the Chinese border where Yiddish is an official language.

The Crimea pavilion features a giant replica of the 12-mile-long Kerch Bridge which has been the target of Ukrainian attacks and an array of special effects designed to create the audiovisual, tactile, and even olfactory atmosphere of that annexed Ukrainian region, which hopes to become Russias premier tourist destination once the war ends.

The continuing war is a mostly silent subtext at the exhibits of the four Ukrainian regions that Mr. Putin declared officially annexed by Russia just over a year ago. The Donetsk pavilion features a coal mountain with a time tunnel that shows the regions progression from czarist times, through Soviet-era industrialization, to its trial by fire as a separatist region at war with Ukraine and its projected bright future as a province of Russia. The half-occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson features its agricultural potential and nature reserves, which left unmentioned are not presently safe to visit.

Andrei Kolesnikov, a Carnegie fellow who continues to live and work in Russia, says the exhibition is an old Soviet form thats been reinvented, modernized, and put to work to project Mr. Putins current vision of where Russia is headed.

Its not a coincidence that VDNKh was chosen for this purpose, he says. The grounds are filled with traditional symbols of Russian empire and achievement. The current message is that everything is OK; these are peaceful times. Putin can wage war in Ukraine, and develop Russia as well. We dont need the West; we can do it ourselves.

The Putin-era social contract, in which people pursue their private lives but stay out of politics, has been slightly amended, he says. Now you dont need to go to the trenches, but in return you must demonstrate your patriotism. Vote for Putin. Pay for a quiet life. Accept the new balance between war and normality.

Yaroslav Listov, a Communist Party deputy of the Duma, offers a more prosaic complaint.

To what extent do these displays correspond to real achievements? he says. Its apparently costing a lot. Wouldnt it be better to spend this money actually improving peoples lives than on expensive demonstrations of how life is supposedly being improved?

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In new Russia Expo, a look at what Putin wants his country to be - The Christian Science Monitor

Russia continues to intensify its missile attacks against Ukraine, capping off 2023 with what a top U.N. official called devastating violence against the people of Ukraine.

Between December 29 and January 2, Russia has launched about 300 missiles and 200 Shaheed drones against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video post on X.

In the last five days, Zelenskyy said, Russia targeted, killed and wounded hundreds of Ukrainian civilians and called Moscows actions a missile terror.

Yet Russian President Vladimir Putin attempted to portray Russia as the victim of Ukrainian terrorist attacks and the protector of civilians there.

Speaking with Denis Shamalyuk, a soldier at a military hospital in the Moscow region, Putin called a presumed Ukrainian attack on the Russian border town of Belgorod on December 30, 2023, an act of terror.

[What has happened in Belgorod] was a targeted strike on the civilian population. Of course, this is a terrorist attack; there is no other way to describe it.

Should we respond in kind? Of course, we can hit squares in Kiev or any other city. But Denis, there are children walking there, mothers with strollers. I understand, because I am quite angry, too, but I want to ask you: do we need to do this, target the squares?

Shamalyuk replied to this rhetorical question by saying Russia should strike military infrastructure, and not the civilian population.

That is what we are doing, Putin replied. We strike with high-precision weapons at locations where they make decisions, where military personnel and mercenaries gather, at other similar centres, and at military facilities, above all.

Putins claim that Russia is targeting military, and not civilian infrastructure, is false.

The attack in Belgorod was precipitated by what President Joe Biden called Russias largest aerial assault on Ukraine since Russia invaded it in February 2022.

Russias aerial attacks, launched on December 29, 2023, reportedly hit a maternity hospital, a shopping mall, and residential areas, killing over 40 civilians including 30 in Kyiv. Scores more were injured.

That would not justify a deliberate attack on civilian targets. However, it is not established whether Ukraine intended to target civilians in Belgorod, where apparent Ukrainian shelling killed about two dozen people. A senior U.N. political official condemned that attack as a violation of international law.

After the December 30 Belgorod attack, Russia responded with massive attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure in Ukraines two largest cities Kyiv and Kharkiv.

In Kharkiv, a central hotel, a kindergarten, apartment buildings, shops and administrative buildings were damaged, the Associated Press reported, citing the regional prosecutors office.

Mirroring Putins language, Russias Defense Ministry said that it had hit decision-making centers and military facilities in Kharkiv, claiming that Ukrainian military and intelligence figures involved in the Belgorod attack were staying at the Kharkiv Palace Hotel.

