An official said that despite concerns that Putin is preparing 1,800 tanks and 400 fighter planes for a fresh invasion in the coming days, Russia overnight launched its most severe round of missile attacks since the invasion of Ukraine started.
As the Kremlin intensified its operations in Ukraine’s south and east, Moscow’s troops attacked vital infrastructure in Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, and began several attacks on energy facilities in Zaporizhzhia.
During the morning rush hour, air sirens could be heard all around the nation, and local authorities advised citizens to seek cover as they warned of probable further attacks. One said there were battleships in the Black Sea and hostile planes in the air.
The most intensive period of assaults since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to Anatolii Kurtiev, secretary of the Zaporizhzhia municipal council, occurred when the city was bombed 17 times in a single hour.
Authorities in Kharkiv were still determining the number of casualties and the extent of the damage, and the mayor, Ihor Terekhov, warned that there would be interruptions in the delivery of power, water, and heating.
The enemy has aircraft in the sky, and ships that can launch Kaliber missiles are at sea. The missiles were fired by the foe. The regional governor of Odesa’s southern area, Maksym Marchenko, predicted that the air warning will last a while.
Please go to the shelters and pay attention to the air warning sirens.
The fear of a missile assault is quite real, according to Serhiy Popko, chief of the military administration for the city of Kiev. I want to emphasize one more: “Do not disregard the air warning sirens.”
Speaking on behalf of the air force, Yuriy Ihnat informed Ukrainian television that five out of seven drones and five out of six Kaliber missiles fired against Ukraine had been destroyed by Ukrainian air defenses.
35 S-300 missiles were reportedly fired in the Kharkiv and Zaporizhia districts, according to the air force.
These missiles cannot be shot down by Ukraine’s air defenses.
Several high-voltage facilities around the nation were reportedly struck by missile assaults, according to the operator of Ukraine’s national power system.
In addition, officials said that in response to the assaults on infrastructure, they had ordered the nationwide emergency suspension of power.
On Thursday, the fighting in Ukraine also became more intense.
Russian troops have reportedly begun an attack in the partly controlled Donetsk and Luhansk areas with the intention of seizing complete control of the whole Donbas region, according to Kyiv’s military intelligence service.
In order to weaken Ukraine’s defenses, Russia has recently concentrated hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the country’s east.
In an effort to acquire control of the crucial city of Bhakmut, the Wagner mercenary gang claims to have taken over the village of Soledar among other targets. The city’s fighting has been called a “meat grinder.”
Gains have been gradual, but in a Friday morning briefing, the UK’s military defense said that since February 7, Wagner has made progress in two crucial areas in the area.
Wagner Group soldiers have advanced 2-3 km farther west, holding the farmland close to the M-03 major highway into the town, on the northern outskirts of the Donbas town of Bakhmut. The northern approaches to Bakhmut are being more dominated by Russian troops, according to the MoD statement.
In the town of Vuhledar, where they started offensive operations in late January 2023, Russian soldiers had advanced along its western perimeter.
It also said that “significant losses” were “likely” to have been sustained by Russian soldiers during the attack on Vuhledar. It said, “Unexperienced units have been committed.”
After a failed attack, “Russian forces presumably retreated and abandoned at least 30 mainly undamaged armored vehicles in a single event.”
In the months leading up to the anniversary of Vladimir Putin initiating his alleged “special military operation” on February 24 of last year, Ukraine and its friends in the West have issued warnings about a fresh Russian onslaught.
Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, provided an update on the situation in his area, stating that fires broke out and certain areas of the city were left without electricity.
At four in the morning, the adversary used S-300 missiles to commence rocket assaults on Kharkiv and the surrounding area. Infrastructure and critical facilities were attacked. The rescuers immediately put out fires that had broken out,’ he stated on Telegram.
However, there are still some unlit portions of the city. The impact’s effects are being eliminated by specialists. Thankfully, there weren’t any casualties.
At before 9 a.m. local time, the governor of the Mykolaiv region, Vitalii Kim, issued a warning that roughly 20 missiles were likely to strike his area.
A snapshot of an air-raid warning website in Ukraine was posted on Twitter by Anton Gerashchenko, a counselor to the Ukrainian minister of internal affairs. Nearly every location was highlighted in red. He wrote, “Air raid alarm across Ukraine.”
