While many of the citizens of the US And are allies spent the night of Christmas Eve marking the Santa’s supposed path On flight trackers, Ukrainian citizens huddled in bunkers as their forces tried to shoot down the Russian drones and missiles they saw shooting through their airspace.
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, must have been planning the attack on Wednesday morning for some time.
“Any massive Russian attack requires preparation time. It is never a spontaneous decision. It is a conscious choice – not only of objectives, but also of timing and date.” he shared Wednesday morning.
“Today Putin deliberately chose Christmas as an attack. What could be more inhumane? More than 70 missiles, including ballistic ones, and more than a hundred attack drones. The targets are our energy infrastructure. They continue to fight for a power outage in Ukraine,” he said.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said the Russian Christmas attack included “78 missiles of different types and 106 UAVs” and appears to be “nothing sacred for the Russian terrorists.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed in a statement they had carried out a ‘massive’ attack on Ukraine on Wednesday and that ‘the objective of the attack had been achieved. All facilities have been affected.”
Ukrainian forces were able to shoot down 50 of the missiles, and many of the drones, but Zelenskyy said those that got past their defenses caused power outages in “several regions.”
In response to the attack, the Operational Command of the NATO member Polish Armed Forces warned residents via social media that they had crashed their plane as a precaution. At least this is the second time this month Polish troops felt the need to guard their airspace amid Russian attacks on Ukraine.
“Due to the attack by long-range aircraft of the Russian Federation, which may target facilities in western Ukraine, among other places, military aviation has started operating in our airspace,” they said in a statement. first announcementaccording to translation. The alert has been canceled about two hours later.
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said on social media that Russia’s “Christmas gift to Ukraine” was “targeted at Ukrainian families celebrating in their homes and the energy infrastructure that keeps them warm.”
“For the third holiday season, Russia is weaponizing winter” she wrote.
Former Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko said that as a result of Russian aggression: “The holidays are not so cheerful in Ukraine this year. These are dark and hard times.”
“But the Christmas story is a good lesson that there is hope in the darkest of times. That sacrifices are worth it. That light will overcome the darkness,” he said.
Russia has been attacking its fellow former Soviet state for more than a decade, going back at least to 2014, when Putin the illegally annexed Crimea. The conflict, which continued for the next eight years in a few separatist regions, spiraled into a full-scale war in February 2022, when the Russian military further invaded their democratic neighbor on three fronts.
The Kremlin had apparently planned military actions for only a few days, but the Russian forces were largely held back in their advance by Ukrainian troops and civilian volunteers, armed and trained by a global coalition of fifty countries.
The United Nations estimates that the war has displaced more than ten million Ukrainian citizens and half as many people need humanitarian assistance. Zelenskyy confirmed earlier this month that 43,000 members of the Ukrainian armed forces have been killed in the conflict, and more than 370,000 have been injured.
According to the Defense Department, the U.S. “has committed more than $63.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration, including approximately $62.9 billion since the start of the unprovoked and brutal invasion of Russia on February 24, 2022.”
The says DoD that the US will continue “to work with its allies and partners to provide Ukraine with additional capabilities to defend itself.”
A new aid package is expected in the coming days, according to Reuters. Citing “two sources familiar with the matter,” the news agency reported that the next aid offer – likely the last of Biden’s term – will include about $1.2 billion in weapons and equipment.
Christmas did not become an official holiday in Ukraine until 2017when the country declared that both December 25 and January 7 would be commemorated as public holidays, in accordance with the differences between the Julian calendar used by some Christian sects and the Gregorian calendar used by others. In 2023In a deliberate attempt to distance itself from Russian influence, Ukraine declared that Christmas would only be celebrated on December 25.
Zelenskyy, on Wednesdayshared his gratitude for the Ukrainian armed forces and promised that power would be restored and that “Russian evil will not break Ukraine or spoil Christmas.”
Herald Wire services contributed.
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