new drone strikes and recruit more soldiers

The year has only just begun, but ukrainian forces they seem to need no more to test their ability to repel Russia’s attacks on their energy infrastructures. According to Ukraine, in the first days of 2023 have been shot down more than 80 Russian drones. “And the number is going to increase,” said the country’s president, Volodimir Zelenskyin his late-night speech.

The Ukrainian leader also warned that the enemy plans to carry out a “war of attrition” with kamikaze Shahed drones of Iranian origin. This, however, is far from a surprise. Since October, the Kremlin has massively bombarded the country’s infrastructureleaving millions of people without water, electricity or heating for days in the dead of winter. The objective? Get the population exhaustedend up demanding the surrender of his government.

Russia still has not achieved its purpose and everything points to the fact that it is going to be more and more difficult. Just a few weeks ago, new air defense systems sent by the West to Ukraine began to arrive. A help that endangers the horror strategy followed until now by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

[El macabro adiós del líder del grupo Wagner a sus mercenarios muertos: “Se os acabó el contrato”]

For this reason, the Russian leader has decided to increase his arsenal of drones. This same Tuesday, the Russian state news agency TASS reported that troops deployed in Ukraine were starting to receive small reconnaissance drones called Binokl (Binocular). Some devices that, in theory, are much cheaper than those made in China.

Each is equipped with a thermal imaging camera compact “capable of detecting the presence of enemy forces at any time of the day.” In addition, the statement noted, “it also has the ability to be equipped with a grenade launcher device.”

January 5

Ukraine not only anticipates a new wave of Russian attacks, but also with a new announcement of military mobilization in Russia. This was announced on New Year’s Eve by the Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov.

“The Russian authorities will close the borders for men, declare martial law and start another wave of mobilization in the big cities,” he details in a video shared on social networks. In the same line, Kyrylo Budanovhead of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Services, detailed in an interview with the BBC than recruitment could start on january 5.

Putin has repeatedly denied that he is going to expand the mobilization of the 300,000 reservists who were called up in September and who, for the most part, are already on the front line. However, in recent weeks Russia has lost a large number of troopsaccording to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

That, today, prevents the Kremlin from abandoning the defensive positionto which you have adopted and launch an offensive on the battlefield. To do so, he would first have to rebuild his ranks, which suffered a final blow on New Year’s Eve, when Ukraine’s army launched one of its deadliest attacks of the war.

It took place in the town of Makiivka, in the Donbas region. died at least 400 new recruits and another 300 were injured, according to the data handled by kyiv. And although Russia has not acknowledged that large number of casualties, it has confessed, in an unusual statement, the death of 63 soldiers in that attack.

[Las claves de la masacre de Makíivka: el cambio de año, la munición guardada y los misiles HIMARS]

However, fears of a new mobilization They have skyrocketed this Tuesday, when various Russian and Ukrainian channels have begun to share images on social networks of new summons to ranks. Igor Sushkoa Ukrainian-born former racing car driver, has shared images of these alleged recruitment notices on Twitter.

“A commercial printer received an order than 5,000 recruitment notices in Krasnodar in Russia, on the border of the Crimea region. An order received on December 31, to be printed on January 1 “, he details.

The Battle of Bakhmut

Meanwhile, fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces continues in the town of Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region. According to the founder of the private military group Wagner, Evgeny Prigozhin, there are battles for control of “every house”. “Sometimes they can last weeks,” he said in statements collected by efe.

Likewise, Prigozhin stated that the Russian advance in the area is hampered by the large number of Ukrainian fortifications erected in the area, which has become the hot spot of the front line.

I agree with you british intelligence servicesIn recent days Ukraine has sent significant reinforcements to the site and the intensity of the Russian attacks seems to have decreased compared to that registered in mid-December.

The British military opined in their daily part about the situation in Ukraine that in the coming weeks it is unlikely that Russia will achieve important progress in Bakhmut, where both sides have suffered heavy losses.