On Wednesday, Ukraine announced the restoration of new areas in the south and east of the country, and spoke of a new era by obtaining Western air defense systems, while Russia said that its forces repelled attacks in several regions.

Simultaneously, the forces continued their air and missile campaign against Ukrainian civilian targets for the third day in a row.

The head of the Ukrainian Military Administration in Kherson confirmed the restoration of control over 5 towns in the region, which is one of the four regions that Russia announced at the end of last month to include them.

However, the Ukrainian presidency indicated that the Ukrainian army has been subjected to Russian bombardment on this front to stop the counter-attack it launched weeks ago.

The Ukrainian army had recently announced the restoration of other towns in the countryside of the city of Kherson under Russian control, but the Russian Defense Ministry and the separatists loyal to it have repeatedly indicated that the Ukrainian advance has stopped.

Also on the southern front, the Ukrainian army today shot down 4 Russian helicopters, according to a statement of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

As for the eastern front in the Donbass region (east), the Ukrainian army recaptured 7 new towns in the Lugansk region, while there were dead and wounded in an exchange of shelling between Russian and Ukrainian forces on Donetsk.

On the other hand, the Russian army announced that it had repelled Ukrainian attacks in the Donetsk, Lugansk Donbass regions, and Kharkiv (northeast), while the Russian Defense Ministry announced the destruction of the headquarters of Ukrainian forces in Zaporozhye Province (southeast).

The Ukrainian forces had recently achieved what was described as one of the biggest victories since the failure of the Russian attack on the capital, Kyiv, by retaking most of Kharkiv province, the city of Lyman and neighboring towns in Donetsk, and crossing the border to the Lugansk region, which is under almost complete Russian control, but the Russian forces responded with counterattacks, especially towards the city of Bakhmut Donetsk.

Also in Donetsk, at least 8 people were killed in a Russian bombing of a market in the city of Avdiivka, according to the region's governor, Pavlo Kirilenko.

In turn, the pro-Russian authorities in Donetsk spoke of the killing of two civilians and the injury of another as a result of the shelling of residential neighborhoods by Ukrainian forces.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (left) with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov during the NATO Ministers' Meeting in Brussels (European)

Western weapons

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said today on the sidelines of his participation in a meeting of NATO Defense Ministers (NATO) that "a new era of air defense" has begun in Ukraine.

Reznikov added that his country has already received the German "Iris T" systems, to later receive the American NASAMS air defense systems.

For his part, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pledged during the meeting to provide air defense systems to Ukraine as soon as possible.

Austin said his country is committed to supporting Ukraine in the long term with whatever it needs, adding that members of the contact group on this matter agreed on this.

In the same context, the US National Security Council Communications Coordinator John Kirby said that the administration of President Joe Biden will continue to work to provide Ukraine with air defense means to enable it to protect itself.

In turn, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said that her country will send 3 additional units of the "Iris T" air defense system to Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron also announced that his country will hand over radars and air defense systems to Ukraine in the coming weeks, adding that France is working in cooperation with Denmark to secure additional shipments of howitzers for Ukrainian forces.

During the Brussels meeting, the NATO Secretary General said that at this critical moment the Allies are intensifying their support for Ukraine, including air defense systems.

As for Canada, it announced today that it will provide new military aid to Ukraine worth 34 million dollars, including artillery shells, satellite communication systems, winter clothes, drones equipped with high-definition cameras, and other assistance.


Crimean bridge bombing

On the other hand, the Ukrainian intelligence today denied the Russian accusations against it of involvement in the bombing of the Kerch bridge, which links the Russian mainland with the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Ukrainian intelligence said the Russian investigation into its involvement in the bridge bombing was worthless.

Today, Russia accused the intelligence service of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and its head, General Kirillo Budanov, of masterminding the Crimean Bridge bombing.

The Russian State Security Service said that the authorities had arrested 5 Russians and 3 from Ukraine and Armenia in connection with the bombing, which Moscow says was carried out by a truck bomb last Saturday, and damaged the Kerch Bridge.

Moscow also announced that it had thwarted two attacks that it said the Ukrainian intelligence had intended to carry out on Russian soil.