Russia escalated its attacks across Ukraine, a day after the West announced that it would supply Kyiv with combat tanks, and dozens of Russian missiles and drones targeted the Ukrainian capital and cities in the south and east, and the Kremlin considered that the tanks would not change the nature of the battle, while the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense announced that there are Russian combat preparations. From the Crimea.
Russian forces launched missile strikes in various parts of Ukraine.
Among them, 37 air raids and 10 night missile strikes targeted infrastructure in Dnipro and other regions, prompting the Ukrainian army to declare a state of high alert throughout the country.
The bombing and raids also included the capital, Kyiv, whose residents woke up to the sounds of explosions after the Russian forces targeted it with more than 15 "cruise" missiles. The Ukrainian authorities said that its air defenses succeeded in shooting them all down.
The military authorities in Kyiv confirmed that the Ukrainian air defenses had responded to the Russian missiles that were directed at the city, but it prompted a large number of its residents to go down to shelters and stay in them, after the Kyiv Regional Council confirmed that the threat of air strikes had not ended.
Earlier, Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko announced that one person had been killed and two injured in a Russian missile attack targeting a non-residential building in the Holosivsky district of the city, and he confirmed - in a post on Telegram - that separate explosions had occurred in the city and urged residents to take cover.
Clashes intensified between the two parties on the southern front, where Russian forces bombed several areas, especially in Kherson Province in the south, and Ukrainian defenses announced that Russian missiles had been shot down in the skies of Mykolaiv Province, and Russian missiles also targeted energy facilities in Odessa Province on the Black Sea coast in the south, causing power outages. Electrophoresis.
On the eastern front, on the banks of the Dnipro River, the city of Zaporizhia was subjected to a new Russian missile attack.
The Ukrainian air defense also announced that it had detected two missiles aimed at the Dnipro district, in the city of Kriviri, west of the district.
Meanwhile, the pro-Russian Donetsk authorities announced the entry of Russian forces into the city of Oglidar, and the reinforcement of their positions in its suburbs.
The Russian military escalation also coincided with a Ukrainian warning of Russian combat preparations from Crimea.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian General Staff, Oleksandr Stobun, said that Moscow is preparing for a new mobilization operation in the region.
In parallel with Russian movements in Crimea, Ukrainian intelligence confirmed the need for more long-range artillery for Ukrainian forces to strike Russian reinforcements arriving from Crimea, and said that the Russians were transporting ammunition and equipment to warehouses more than 80 kilometers away from the southern front lines.
The military developments in Ukraine come in light of the confirmation by a number of European countries, including Germany, of sending Leopard 2 tanks to the Ukrainian army.
NATO countries fear that some military supplies to Ukraine will escalate the conflict and turn it into a direct war with Russia.
Tanks.. feast and escalation
The Russian military response to the announcement of supplying Ukraine with tanks was accompanied by an escalation in the level of statements as well.
After Moscow threatened to burn these tanks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov considered providing Ukraine with Western tanks a direct involvement in the conflict, and evidence of the direct and increasing American and European involvement in this war, as he put it.
Peskov stressed that Moscow has no intention of changing the status of the special military operation in Ukraine, after sending tanks to Kyiv.
In turn, the head of the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, said that the American tank battalion will not help Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky change the course of the Russian operation in Ukraine or the situation in Crimea, as he put it.
He also added that any attempt to seize Crimea will receive a harsh response, stressing that the Russian attack will not be stopped by another supply of Western weapons.
American condemnation
For its part, the United States of America condemned today, Thursday, the Russian missile attacks that targeted the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
In a tweet, the US ambassador to Kyiv, Bridgit Brink, described the Russian attacks as "violent" and follow "the same strategic failure."
"Neither the wave of Russian missile attacks and marches can stop the heroic defenders of Ukraine, nor its brave people, nor our decisive and united support for Ukraine," she added.
Challenger 2 tanks
In another development, British Secretary of State for Defense Alex Chuck said that the British "Challenger 2" tanks are scheduled to enter the theater of military operations in Ukraine at the end of next March.
The British Secretary of State for Defense Affairs added, in a press conference, that his country has provided 200 armored vehicles to Ukraine so far, and that training Ukrainian forces to use Challenger 2 tanks will start next week.
The British minister welcomed Germany's decision to send "Leopard 2" tanks, and the United States' decision to send "Abrams" tanks to Ukraine.
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden announced that the United States would send 31 M1 Abrams combat tanks to Ukraine, hours after Germany confirmed that it would transfer 14 of its Leopard 2 tanks to the Kyiv government, and a similar announcement from Norway and other European countries. , which was welcomed by NATO, and Ukraine described it as the "Great Tank Alliance".