Dozens of explosions were reported in Ukraine and near Russian-occupied Crimea early Wednesday, as both sides stepped up air attacks ahead of an expected counteroffensive by Kiev to retake lost territory.
Much rests on Ukraine’s long-awaited counter-offensive, more than a year after Russia’s start large scale invasion from the country. Military analysts say it is not only important for kyiv to regain land, but also to convince its Western partners of the need to send more military aid.
Experts say a series of drone attacks in Russia and Russian-occupied territory in recent days, which Moscow has blamed on Kyiv, have been seen as Ukraine prepare the battlefield before its operation.
Anticipating Ukraine’s decision, Russia stepped up air attacks across the country.
Air raid sirens sounded across the Ukrainian capital shortly after midnight, followed by a series of explosions that the military said came from its air defences.
The Ukrainian Air Force command said in a statement that Russian forces had launched up to 26 Iranian-made suicide bomber drones. His air defenses intercepted 21, he added.
“The capital of Ukraine came under another enemy air attack. The third in the last six days,” said Serhiy Popko, head of the capital’s military administration. “According to preliminary information, all enemy targets have been identified and shot down in the airspace around the capital.”
Officials in the central Ukrainian province of Kirovohrad reported that a drone strike hit a fuel depot.
The wave of airstrikes follows a lull in Russian missile and drone attacks after a months-long barrage on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure over the fall and winter.
During the war, Ukrainian officials refrained from confirming most attacks on Russian territory, but Russian news agency Tass reported on Wednesday that a drone struck a fuel depot in the southern Krasnodar region. .
Veniamin Kondratyev, governor of the southern region, said in a Telegram channel message that the “highest category” of fire broke out at a fuel depot in the village of Volna. The Kerch Bridge stretches from there to Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, occupied by Moscow in 2014.
Russian officials have accused Ukraine of carrying out drone strikes in Crimea in recent days, including an attack on Saturday that set fire to a fuel depot in Sevastopol, the port base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
Before Ukraine launches a counter-offensive to liberate about 18% of Russian-occupied southeastern territory, using tanks and weapons supplied from the west, it should redouble its efforts to neutralize the military threat from Crimea. Moscow heavily militarized the peninsula and used it as a staging post for its full-scale invasion.
Strikes against fuel depots, military bases and logistics centers could disrupt Russia’s supply lines to its forces in southern and eastern Ukraine. The Kerch Bridge, a supply route for Russian forces in Crimea, was temporarily closed last year after an explosion and remains a prime target for Ukraine.
Baza Telegram, a pro-law enforcement Russian outlet, citing sources, reported that drones also hit a Russian airbase in the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine to the north.
An explosion in Bryansk on Monday derailed a freight train, igniting a large fire and flipping several cars onto its side, video footage showed. Aleksandr Bogomaz, governor of Bryansk province, blamed the incident on an “unidentified explosive device”, state media reported.
“There is no doubt that the Ukrainians are shaping the battlefield not only by attacking Crimea and Russia proper, but also through PSYOPS operations”, or military operations generally aimed at psychologically influencing the enemy said Konrad Muzyka, an independent defense analyst and director of Rochan Consulting, which tracks the war in Ukraine.
Muzyka pointed to reports of evacuation notices that had emerged in Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia province in recent days as evidence of such psychological operations.
Russia’s FSB state security service said on Wednesday it had arrested Ukrainian intelligence agents in Crimea plotting sabotage and detected a smuggling channel used to bring explosives into Russia from Bulgaria “disguised as electric cookers”. .
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