Multiple explosions shocked him Kyiv and other cities of Ukraine on Wednesday. According to official figures, one person was killed and another was injured in the Ukrainian capital as a result of Russian rocket attacks.

Vitali Klitschko said in a Telegram message that “the city’s infrastructure has been damaged” and urged people to stay in shelters. The mayor of the capital did not provide further details about the attacks, as there is no information yet on which targets may have been hit.

Russia continues to strike at Ukraine and the country’s energy infrastructure, causing widespread power outages in many areas.

Early on Wednesday morning, Russian military forces attacked the maternity ward of the Volnyansky hospital in Zaporozhye in eastern Ukraine, killing a newborn, head of the Zaporozhye regional state administration Oleksandr Starukh said.

“At night, the attackers fired huge rockets at the small maternity ward of the Volnyanskaya hospital. Sadness overwhelms our hearts – a newborn child has died,” Mr. Starukh said in his message.

Klitschko: Worst winter since World War II

The mayor of Kyiv has predicted that the roughly three million residents of the Ukrainian capital will face a very difficult winter due to Russian strikes on energy infrastructure. “This is the worst winter since World War II,” Klitschko told the German newspaper Bild.

Vitali Klitschko accused the Russian president of trying to force the people of Kiev to leave the city. According to the mayor of Kyiv, Putin “is trying to terrorize the world, make it freeze without light” in order to put pressure on his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. “But nothing like this will happen. I got the impression that people will become angrier, more determined. We will not die and end this, as Putin wants,” he said.

Vitali Klitschko asked Germany to send generators, protective clothing and various humanitarian items as soon as possible, in addition to weapons and ammunition.

The war is at a turning point

Contrary to forecasts and estimates, over the past nine months, Ukrainian forces have succeeded in forcing the Russian occupiers to fail and retreat.

And yet, despite its successes, Ukraine is in some ways still halfway there: its armed forces have so far reclaimed about 55% of the territory captured by Russia after last February’s invasion.

Ukrainian forces are fighting back along most of the 960-kilometer front. The Russians, on the other hand, are on the defensive in the south and northeast, continuing to attack the town of Bakhmut, which Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group’s mercenaries consider a “trophy,” according to the NY Times.

Ukraine’s successes brought the war to a turning point. Since they are on the offensive, Ukrainian forces can now shape the next phase of the fighting, deciding whether to try to push deeper into Russian-held territory in the dead of winter.

However, if they try to push further east, the Ukrainians will have to face harder fighting against Russia’s tighter defenses.

“This is the beginning of the end of the war,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said a few days ago during a visit to the city of Kherson. However, about 20% of Ukraine’s territory remains under Russian occupation.

The war is entering a new phase ahead of winter after Ukraine liberated the city of Kherson and surrounding areas earlier this month. The front line has now changed to the detriment of Russia, whose forces have to deal with a number of problems: psychology (low morale), coordination, logistics, corruption, insufficient training, etc.

Many Russian supply lines in southern Ukraine are now within range of Ukrainian weapons systems.

However, the changed landscape also favors the Russian forces, which have lost ground but can now defend more effectively east of the Dnieper. Thousands of Russian troops withdrawn from the Kherson region can now reinforce Russian positions in other parts of eastern Ukraine in Crimea, the northeast and the Donetsk region. According to New York Times correspondents, the Russians are currently strengthening defenses around Melitopol and in northern Crimea.

As for the winter blizzards, they are expected to burden both sides, not just the Ukrainians, but the Russians as well.

However, at the same time, the Russian side launched another “separate war” by bombing electricity, water and energy networks throughout Ukraine. These Russian bombings, in addition to the very practical problems they create on the ground, making conditions unbearable for residents in many areas, also strain and deplete the Ukrainian air defense, which over time needs more ammunition and more air defense systems. on the. .

For now, however, the Ukrainian leadership shows no inclination to capitulate. “A truce now would not mean the end of the war. It would just give Moscow time to recover before striking again,” Zelensky said last Saturday, addressing the Halifax International Security Forum.

Source: AP, Reuters.