Ukraine issued an airstrikes warning across the country early Thursday and senior officials said air defense units were shooting down incoming Russian missiles, while fighting also intensified in Bakhmut to the east.
The attacks came after the United States and Germany announced plans to arm ukraine with dozens of modern battle tanks in its fight against Russia, which condemned the decisions as an “extremely dangerous” move.
“The first Russian missiles have been shot down,” said Andrey Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office.
Overnight, the military said its anti-aircraft defenses shot down all 24 drones sent by Russia, 15 of them over the capital Kyiv. There was no report of damage.
The authorities asked people to take shelter.
Russia has targeted critical infrastructure with missile and drone attacks since October, causing widespread blackouts and other outages during the bitter winter.
Earlier, Zelensky praised US and German commitments to send tanks and urged the Allies to make large quantities of tanks available quickly.
“The key now is speed and volume. Speed in training our forces, speed in supplying tanks to Ukraine. Numbers in tank support,” he said in a nightly video address on Wednesday. “We have to make such a ‘tank fist’, such a ‘freedom fist’.”
Ukraine is seeking hundreds of modern tanks to give its troops the firepower to break through Russian defensive lines and recapture territory in the south and east. Ukraine and Russia have mainly relied on Soviet-era T-72 tanks.
The promise of the tanks comes as both Ukraine and Russia are expected to launch new offensives in the war.
US President Joe Biden announced his decision to supply 31 M1 Abrams tanks hours after Berlin said it would provide the Leopard 2 tanks – the workhorse of NATO armies across Europe.
Maintaining the drumbeat of Kyiv’s requests for more aid, Zelensky said he spoke to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and called for long-range missiles and aircraft.
Ukraine’s allies have already provided billions in military aid, including sophisticated US missile systems.
The United States has been wary of deploying the harder-to-maintain Abrams, but had to change tactics to persuade Germany to send its more easily operated Leopards to Ukraine.
Biden said the tanks are “no offensive threat” to Russia and were needed to help the Ukrainians “improve their ability to maneuver in open terrain”.
Germany would send an initial company of 14 tanks from its stock and would approve shipments by allied European states.
The Abrams may be difficult, but the Leopard was designed as a system that any NATO member could serve and crews and repair specialists could be trained together on the same model, Ukrainian military expert Viktor Kewaluk told Espresso TV.
“If we have been provided with these vehicles and brought to this club, I would say our prospects are looking good.”
‘Dangerous decision’
Russia reacted with fury to Germany’s decision to approve the delivery of the Leopards.
“This extremely dangerous decision takes the conflict to a new level of confrontation,” said Sergei Nechayev, Russia’s ambassador to Germany.
Since invading Ukraine on February 24 last year, Russia has changed its rhetoric on war from an operation to “denazify” and “demilitarize” its neighbor to force it into a face-off between itself and the US-led NATO alliance. Can be put in front.
Senior US officials said it would take months to deliver the Abrams and described the decision to supply them as providing Ukraine’s long-term defense.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said the German tanks would probably be ready in three or four months.
Pledges to Ukraine from other countries that brought Leopard into the fray, along with announcements from Poland, Finland and Norway. Spain and the Netherlands said they were considering it.
Britain has offered 14 of its comparable Challenger tanks and France is considering sending its Leclercs.
Bakhmut is fighting
The Kyiv government acknowledged on Wednesday that its forces had pulled out of Soledar, a small salt-mining town close to Bakhmut in the east that Russia said it captured more than a week ago, its first for more than six months. Biggest advantage.
The area around Bakhmut, which had a pre-war population of 70,000, has seen some of the most brutal fighting of the war.
Ukraine’s military said that Russian forces were attacking in the direction of Bakhmut “with the aim of capturing the entire Donetsk region and regardless of their own casualties”.
The Russian-installed governor of Donetsk previously said units of Russia’s Wagner contract militia were advancing inside Bakhmut, fighting on the outskirts and in recently occupied areas of Ukraine.
Analyst Kevaluk said that losing Bakhmut would not change much in terms of the strategic scheme of things, but he was more concerned with Russian efforts to regroup and concentrate resources in the Luhansk region.
Donetsk and Luhansk make up the Donbass region. Russian forces control almost all of Luhansk, while the Russians and their representatives say they control about half of Donetsk.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.
The 11-month war has killed thousands, driven millions from their homes and reduced cities to rubble.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)