At least 11 dead in new wave of Russian airstrikes in Ukraine

Russia launched a new massive bombardment in Ukraine on Thursday that left at least 11 dead and caused cuts of electricity, the day after kyiv’s Western allies agreed to send heavy tanks to resist Moscow troops.

Russia affirmed that this delivery of heavy equipment meant the “direct involvement” of the Western powers in the conflict and intensified its offensive in several areas of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

“Eleven people were injured and, unfortunately, another 11 died,” relief spokesman Oleksander Jorunejy told Ukrainian television, noting that the most significant damage occurred in the kyiv region.

A previous balance reported one dead and two injured in the capital.

According to the head of the Ukrainian armed forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, Russia fired 55 missiles on Thursday, of which “47 were destroyed, 20 of them” in the immediate vicinity of kyiv.

Also, at night 24 drones were shot down Iranian-made Shahed, according to Ukrainian forces.

kyiv and other regions proceeded to “emergency” power cuts to “avoid significant damage to electrical infrastructures,” reported the private electricity operator DTEK.

Russia is trying to cause “a systemic breakdown” in the national grid, said Energy Minister German Galushchenko.

“The situation is still under control,” said Prime Minister Denys Shmygal.

In the Odessa region (southwest), power was restored after noon in hospitals and “other essential infrastructures,” DTEK announced.

The shelling near that city occurred shortly before French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna arrived to meet with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba.

After several military setbacks in the middle of last year, the Kremlin changed strategy and in October it began attacking transformers and power plants in Ukraine.

Since then, blackouts multiplied and left millions of Ukrainian civilians without running water or heat in the dead of winter.

This new massive attack occurs the day after the United States and Germany authorized the shipment of dozens of heavy combat vehicles to Ukraine, an unprecedented decision in the 11 months of war.

Germany plans to deliver Leopard 2 tanks “at the end of March, beginning of April,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Thursday.

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky stated that the arrival of heavy tanks they will be “an important step on the road to victory.”

But “the key now is speed and volume” in the delivery of the tanks, Zelensky said Wednesday night.

The mandatary also claimed fighter jets and long-range missiles, weapons that Western countries are not willing to hand over for fear of provoking a military escalation in the event of incursions into Russian territory.

But for the Kremlin, the delivery of heavy tanks is already constitutes a “direct implication” of the western countries in the war, affirmed the spokesman of the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov.

Instead, French diplomacy claimed that “the supply of military equipment” is part of Ukraine’s “exercise of legitimate defense” and does not make those who practice it belligerent.

“We are not at war with Russia and neither are any of our partners,” French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said.

Russian troops, superior in number of troops and material, “intensify” fighting in the east, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar said on Wednesday.

Moscow has been trying to conquer Bakhmut for several months and lately it tightened the siege of Vugledar, a town in the southwest of Donetsk.

Ukrainian forces admitted on Wednesday that they had withdrawn from Soledar, northeast of Bakhmut, now in Russian hands.

According to a Ukrainian sergeant, whose nom de guerre is “Alkor,” “the battle was hard.”

“We are still shooting, we continue and continue, but after five minutes a new wave of 20 enemies arrives,” the military explained. They arrive in “huge numbers. They use their soldiers as cannon fodder.”