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A Ukrainian Gepard anti-aircraft gun tank in a position east of Odessa: reports of a “horror night”

Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa

Saturday marks the second anniversary of the Russian attack on Ukraine.

Shortly before the second anniversary, the Russian army is now practicing a show of force - and has hit the country with massive missile and drone attacks.

In the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa alone, three people were killed in attacks on Friday night, the Ukrainian police said on Telegram.

On Friday night, the Russian army shelled several parts of the country.

Governor Serhiy Lysak reported a “horror night” from the region around the central Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk.

Rescue workers searched the rubble of a badly damaged building in which the apartments were "completely destroyed."

According to police, a “civil infrastructure facility” was set on fire when Odessa was shelled with rockets and drones.

The Ukrainian General Staff wrote in its daily frontline report on Friday that air defenses shot down 23 Russian drones overnight.

On Thursday, the USA announced sanctions against more than 500 participants and helpers of the “Russian war machine”.

The Finance and Foreign Ministries wanted to announce the sanctions in detail on Friday, a spokeswoman for the Finance Ministry in Washington told the AFP news agency.

It is the largest package of sanctions since the start of the war.

USA announces “significant” sanctions

On Monday, US President Joe Biden announced that he would announce further "significant" sanctions against Russia on Friday in response to the death of imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the US, EU and other countries have imposed numerous sanctions to weaken Russia's military industry and reduce Moscow's revenue from oil and gas sales.

Among other things, a price cap for Russian crude oil was put into effect.

Saturday marks the second anniversary of the start of the Russian invasion.

It is difficult to reliably determine the exact number of victims.

In August 2023, the New York Times quoted US intelligence officials who estimated Ukraine's military losses at 70,000 dead and between 100,000 and 200,000 injured.

According to the same source, 120,000 soldiers were killed and 170,000 to 180,000 injured on the Russian side.

Nach mehr als einem Jahr festgefahrener Kämpfe geht Moskau in der Ostukraine wieder in die Offensive. Die ukrainischen Soldaten leiden unterdessen zunehmend unter Munitionsmangel – unter anderem wegen der Verzögerung weiterer Militärhilfe aus den USA. Sein Land befinde sich an der Front in einer »extrem schwierigen« Situation, sagte der ukrainische Präsident Wolodymyr Selenskyj zu Beginn der Woche.

Der russische Präsident selbst pries vor dem zweiten Jahrestag der Invasion in einer Videobotschaft die »echten Helden«, die in der Ukraine kämpften. In seiner Ansprache zum jährlich in der Hauptstadt Moskau begangenen »Tag des Verteidigers des Vaterlands« hob Kremlchef Wladimir Putin hervor, dass die »Militär- und Industriekomplexe« sowohl die Waffenproduktion als auch die Versorgung der Truppen »um ein Vielfaches gesteigert« hätten.

mrc/AFP