Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Saturday, December 14, 2024, discover the latest news around this conflict.
Russia: kyiv claims strike on oil site
Ukraine claimed on Saturday to have bombed an oil site in the Russian region of Oriol (west) overnight, triggering a fire, with local authorities confirming a “massive attack” of drones. The Ukrainian General Staff said in a statement that kyiv forces attacked this site in the town of Stalnoï Kon, located in the Oriol region about 165 km from the Ukrainian border.
“It is one of the largest oil terminals in the suburbs of (the city of) Oriol” which is part of the “military-industrial complex” supplying the Russian army, the Ukrainian general staff said. Alleged images of the attack, published by Russian media, show wisps of smoke billowing overnight from a fire.
On Telegram, the Russian governor of the region, Andrei Klychkov, confirmed on Saturday that fuel had caught fire on “an infrastructure“after a “massive drone attack”. According to him, 11 enemy drones were shot down by the anti-aircraft defense and, at 5:00 a.m. local time (2:00 a.m. GMT) the fire had been brought under control, but not yet extinguished. The attack did not cause any casualties, he added.
In the Russian region of Belgorod, however, a nine-year-old boy was killed during a Ukrainian drone attack that hit a house in the village of Maiski, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported on Saturday.
According to this source, the victim's mother and her second child, a seven-year-old girl, were injured during the attack and hospitalized. In response to Russian bombings which are destroying its infrastructure and causing numerous civilian casualties, kyiv regularly carries out drone strikes in Russia, particularly on military and energy sites.
During the night from Friday to Saturday, Russia carried out an attack on Ukraine with 132 drones, 130 of which were neutralized, the Ukrainian Air Force said. For its part, the Kremlin army said on Saturday that it had shot down around forty enemy drones during the night and morning, mainly over Russian regions bordering Ukraine.
Russia deploys more North Korean troops, says Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Moscow had started to mobilize “a notable name” of North Korean troops in order to push back Ukrainian troops from the Russian region of Kursk.
Ukrainian troops began their incursion into this region in August and still control some localities there, as kyiv seeks to ease pressure on its forces in eastern Ukraine, where Russia continues to advance. “Currently, preliminary data already shows that the Russians have started using North Korean soldiers in their assaults – a considerable number.”declared the Ukrainian president in his traditional speech to the nation.
“The Russians are integrating them into consolidated units and using them in operations in the Kursk region. For now, it is only in this region”he added. Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that the participation of North Korean troops in Russian operations in the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, constituted a new escalation in the war that began almost 34 months ago.
“Ukraine will continue to defend itself, including against North Korean troops,” he assured. Ukrainian and South Korean officials have previously said more than 10,000 North Korean troops are in Russia. Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian President Vladimir Putin was taking steps to expand and continue the war.
He made a new appeal to Ukraine's Western allies to step up their support for kyiv, saying he would discuss it with his European partners next week. Volodymyr Zelensky plans to attend a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, NATO and the EU.
