Hyderabad: Russia on Thursday launched a massive missile attack in multiple regions of Ukraine. While air raid sirens reverberated throughout, inputs received by ETV Bharat from the ground in Ukraine reveal that the morale among the people continues to be high even after over 10 months of Russia attempting to invade the country.
The idea of resistance and pushing back the enemy forces was keeping Ukraine going about their daily lives amid rocket attacks and air raid sirens. The country's leadership and its people were complementing each other in words and actions for staying put and face the onslaught head-on. At the start of 2022, Russia must have considered everything before launching the offensive however they, for sure, had not taken into account the resilience and never-give-up attitude that was about to shock the Russian forces to their core.
On Thursday, Russia launched a massive missile attack in multiple regions of the country. As per inputs from the ground, the sirens rang from 6:01 am to around 10:46 am Ukraine time during which Russia fired 69 missiles at energy facilities though Ukrainian forces shot down 54 of them. There were no immediate reports of any deaths.
While Ukraine has strengthened its position and managed to push back the Russian forces from several key areas of the country, the fact remains that the major escalation that began in February 2022 continues unabated.
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Between May and October 2022, the situation had improved a lot, however, in the latter part of the year, the escalation again intensified. Thursday's missile attacks seem to be a part of Russia's new year escalation Ukraine has already expected and prepared for. Senior Ukrainian officials, according to reports, have already flagged that Vladimir Putin was preparing for a major offensive in the new year.
In an interview with the Guardian published on December 15, Ukraine’s defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said that while Ukraine was able to defend itself against Russia’s missile attacks, they had received inputs that the Kremlin was preparing a new offensive. Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had also made similar remarks.
Amid war and death, inputs from the ground tell a tale of resilience on part of the Ukrainians who are living their lives between daily sirens and rocket attacks. Even while at war, life is going on in Ukraine with those on the ground saying that people are finding ways to ensure some semblance of normalcy and daily routine is kept up.
While the traditional Christmas and new year sheen is missing on the ground, people are still attempting to live the moments of festivals and holidays. Every year, Kyiv and other parts of the country were all about big Christmas trees and thousands of lights. However, as 2022 is about to end, people are employing modest ways to mark the occasion.
For instance, in Kyiv, the final days of 2022 are marked with a modest tree standing in Sophia Square, where power cuts have become a regular feature in the last 10 months of the war. In recent months, Russia has been targeting the energy infrastructure, aiming to cut electricity and heating to Ukrainians, as the freezing winter advances.
Also read: 'Sooner, the better': Putin says wants to end war in Ukraine
And although the Ukraine government tries to move as fast as it can, it’s been practically impossible to restore power for every single person in the country, including the more than 3 million residents of the capital. There are days when streets in Kyiv’s downtown have light, but the authorities have imposed some restrictions and scheduled power cuts, meaning that there’s no traditional gleaming city during the Christmas season.
But even in these gloomy moments, some people have decided to show their determination and rescue whatever they can during these holidays. Kyiv’s Mayor, Vitali Klitschko, announced the installation of a Christmas tree at the city square and said it was going to be named the “Tree of Invincibility.” “We decided that we wouldn’t let Russia steal the celebration of Christmas and New Year from our children,” he said. The name, he added, was “because we Ukrainians cannot be broken.”
