In the context of an escalation in the Russian bombing of Ukraine, Kyiv declared a state of air alert throughout the country, and confirmed that Russia had targeted Ukraine with about 163 missiles during the past hours, and warned that Moscow was preparing a large-scale operation against it at the beginning of next year.

According to Ukrainian statistics, Moscow has launched about a thousand missiles and drones since mid-October, which prompted the Ukrainian army to declare a state of air alert throughout the country, and warn of what it called a new wave of Russian attacks.

What does Russia want?

And about the goal of Russia intensifying its attacks, the writer and political analyst Andrei Ontikov explained - in his interview with the "Behind the News" program - that it was an attempt to force the Ukrainian side to resume negotiations, explaining that before resorting to striking the infrastructure, Russia believed that the continuation of the series of combat operations could lead to both parties to the negotiating table.

But after Ukraine refused to "refer to dialogue and crossed all Russian red lines," Moscow resorted to intensifying its strikes and may resort to cutting off all electricity supplies to the Ukrainian army until Kyiv finds itself compelled to dialogue.

In a different interpretation of the Russian escalation, Donald Jensen, the former US diplomat in Moscow, attributed the matter to what he called the "bad" performance of the Russian forces, as Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to destroy all of Ukraine, which reflects the poor plan of the leadership in Moscow and the poor performance of its forces in exchange for the strength and effectiveness of the Ukrainian army. .

He also made it clear that 80% of the Russian drones are shot down by the Ukrainian Air Defense Forces, considering that Russia's basic plan has failed, and instead of retreating, Moscow is launching an intense attack, which Jensen considered an indication of a sense of despair and an attempt to achieve other goals, stressing that this strategy will not Push Ukraine in the way of negotiations.

Constant bombing

In official statements, the Ukrainian General Staff said that its forces repelled Russian attacks on more than 20 towns in Donetsk canton, and that about 25 other villages in the vicinity of Bakhmut were subjected to heavy Russian bombardment.

With regard to the Ukrainian Southern Operations Command, the authority said that the Russian bombing continued on infrastructure facilities in the provinces of Mykolaiv, Odessa, Zaporizhia and Dnipro.

The Ukrainian authorities also added that its air defenses shot down two Russian missiles, which were launched from the Crimea peninsula.

As for Kherson, the Al-Jazeera correspondent reported the continuation of the mutual artillery shelling between the Ukrainian and Russian forces, along the banks of the Dnipro River.

And in Zaporizhia, north of Kherson, the pro-Russian authorities said that they had started constructing a dome over the nuclear waste storage facility at the Zaporizhia nuclear plant, with the aim of protecting it from attacks by Ukrainian drones, they said.

Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed the implementation of what it described as high-precision air and sea strikes, which it said disrupted Western armament supplies to Ukraine, in light of the growing talk of Washington's agreement to supply Kyiv with the Patriot air defense system.

long war

In parallel with Ukrainian warnings of a large-scale operation that Russia intends to launch this winter, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Russia's war on Ukraine may continue for a long time, but it will end at the negotiating table, according to his opinion.

Stoltenberg called not to underestimate Russia, as it is planning a long military operation, as he put it. He also stressed the need for a solution to the crisis that guarantees the victory of Ukraine as an independent and sovereign state, and stressed that the fastest way to achieve this is to increase military support to Ukraine.

Stoltenberg's remarks coincided with a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Friday, with the leaders of the participating operations centers in Ukraine, at the command center, whose location was not disclosed.

According to Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin was briefed on the work of these centers, and expressed to their leaders his readiness to listen to their proposals regarding immediate and medium-term measures regarding the conduct of the military operation in Ukraine.