Russia launches 'one of the most massive missile attacks' in the war, Ukraine says

Mike Brest

December 29, 11:26 AM December 29, 11:26 AM

Russian forces launched one of their largest aerial campaigns on Thursday, though Ukraine's military said it was able to shoot down 65 missiles.

Ukraine's Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko said that infrastructure in Kyiv, in the north-central part of the country, and Odesa, in the south, were damaged in a missile barrage and subsequently were experiencing emergency power outages.

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"Today the enemy carried out another massive attack on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine," Halushchenko said in a post on Facebook. "Unfortunately, there is some damage to generation facilities and power grids."

Earlier this week, Halushchenko said that the power situation across the country remains “really difficult” and warned that New Year's Eve could see "maximum damage to the energy system."

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said they were able to shoot down 65 drones, composed of both Russian missiles and Iranian-made drones that have been provided to Russia.

"Russian terrorists have been saving one of the most massive missile attacks since the beginning of the full-scale invasion for the last days of the year. They dream that Ukrainians will celebrate the New Year in darkness and cold. But they cannot defeat the Ukrainian people," Ukraine's Defense Ministry said in a statement on Twitter. "Today, Ukraine's Air defense forces shot down 54 Russian missiles and 11 Shahed-131/136 drones."

For three months, Russia has launched waves of missile attacks at Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in what U.S. and Western officials say is a strategy designed to weaponize the winter climate to demoralize the population. The strikes, which are launched on roughly a weekly basis, frequently result in parts of the country losing electricity, heat, and running water, and the ensuing damage is putting extraordinary strain on Ukraine's energy grid.

The Western world has pledged more than a billion dollars to support Ukraine's efforts to secure and rebuild its power grid.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said earlier this week United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres should mediate a “peace” summit between his government and the Kremlin, and he'd like to see it happen by the end of February. However, he demanded that Moscow would need to face prosecution for war crimes in an international court before Ukraine would extend an invitation to the Kremlin.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to Kuleba’s proposal, telling state media Ria Novosti that they “never followed conditions set by others. Only our own and common sense.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin also claimed days ago that he’s ready to engage in talks to end the war and blamed Kyiv for not taking that step, saying in a state television interview that Russia is “prepared to negotiate some acceptable outcomes with all the participants of this process,” and he argued, “It’s not us who refuse talks, it’s them.”

Flock of birds flying near South Korea mistaken for another North Korean drone

Mike Brest

December 27, 12:31 PM December 27, 12:31 PM

What South Korean officials thought was a drone from North Korea has instead been identified as a flock of birds.

On Tuesday, the military launched fighter jets and attack helicopters after spotting a flying object crossing the Military Demarcation Line from North Korea. While a local county office sent emergency text messages notifying residents that they were North Korean drones, the military later clarified that these were actually birds.

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A day earlier, the South Korean military failed to shoot down a group of North Korean drones that crossed the border for the first time in five years. While they scrambled warplanes and attack helicopters, they were not able to shoot down any of the drones that ultimately flew back home or disappeared.

“We have a plan to create a military drone unit tasked with monitoring key military facilities in North Korea. But we’ll advance the establishment of the drone unit as soon as possible because of yesterday’s incident,” President Yoon Suk Yeol said during a regular Cabinet Council meeting. “We’ll also introduce state-of-the-art stealth drones and bolster our surveillance capability.”

He also said the military needs more intensive readiness and exercises to prepare for the threats posed by North Korean drones.

Monday’s incident raised questions about South Korea’s air defense capabilities at a time when tensions between them and North Korea remain high amid the latter’s frequent missile tests.

“Our military will thoroughly and resolutely respond to this kind of North Korean provocation,” Maj. Gen. Lee Seung-o, director of operations at the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, according to the .

It was the first suspected North Korean drone to cross into the South since 2017, and they have approximately 300 drones in its arsenal, according to South Korean officials.

The invasion comes less than a month after North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un claimed the country was in the final stage of developing its first spy satellite, which is one of the high-tech weapons systems Pyongyang covets.

Nuclear electric power plant attacked by Ukrainian kamikaze drones, Russian officials say

Brady Knox

July 20, 11:26 PM July 20, 11:26 PM

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is under the handle of Russian forces, came below assault Wednesday from quite a few Ukrainian kamikaze drones, according to Russian officials.

The push business of the administration of Energodar, the city the place the plant is situated, claimed four drones were being used, according to RIA News, while a local administrator claimed 3 ended up made use of. Eleven staff of the plant were being wounded, with 4 in critical condition, Vladimir Rogov, a council member for Russia's Civil-Armed forces Administration in the Zaporizhzhia area, informed TASS. He claimed that the drones did not attack the reactor element of the plant.

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"In accordance to preliminary details, the UAVs were being equipped with warheads with an explosive mass calculated in kilograms in TNT equal. The terrorist entity USIL* need to be destroyed!" Rogov wrote on his Telegram webpage. He included a clarification stating that "USIL" refers to the "Ukrainian State of Ivano-Frankivsk and [Lviv]," two western Ukrainian cities, comparing the Ukrainian governing administration to the Islamic Point out of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.

In yet another Telegram write-up, Rogov reported "Zelensky's terrorists" carried out the attacks to intimidate the inhabitants of the Zaporizhzhia location, referencing the Ukrainian president.

"This is revenge for the drive of the inhabitants of the location to reunite with Russia," Rogov wrote. He then posted numerous illustrations or photos of what had been claimed to be pieces of the drones used in the assault.

The Ukrainian federal government has however to remark on the allegations. The Ukrainian Embassy in the United States did not respond when reached for remark. The U.N. secretary-general's deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq, stated he did not have any to start with-hand expertise of the attack at a briefing on Wednesday, in accordance to TASS.

The premier nuclear power plant in Europe has come under attack numerous situations considering the fact that the beginning of Russia's whole-scale invasion of Ukraine in February from Russian and Ukrainian troops. On Monday, exiled Ukrainian Mayor Dmytro Orlov posted a Telegram message in which he cryptically referred to an "incident" that resulted in several Russian troopers killed and wounded. RIA News claimed that the attack was from a Ukrainian drone that wounded 11 plant personnel instead than troopers. Orlov has however to remark on the most recent claimed assault on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility.

The plant in southern Ukraine has been transformed into a Russian army foundation to defend troops and artillery from Ukrainian assaults, according to the Wall Street Journal.