Moscow shoots down a drone near a base for long-range bombers

Ukraine calls for the exclusion of Russia from the United Nations

Two Ukrainians walk next to an area that was bombed by Russia in Bakhmut.

Reuters

Yesterday, Ukraine called for the exclusion of Russia from the United Nations, more than 10 months after the start of the war in Ukraine, a demand that has no chance of success, as Moscow enjoys veto power in the UN Security Council, and at a time when Moscow said that its forces shot down a Ukrainian drone. Near a base for long-range bombers in the Russian depth, Ukraine said that the Russians had launched waves of heavy artillery bombardment on its cities.

"Ukraine calls on the member states of the United Nations to deprive the Russian Federation of its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to completely exclude it from the United Nations," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry indicated that Russia "illegally occupies the seat of the Soviet Union in the United Nations Security Council" since 1991, and disintegrates it into 15 new countries.

She added that "Russia usurped the seat" of the Soviet Union in the United Nations.

In its statement, Kyiv expressed its regret that "these three decades of illegal presence at the United Nations were marked by wars, the seizure of territory from other countries, the forced change of internationally recognized borders, and attempts to satisfy its new imperial ambitions."

In a tweet, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba considered that "Russia's presence in the Security Council and in the United Nations as a whole is illegitimate."

And Ukraine announced that it would start a "complex process" at the United Nations, where Russia has veto power in the Security Council, enabling it to block any decision issued by another member state.

On the ground, Moscow said its forces shot down a Ukrainian drone. The drone was reportedly flying over Russia's Engels Air Base, where the long-range strategic bombers that may have been used to target Ukraine's cities and infrastructure are located.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that three air force personnel were killed in the crash, but none of the aircraft was damaged.

However, Russian and Ukrainian accounts on social media said that a number of planes had been destroyed.

And the Russian army forces continued their attacks relentlessly, as the Ukrainian army said early yesterday that dozens of cities were bombed in the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson and Zaporizhia.

"The enemy continues artillery shelling of populated areas along the right bank of the Dnipro River towards Kherson," the Ukrainian military said.

He added that Ukrainian forces launched attacks on approximately 20 Russian targets.

Yesterday, the company operating the Ukrainian electricity network said that the electricity supply is still facing a significant shortage, with restrictions on electricity consumption being imposed in five Ukrainian regions and in the capital, Kyiv.

"A Ukrainian drone flying at low altitude was shot down as it approached the Engels air base in the Saratov region," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

It added that three soldiers were killed as a result of the falling wreckage of the drone.

In Moscow, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced yesterday that it had killed a “group of saboteurs” from Ukraine who tried to cross into a Russian border region.

"As a result of a clash that took place on December 25, 2022, four saboteurs who tried to enter the territory of the Bryansk region from Ukraine were killed," the agency responsible for internal security said in a statement reported by Russian news agencies.

He added that foreign weapons and "explosives" were in their possession.

A video recording, reported by news agencies and attributed to the FSB, showed the bodies of a number of people lying on the ground, who were wearing winter camouflage clothing and carrying firearms.

Russia has accused pro-Kiev forces of carrying out several sabotage attacks, including an explosion that damaged a bridge linking Crimea with Russia.

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