Russia accused Ukraine of launching a deadly missile attack Friday on a supermarket in the Moscow-controlled city of Donetsk, while Kiev responded to a huge wave of Russian drone attacks on several areas and fierce fighting near the strategic logistics hub of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine. Informed.
The fighting on Friday came a day after the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Ramstein, Germany, where Kiev’s allies pledged assistance to strengthen Ukraine’s air defenses amid Moscow’s continued attacks, including attacks on civilian and infrastructure sites. Vowed to leave no stone unturned.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who traveled to Rome after the Ramstein gathering, also criticized new actions by the United States and Britain to sanction Russia’s oil producers, a major liquefied natural gas project and more than 100 tankers in its “shadow fleet.” praised. The West wants to deprive Moscow of the funds it needs to continue the war.
The Russian state RIA news agency said investigators were probing the supermarket attack early Friday, claiming a US-supplied HIMARS missile struck the supermarket, killing two people in the occupied city.
Video on social media, verified by RFE/RL, appears to show a large explosion in the area where a small market is located.
Ukrainian officials have not commented on the Russian accusation.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Air Force said Russia attacked Ukraine with 72 Martyr-type strike drones in Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Khmelnitsky, Vinnytsia and Kherson regions.
In Kiev, bright flashes and explosions were seen as defense systems intercepted several drones in the sky. Military officials said no deaths were reported, although some damage from debris was seen at a high-rise residential building.
The Ukrainian General Staff said several small towns east of Pokrovsk and a key highway a few kilometers south of the region were the sites of intense fighting on Friday.
Pokrovsk has been the target of Russia’s brutal campaign in recent months, which has largely destroyed the town, which had a pre-war population of about 64,000 people.
As intensified attacks and fighting on front lines continue, diplomatic efforts to stop the conflict appear to be gaining momentum.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday it expects Kiev to hold high-level talks with the White House after President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
“We are looking forward to the meeting between our presidents because the main thing for us is to work together with the US. … We are preparing for contacts at the highest and highest levels immediately after the inauguration,” ministry spokesman Hirahi Tykhi said. Are.”
The Kremlin said it is keen to meet Trump and has made progress in arranging a meeting after the new president takes office on January 20.
“It does not require any conditions, just a mutual desire and political will to negotiate and solve existing problems through dialogue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow. and President Vladimir Putin, though he did not give a timeline.
In Ramstein, hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid were promised — including $500 million from Washington as part of outgoing President Joe Biden’s goal to send as much support as possible before Trump returns to office.
Meanwhile, Zelensky thanked Washington and London for their “simultaneous action” in sanctioning Russian energy firms and ships operating in the Kremlin’s so-called “shadow fleet” of sanctions-busting vessels in the Baltic Sea – which are accused of There is also suspicion of sabotaging communications and electrical cables in the body of water.
