Russia will soon be launching “more powerful” strikes on Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, as Kyiv stares down “fatigue” and the brunt of the harsher winter conditions in its war against Moscow.
“As winter approaches, there will be more Russian attempts to make the strikes more powerful,” Zelensky said in his daily evening address on Saturday.
“It is crucial for all of us in Ukraine to be 100 percent effective,” he added. “Despite all the difficulties. Despite all the fatigue. Despite any attempts to weaken Ukraine.”
Since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, Moscow has maintained a campaign of missile, drone and artillery strikes on the country. During Ukraine’s winter season in 2022, Russia targeted Kyiv’s energy infrastructure—a tactic it is expected to repeat in the coming weeks.
“These last months, Russia has been using its missiles sparingly and should again have accumulated a decent stock of them,” Frederik Mertens, a strategic analyst with the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, told Newsweek in late October. “Its most logical target would be Kyiv’s energy infrastructure and the most logical moment when it is needed the most,” he added.
A man walks in front of a destroyed building in Vasylkiv, near Kyiv, on February 27, 2022. “As winter approaches, there will be more Russian attempts to make the strikes more powerful,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his daily evening address on Saturday. DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images
Earlier in November, Zelensky warned Ukrainian citizens that they should be prepared “for the fact that the enemy may increase the number of drone or missile strikes on our infrastructure.”
“Here, in Ukraine, all attention should be focused on defense,” Zelensky said on November 12, reiterating the importance of air-defense systems in the country. The Ukrainian leader has previously vowed that Kyiv will not only defend itself against strikes, but will also “respond.”
Earlier this week, Ukrainian officials said Russia had stockpiled around 800 missiles on the Moscow-controlled Crimean peninsula for winter strikes against Ukraine’s energy sector.
Russian forces have built up supplies of sea-launched Kalibr cruise missiles and Onyx anti-ship cruise missiles in Crimea, said Natalia Humeniuk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern forces. Russia is “clearly accumulating their missile potential,” Humeniuk said in remarks reported by Ukrainian media on Thursday.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s General Staff said it had intercepted a barrage of strategic drones launched against the country by Russia overnight. Kyiv’s air-defense systems destroyed 15 out 20 Iranian-designed Shahed drones used by Moscow, the General Staff said.
Over the previous 24 hours, Russia launched five missiles and 76 airstrikes against Ukraine, the Kyiv’s military added in a statement. More than 150 Ukrainian settlements in the north, east and south of the country came under artillery fire over the past day, Kyiv said.
“I thank all the soldiers of mobile-fire groups, the aviation of our Air Force, and the anti-aircraft missile troops,” Zelensky said in Saturday’s comments.
On Saturday, Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, lauded Moscow’s troops to mark the country’s annual Missile Forces and Artillery Day. “Today, during [the] special military operation, missile and artillery personnel successfully solve complex tasks in difficult combat conditions,” Shoigu said in a Kremlin readout this weekend, using the Moscow-sanctioned term for the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
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