(Kyiv) The Kremlin on Friday welcomed Donald Trump’s latest statement opposing Kyiv’s use of American missiles against Russian territory, in the wake of a new “massive” Russian air attack against Ukraine.
Posted yesterday at 6:31 a.m.
Barbara WOJAZER
Agence France-Presse
Moscow also said the latest strikes were a response to Kyiv’s firing of US-made ATACMS missiles two days earlier at a “military airfield” in Taganrog, southwest Russia.
The outgoing American administration of Democrat Joe Biden only authorized the use of such missiles on Russian territory in November, after having long opposed it, despite repeated requests from Kyiv.
In an article published by the magazine Time On Thursday, President-elect Trump, who is due to take office in January, said he was “strongly opposed” to this idea. “We are only escalating this war and making it worse,” he said.
Trump’s latest statement “completely corresponds” with the Russian position, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov reacted on Friday.
Moscow and Kyiv are trying to gain support from the Republican against the backdrop of possible peace negotiations which could begin next year, after three years of Russian invasion of Ukraine which left tens of thousands dead on each side .
Donald Trump has already called for an “immediate ceasefire” and negotiations to end the war, after his meeting a week ago with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky and Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
A hundred missiles
“We do not want a ceasefire, we want peace, once our conditions are met and all our objectives are achieved,” Dmitri Peskov reacted coldly.
He considered that the “preliminary conditions for negotiations” were not met, while Moscow was de facto demanding a surrender of Ukraine before negotiating the conditions of peace.
Moscow, whose forces are advancing in eastern Ukraine, is not easing its pressure on the civilian population by launching a new massive attack on its energy network in the morning, causing widespread power cuts in temperatures below from zero.
“In response to the use of long-range American weapons, the Russian armed forces carried out a massive attack on critical installations of the energy infrastructure” of Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram.
PHOTO UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICES, PROVIDED BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Buildings are on fire after a Russian drone attack in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine early on Friday, December 13.
Russia launched 94 ballistic and cruise missiles as well as 193 drones, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
A total of 81 missiles and 80 drones were shot down by air defense and another 105 drones “were lost from radars and did not reach their targets,” according to the same source.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded on the social network X “a strong reaction” from the international community to put an end to the “madness” of Vladimir Putin.
Widespread power cuts
If Westerners “are afraid to respond or become accustomed to terror, Putin sees this as permission to continue,” he said.
His head of diplomacy Andriï Sybiga called on Westerners to deliver “20 air defense systems, NASAMS, HAWK and IRIS-T” to Ukraine.
After launching its invasion in February 2022, Russia regularly bombs Ukraine’s energy grid, plunging millions of people across the country into darkness in the middle of the winter season.
The twelfth massive attack against this sector since the start of the year, Friday’s strikes “severely damaged thermal power plant equipment”, the DTEK group, the country’s main private energy supplier, said in a press release.
The national energy operator Ukrenergo announced the extension of power cuts across the country.
PHOTO UKRAINIAN EMERGENCY SERVICES, PROVIDED BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Firefighters work on buildings hit by Russian strikes in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine on December 13.
The strikes particularly affected the western regions of Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil, depriving half of the population of the latter of power, according to regional authorities.
In addition to these attacks, Ukraine has been struggling for months on the front line, failing to stop the advances of Russia, which has an advantage in numbers of men, weapons and ammunition.
Kyiv is also trying to mobilize its allies to hold on, while the arrival of Donald Trump at the White House raises fears of a reduction in American support.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, for their part, insisted on Thursday in Warsaw that peace in Ukraine could not be achieved at the expense of the Ukrainians and discussed a potential sending of European troops to this country, to play a peacekeeping role in the event of a ceasefire agreement.
