Three people were killed on Friday in Russia in a night attack by Ukrainian drones. At the same time, Russian bombings in Ukraine injured fifteen people and hit maternity in Kharkiv.
This Ukrainian salvo comes after a series of massive strikes of Russian drones on Ukraine, especially on kyiv, and while Moscow broke records in number of vehicles drawn every week, supplied by a defense industry that runs at full speed.
It also comes after the United States has reaffirmed its support for Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky who confirmed Thursday that she received ‘concrete dates’ for the delivery of new weapons from Donald Trump.
In Russia, a civilian was killed in the Lipetsk region (west) and another in that of Toula, near Moscow, in this Ukrainian drone attack. A third died in artillery bombings in the Belgorod border region, according to local authorities.
A total of 155 Ukrainian drones were slaughtered, according to the Russian Department of Defense.
The Ukrainian army assured that these drone attacks aimed at an aeronautical plant near Moscow and a missile manufacturing plant. A source in security services also claimed an explosion of a gas pipeline.
On the Ukrainian side, a medical establishment was affected by Russian strikes in Kharkiv (northeast), the country’s second city, where maternity was impacted, according to Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to him, nine people were injured, including ‘mothers with newborns and women who recovered from an operation’. No child is among the victims.
Trump ‘disappointed’
An AFP journalist present in Kharkiv saw a woman lulling her newborn in an ambulance after being evacuated from the premises. In Odessa, a large port in the south of the country, eight people were injured in Russian strikes.
While the negotiations to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine launched in 2022 are at a standstill, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had announced on Thursday that he was proposed by his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov a ‘new idea’.
If he has not detailed, it could potentially allow the door to be opened towards an outcome to the conflict, according to Mr. Rubio, who also told Moscow the ‘frustration’ of Donald Trump.
In this context, Trump spoke of an important declaration ‘that he could make on Monday on Russia, after saying himself’ disappointed ‘by his counterpart Vladimir Putin, with whom he had resumed when he returned to the White House.
Ukraine and many American elected officials, including in Mr. Trump’s camp, push the president to adopt new sanctions against Russia. To which he had so far refused, saying that he wanted to give diplomacy a chance.
American emissary Keith Kellogg must go to him from Monday in Ukraine for an official visit, according to kyiv.
European ‘unacceptable’ quota ‘
After two rounds of direct negotiations between Russians and Ukrainians in Istanbul, the Kremlin continues to reject the idea of ​​a cease-fire. He claims that Ukraine gives him four partially occupied regions and renounces to integrate NATO, unacceptable conditions for kyiv.
Friday, the spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov, also repeated that Moscow would consider ‘unacceptable’ any deployment of a European military contingent in Ukraine.
The day before, French President Emmanuel Macron had mentioned the possibility of deploying such a force in the event of a ceasefire.
He also announced the decision to strengthen ‘up to 50,000 men’ the Franco-British contingent which must serve as a base.
‘The presence of a foreign contingent near our borders is unacceptable,’ said Peskov, denouncing the ‘anti -Russian militarism’ of European leaders.
The French chief of staff, Thierry Burkhard, for his part assured Friday that Russia identified France as its main opponent in Europe ‘and that it aims by hybrid actions.
On the ground, the Russian forces continue their progress. On Friday, they claimed to take the locality of Zelena Dolina, near the city of Lyman, taken up by the Ukrainian army in October 2022, and whose Moscow troops are now ten kilometers away.
/ATS