Those claims are unsubstantiated. However, Germanys ZDF broadcaster confirmed its television crew were among Western journalists staying at the hotel at the time of the attack.

On January 1, Ukraine struck the Donbas Palace hotel in Donetsk, where unconfirmed reports suggest members of Russias elite in the Russian-occupied city had gathered.

Ukraine says Russia hit residential buildings, a supermarket, a warehouse, and gas infrastructure In Kyiv, depriving some parts of the city of electricity and water.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a VOA sister organization, reported that 11 apartment buildings were damaged in Vyshnevo, a town located just south of Kyiv.

Mykolaiv, Kropyvnytskyi and other settlements were also attacked.

Russia continues to target Ukrainian women, children and the elderly. The objects attacked by the Russian army were exclusively civilian, Ukraines foreign ministry said.

The December 29 attacks also fit into a broader pattern of Russia launching retaliatory strikes against Ukrainian civilian targets after Ukraine successfully attacked Russian military assets.

In this instance, Ukraine destroyed Russias Novocherkassk landing ship, docked at a port in Russia-occupied Crimea on December 26, 2023.

In July 2023, Ukraine struck the Kerch Straight Bridge, which links the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula with the Russian mainland. The bridge serves as a vital logistics route for Russia to supply its war effort in Ukraine.

In response, Russia targeted dozens of buildings and sites of cultural significance in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa. Russia then claimed, without evidence, the civilian buildings it struck were being used to prepare terrorists acts.

The July 23 attack was not the first time Russia targeted civilian infrastructure in retaliation for a strike on the Kerch Strait Bridge. On October 10, 2022, Russia launched dozens of missiles at Ukrainian cities in retaliation for the Ukrainian bombing of the bridge.

In Kyiv, Russia struck museums, an office building, a pedestrian bridge, a park, a busy intersection and other civilian areas.

That same month, Amnesty International said Russian forces were intentionally targeting Ukraines energy infrastructure to deprive civilians in Ukraine of heat, electricity and water as the cold grip of winter approaches.

Russia has not desisted in that wintertime war strategy.

Polygraph.info has documented other Russian attacks (and denials of attacks) on civilian targets, including a June 2023 attack on a Kramatorsk restaurant, an April 2022 attack on the Kramatorsk railway station, the March 16, 2022, airstrike on the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater in Mariupol, and a March 9, 2022, airstrike on a maternity ward in Mariupol.

Mass graves and evidence of atrocities have also been found in Ukrainian towns after Russian forces were driven out.

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After Latest Round of 'Missile Terror,' Putin Denies Targeting Civilians in Ukraine - Polygraph.info

President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree simplifying the process of obtaining Russian citizenship for foreigners who join the Russian army, according to a document published by the government Thursday.

Foreign citizens who signed a [one-year] contract with the Russian Armed Forces or military formations or who are undergoing military service during the special military operation [in Ukraine] are eligible for the simplified citizenship procedure, Putins decree states.

The spouses, children and parents of foreigners serving in the Russian army will also be able to receive fast-track citizenship, according to the decree.

Russian authorities have one month to consider the soldiers and their families citizenship applications, the document states.

Thursdays decree, which comes into force on the day of its publication, replacesprevious decrees Putin issued after declaring a partial mobilization of reservists in September 2022.

His latest edict drops the requirement for foreigners to serve in the military for at least six months before applying for citizenship, as well as shortens the application procedure from three months to just one.

Russias simplified citizenship process appears targeted toward citizens of poorer ex-Soviet countries who live and work in Russia.

The Central Asian countries of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have all urged their citizens not to join foreign armies after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Last year saw widespread and regular reports of police in cities across Russia rounding up migrant workers who recently received Russian citizenship but failed to complete their compulsory military registration.

Some of the migrants have been handed military summons on the spot, while others are forcibly taken to military enlistment offices, according to the reports.

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Putin Further Eases Citizenship Process for Foreigners in Russian Army - The Moscow Times

The latest bout ofRussian and Ukrainian strikes and their toll on the civilian population took center stage at an emergency meeting of theUN Security Council late on Saturday.

Russia had called for the emergency meeting following reported attacks on Belogorod in which 21 people were killed.The emergency session was held less than 24 hours after the Council convened a meeting on Ukraine following large-scale attacks by Russia against Ukrainian towns and cities.

