Russia uses new tactics to launch drone attacks on Kyiv. Germany providing 200 million euro in additional aid for Ukraine ahead of the winter. A vast majority of Ukrainians say Ukraine can prevail with adequate Western support, a poll finds.
Russia uses new tactics to launch drone attacks on Kyiv
A swarm of Russian drones attacked Kyiv overnight into Monday. All the drones aimed at the Ukrainian capital had been shot down, the Kyiv city military administration said in a statement. The drone wreckage caused a fire in the Muromets park in the Desnyanskyi district and set some grass ablaze on the embankment of the Dnipro River in the Obolonskyi district.
The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 50 out of 80 drones launched by Russia during an overnight attack. Twenty-seven more disappeared off radar after likely being disabled by electronic warfare systems. The intercepts took place over nine regions.
It was Russia’s third drone attack on the city in as many nights. Ukraine’s air defenses destroyed all targets, but falling drone debris caused damage throughout the city. Overnight on Sunday, the strikes damaged a building and dormitory of the Institute of Journalism of the Taras Shevchenko National University. Power lines were damaged in three locations in Kyiv and the surrounding region.
On Saturday, the attack came in waves and lasted for most of the day. Debris from downed drones struck six city districts, causing damage to residential neighborhoods. Falling drone debris started a fire in a multi-story apartment building in the Svyatoshynskyi district. Two people were injured in the attack, with one taken to hospital.
Russia’s Shahed drones fly low and in waves, making it more difficult to intercept them, spokesperson for the Kyiv city military administration, Mykhailo Shamanov said on national television on Saturday. Russia applies the tactics to confuse air defense systems and make mobile units abandon their positions, creating passages for further waves of drones, he added.
Russia launched more than 2,000 attack drones at Ukraine in October that are comprised of more than 170,000 parts manufactured by companies in China, the U.S. and the EU, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said in his nightly address on Saturday. These parts “should have been blocked from being supplied to Russia,” he said.
“It once again highlights to the world the need to work harder to control exports of special components and resources, to prevent Russia from circumventing the sanctions that have been long imposed on it for this war,” Zelenskyi said.
Germany providing 200 million euro in additional aid for Ukraine ahead of winter
On an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced EUR 200 million in additional aid to Ukraine ahead of the winter, the European Pravda said, citing DPA news agency.
The aid comes at a time when Ukraine is approaching a third consecutive wartime winter in the midst of ongoing Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure.
Germany sends 200 million euro as part of its humanitarian assistance to Ukraine to be used to heat the houses close to the front line and deliver warm items, like blankets and coats, to the residents, Baerbock said.
Vast majority of Ukrainians say Ukraine can prevail with adequate Western support, poll finds
Forty-seven per cent of Ukrainians believe that Russia has the resources to maintain its war in the long-term, and 46 per cent say that Russia is exhausting its resources, a recent survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found. A vast majority of Ukrainians in both groups say that Ukraine can be successful in the war with adequate Western support.
Some 71 per cent of those who say that Russia has the resources to wage a prolonged war and 92 per cent of those who say Russia is exhausting its resources agree that Ukraine can win with enough Western support.
Russia is trying to spread the narrative that it has “almost unlimited resources” to continue to wage a prolonged war and that it’s hopeless to fight against it, deputy director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, Anton Hrushetskyi said in a comment to the poll results.
“Russian propaganda aims to undermine Ukrainians’ confidence that they can win, and sow doubt among our Western allies,” Hrushetskyi said.
The same poll shows that 63 per cent of Ukrainians are ready to bear the hardships of the war for as long as it takes.