A huge Russian missile onslaught is threatened. Everyone in Ukraine is urged to remain in shelters.
The assaults came after warnings from a Ukrainian military officer who said that Russia already had 400 fighter aircraft, 800 fighter tanks, 3,950 armored vehicles, 810 multiple rocket launchers from the Soviet period, and 1,800 tanks ready for “a fresh round of attacks.”
Speaking to Foreign Policy, the person also estimated that Russia is ready with 300 helicopters and 2,700 artillery units.
Under the condition of anonymity, the official stated, “We anticipate a fresh, big invasion in the next 10 days.”
Ramzan Kadyrov, a close supporter of Vladimir Putin, boasted that the upcoming onslaught will capture Odessa, Kharkiv, and Kyiv while the Kremlin has been mostly silent about its preparations for a fresh offensive.
Additionally, he reiterated his claim that this would be the beginning of a larger westward movement that will engulf Poland.
In addition to his responsibilities as the leader of Chechnya, Kadyrov, 46, was last week awarded the title “Father of the People.”
Next, he added, “we’ll go to Odessa, Kharkiv, and Kiev.”
“Thanks to the efforts of all organizations, departments, and countries that came together in support of the call of our President [Putin], this is the direction we are progressively moving in.
“Today we are exhibiting accomplishments that the NATO and EU governments could only have dreamed of.”
We will persevere and make it to Poland.
Regarding the deployment of Western tanks to Ukraine, he advised Russians to maintain “cool.”
“These tanks [the West provides Ukraine] represent absolutely nothing,” he said.
He asserted that the Russian advance was preordained by God and that, after taking control of Ukraine, which Putin has so far been unable to do, Russia would then proceed to “denazify and demilitarize” Poland, echoing false claims made by Putin and his allies about Ukraine being a “nazi” country despite the fact that it has little support for the far-right.
The war against Satanism should continue across Europe, first and foremost on Polish soil, Kadyrov said earlier this week in a Telegram outburst.
His close supporter and parliament’s chairman, Magomed Daudov, said that the honorific “Mehk-Da,” or “Father of the People,” had been bestowed upon Kadyrov by a unanimous vote.
The warlord has a personality cult built around him and has dominated the Russian territory of Chechnya since 2007.
He is routinely charged with managing serious human rights violations including as kidnappings, torture, extrajudicial murders, and targeting the LGBT population by Russian and international human rights organizations.
Tens of thousands of “volunteers” to the conflict in Ukraine have been enlisted by the father of 13 children, who has three current spouses, and who also claims to have sent three of his own kids to the front lines.
Kadyrov, a colonel-general in the Russian national guard, has harshly criticized Putin’s commanders’ use of military force and called for a blitzkrieg against Ukraine. He continues to be a Kremlin favorite despite everything.
Several military experts think the Russian onslaught is already under way by the recent uptick in combat and predict that it will intensify as the first anniversary of the invasion approaches on February 24.
Following a mobilisation drive that began in September, Russian soldiers inside Ukraine, according to Ukrainian authorities, are now thought to number more than 300,000.
The quantity, according to military specialists, might be a little bit smaller, but it would still be more than what entered Ukraine in February of last year.
In the days before February 24, Western sources calculated that Russia had deployed some 150,000 soldiers close to the border with Ukraine.
They would concentrate heavily on eastern Ukraine this time.
On Friday morning, it was disclosed that the presidents of Poland and Ukraine had met and spoke about the conflict in Rzeszow, in southeast Poland.
“The conversations also focused on security in the area,” it said. “The President of Ukraine briefed on his recent diplomatic activities in Brussels and other European cities.”
According to the office, the presidents spoke about the front-line situation today and the necessity for more coordinated military support activities.
Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, is now on his second overseas trip after speaking to ministers in Britain and European authorities in Brussels.
In light of Kyiv’s ongoing requests for western weaponry in the shape of heavy combat tanks and fighter planes, military experts said the Russian President is hopeful that Europe’s backing for Ukraine in the conflict would decrease.
Numerous tanks, notably the US-built Abrams, the UK’s Challenger 2, and Germany’s Leopard 2, have been pledged to aid the nation in its struggle against the invaders. Until now, nations have been hesitant to commit to buying combat planes.
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