"We unequivocally condemn all attacks on cities, towns and villages, in Ukraine and in the Russian Federation,"said Khaled Khiari, assistant secretary-general in the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (UN DPPA)

"Attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure violate international humanitarian law, are unacceptable and must end now," he added.

Moscow accused Ukraine of using controversial cluster bombs in strikes that killed at least 21 people and wounded dozens more.

Russia said the attack would "not go unpunished."

At the Security Council meeting, Russian diplomat Vasily Nebenzya accused Ukraine of targeting a sports center, an ice rink and a university.

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The Belgorod attack came a day after Ukraine said a barrage of Russian missile strikes on several cities killed at least 40 people.

"The Security Council convened yesterday and is meeting again today, and you should be ready to meet tomorrow, the day after tomorrow every day that the Russian war against Ukraine lasts," Ukraine's representative Serhii Dvornyksaid, according to the UN News Service.

"Because as long as this war, unleashed by the Kremlin dictator, endures, the toll of death and suffering will continue to grow," he added.

According to the UN News Service, French Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere saidif Russian troops were not on Ukrainian soil, "we wouldn'be here this afternoon."

mfi/lo (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

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Ukraine updates: Putin vows to 'never back down' DW 12/31/2023 - DW (English)

If the West leaves Ukraine without support and allows Russia to win, the war will spread to NATO and EU countries, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with The Economist on Jan. 1.

By giving us money or weapons, you are supporting yourselves, Zelenskyy said. You are saving your children, not ours. Putin senses weakness, like an animal, because he is an animal. He smells blood, he feels his strength. And he will eat you for dinner with all your EU, NATO, freedom, and democracy.

Read also: Russian diplomat says Finland will be first to suffer during NATO escalation

Thats why European countries should lobby for U.S. aid to Ukraine. The intelligence services of several European countries have begun to explore the possibility of an attack on their territory by Russia, and it's not just about the former Soviet republics (Baltic states ed.), according to Zelenskyy.

Read also: Ukraine to produce a million drones in 2024 Zelenskyy

Russia might try to attack Europe at the end of 2024 or early 2025, reported Bild on Dec. 23.

Germany might one day be forced to wage a defensive war against Russia, stated Carsten Breuer, the Bundeswehr Inspector General on Dec. 9.

Russia will attack NATO countries if it captures Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Dec. 6.

Russia is rejuvenating its forces and capabilities and preparing for a possible confrontation with NATO, stated Lieutenant General Jrgen-Joachim von Sandrart, Commander of the NATO Multinational Corps Northeast on Dec. 5.

Russia is replenishing its strategic stockpile of missiles, carriers of nuclear weapons, to threaten NATO, said Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat on dec. 4.

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'Putin is an animal; he will devour you and your democracy' Zelenskyy - Yahoo News

President Vladimir Putin praised the Russian army in his New Year's Eve address Sunday, calling for "unity" in a subdued speech that did not explicitly mention the war in Ukraine.

In stark contrast to last year's address, when the Russian leader was flanked by soldiers in uniform, Putin stood in front of the traditional backdrop of the Kremlin and declared that 2024 would be the "year of the family."

"We have repeatedly proven that we can solve the most difficult problems and will never back down because there is no force that can separate us," Putin said in the address, aired on state TV as regions in Russia's Far East greeted the New Year several hours ahead of Moscow.

Putin made no mention of the attack against the city of Belgorod on Saturday, in which officials said Ukrainian shelling killed at least 24 people and injured dozens more, but he did commend Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine during the holiday.

"To all those who are serving on the front line in the fight for truth and justice," Putin said, "you are our heroes. Our hearts are with you. We are proud of you, we admire your courage."

"We are united in our thoughts, in toil and in battle," he continued, adding that Russians understood their country was passing through what he called a significant "historical stage."

"We will ensure the confident development of the Fatherland, the well-being of our citizens, and we will become even stronger," Putin said toward the end of his address.

The televised New Year's Eve speech, which continues a tradition started by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, is a key part of holiday celebrations in Russia and is watched by millions.

The address is aired just before midnight in each of Russia's 11 timezones and is usually a summary of events from the past year, as well as wishes for the year ahead.

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Putin Praises Army in Scaled-Back New Year's Eve Address - The Moscow Times