Firefighters work at the site of a drone attack in the village of Stanovoie, in the Moscow region, on November 10, 2024 (AFP / TATYANA MAKEYEVA)
Drone attacks on an unprecedented scale targeted Ukraine and the region of the Russian capital Moscow during the night from Saturday to Sunday, both camps denounced.
While the conflict between kyiv and Moscow still rages, the Kremlin said it saw “positive signals” coming from American President-elect Donald Trump.
“The signals are positive. Trump, during his electoral campaign, said that he perceives all this (the conflict in Ukraine, editor's note) through agreements. And that he can obtain an agreement which leads to peace”, affirmed the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov, in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
“He talks about peace, not confrontation, not the desire to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, which distinguishes him favorably from the current administration,” he continued.
According to Mr. Peskov, it remains to be seen whether Mr. Trump “will stick to his campaign statements.”
With Donald Trump's victory in the American presidential election on Tuesday, the question arises of the sustainability of American support, which has enabled Ukraine to resist Russian troops since February 2022.
The billionaire has repeatedly promised to quickly find a solution to this devastating conflict, without explaining how he would proceed.
– Attack on Moscow –
In the meantime, the fighting continues.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it had neutralized 34 drones in the Moscow region in the morning, a record number in the area of the Russian capital since the start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in 2022.
According to this source, 36 other Ukrainian drones were shot down in two regions bordering Moscow and in three others bordering Ukraine.
The governor of the Moscow region, Andrei Vorobiov, said that the interceptions took place in particular over the towns of Ramenskoye and Domodedovo, about 40 kilometers southeast of the center of Moscow and near airports. .
He said a 52-year-old woman was injured by shrapnel, burned to the face, neck and hands, and two houses were set on fire.
This operation in the suburbs of Moscow comes four days after a massive Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian capital, targeted almost daily for a month.
During the night from Saturday to Sunday, a new “record” attack by 145 Russian drones targeted Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced on X.
In a statement, the Ukrainian Air Force said that, as of 9:30 a.m. (07:30 GMT), 62 of these 145 drones had been neutralized over 13 regions of the country.
For the moment, the Ukrainian authorities have not mentioned possible victims, nor have they claimed responsibility for the drone strikes targeting Moscow.
kyiv says it is carrying out its strikes on Russia, which usually mainly target energy sites, in response to the deadly Russian bombings which have destroyed its infrastructure and devastated its cities since Vladimir Putin launched the assault on Ukraine in February 2022 .
– Russian progress in the East –
Firefighters are present near a house damaged by a drone attack in the village of Stanovoie, in the Moscow region, on November 10, 2024 (AFP / TATYANA MAKEYEVA)
On the front, Ukrainian troops are becoming exhausted, suffering from their inferiority in weapons and personnel, and retreating in multiple sectors in eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops have been advancing more rapidly in recent weeks.
Russia claimed on Sunday the conquest of a new village, that of Vovtchenka, in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk (east).
This locality is located about 5 km from Kourakhové, an industrial city which had around 18,000 inhabitants before the conflict and which is home to a large deposit of lithium, a rare mineral, nearby.
Furthermore, thousands of North Korean soldiers are, according to kyiv and the West, deployed in the Russian region of Kursk, where the Ukrainian army has controlled a few hundred square kilometers since its surprise operation launched on August 6. kyiv assures that they have already been engaged in combat.
A Russian police officer notes the testimony of a resident of the village of Stanovoie, in the Moscow region, following a drone attack, November 10, 2024 (AFP / TATYANA MAKEYEVA)
The West, however, refuses to authorize kyiv to strike deep into Russian territory with the weapons it supplies and to shoot down Russian missiles targeting Ukrainian cities, for fear that this would lead to an escalation.
Volodymyr Zelensky retorts that Moscow is already escalating and on Thursday rejected the idea of discussing a ceasefire with Russia or making the slightest “concession”, after Moscow ordered the West to negotiate under penalty of “destruction of the Ukrainian population”.
