Russia uses US intelligence withdrawal to step up attacks in Ukraine

BarcelonaA few hours after Donald Trump announced that would stop providing Ukraine with intelligence data, the Kremlin has wanted to test Ukraine's weakness with a widespread drone and missile attack on the country. The daily report of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) already warned on Wednesday evening that the suspension of intelligence assistance was a particularly hard blow, as it would allow "Russia to intensify its drone and missile attacks against the Ukrainian rear." cough in cities and civilian areas. During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, Russia launched up to 112 drones and two missiles on several localities in Ukraine, killing at least five people, four of them in a hotel in the city of Kriví Rih, the hometown Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The ISW also warned that "Russian forces will try to take advantage of the pause in US military aid to make gains in eastern and southern Ukraine." A point that has been confirmed by Dmitri Medvedev himself, Putin's ally and vice president of the Russian Security Council, who this very Wednesday was betting, precisely, on Making the most of the time that the suspension of US military aid in Ukraine lasts "to inflict as much damage as possible" on Ukraine "on the ground." Medvedev believes that Washington will "probably resume" aid to Ukraine once it manages to sign the agreement for critical Ukrainian minerals, and therefore pointed out that Russia has a "limited time" to take advantage of Kiev's weakness on the battle front, according to the Russian newspaper. Kommersante.

It is in this context that Russia launched a heavy wave of attacks on Ukraine early Thursday morning, which has left at least four dead. According to Ukrainian sources, Russia launched the two missiles and 112 drones tonight, of which 68 were shot down, which shows that the Ukrainian warning and defence system is still effective, and another 43 were lost "without negative consequences." The two missiles were fired from two different locations: the Voronezh region and occupied Crimea.

The four fatalities occurred when one of the Russian missiles hit a hotel in the city of Kriví Rih, near Zaporizhia. Zelensky himself reported that there were American and British volunteers from a humanitarian organisation who were in the hotel, but who had managed to escape from the building and survived. The hotel caught fire and was almost completely destroyed, and in addition to the four dead, around 30 people were injured. According to Reuters, two children were among the injured. Zelensky's hometown of Krivi Rih has been a frequent target since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago.

Also in the northeastern town of Sumi, another person has been killed in a Russian drone strike on a mail depot. More drones hit energy infrastructure in the southern Odessa region, injuring at least two people. The Ukrainian energy company DTEK has reported that this is the fifth energy facility damaged by Russian strikes in two weeks, proof that Ukraine's energy system remains in the crosshairs of the Russian military.

Russian advances on the forehead lenses

While Zelensky meets with his European allies on Thursday, at a summit that will agree on the process of rearmament in Europe, the war in Ukraine does not stop. In recent days, the Russian army has continued to launch offensives at many points on the front line between Ukraine and the territories occupied by the Kremlin, although it has not achieved very significant gains. Among the most notable achievements of the Russian forces is the capture, this January, of the small town of Kurakhove, in Donetsk, which they had been besieging since October. Although it is a town of less than 20,000 inhabitants, it is one of the places with lithium deposits, one of the critical minerals that Ukraine offers to Donald Trump to try to regain his support. From there, Russian forces have continued to advance towards Pokrovsk, in the same region. The main asset of the Russian army remains the large number of troops it throws at enemy positions to advance a few meters at a great cost of lives. Ukrainian intelligence estimates that Russia has around 620,000 soldiers deployed in Ukraine and Kursk.

In recent days, Ukraine has also lost some 44 square kilometers of land in Kursk, the Russian province it invaded last year and which it partially controls as a bargaining chip in a possible negotiation with Russia. The Russian army continues to regain territory on that front, slowly, and is also advancing little by little on the Donbas front, in eastern Ukraine, without really significant gains. "Since January, Russian troops have increased their ability to control the movements of the Ukrainian army" and attack its logistics routes in the Russian region of Kursk, an advantage that has allowed it to recover the town of Sverdlikovo this February, according to information cited in X by military analyst Rob Lee, of the Forum.