VLADIMIR Putin unleashed another wave of strikes on Ukraine despite promises to Donald Trump to halt his massacre during the dead of winter.
Air raid sirens blasted across the country, in Kharkiv, Dnipro, Kupiansk and other devastated cities overnight, forcing people to flee to shelters in sub-zero temperatures.
It comes as Zelensky said: “I am publicly inviting Putin to Kyiv, if he dares, of course.”
The Ukrainian air force said an “Iskander” ballistic missile was deployed as well as 111 drones overnight after a rumoured “energy truce”.
Footage circulated on social media shows strikes on a fuel tanker truck on the Mykolaivka-Dmytrivka highway in Dnipropetrovsk region, igniting it in flames.
Ukrainian media also reported that Russian forces attacked three power plants in Kyiv with ballistic missiles, as Patriot air defence systems did not have projectiles to protect them. But this claim has since been disputed.
Shortage of soldiers is Ukraine’s most serious challenge as it enters another year of war with Russia
SAMAR, Ukraine—Kyrylo Horbenko represented the future of the Ukrainian army.
Immediately after turning 18, he joined a program that fast-tracks military careers for Ukraine’s youngest recruits, hoping front-line experience would help him secure a spot at a military academy he hadn’t had the money to attend.
“I want to devote my entire life to military service,” the gangly teen told The Wall Street Journal last spring as he prepared to take his oath of service at a base in east Ukraine.
Less than six months later, Horbenko was dead. Thrown into combat on the most dangerous part of the front line, he was cut down by Russian artillery while en route to reinforce a Ukrainian position in Pokrovsk in October.
In the early years of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine largely tried to keep its youngest men away from the front lines. They would be needed to rebuild the country once the war was over.
https://www.wsj.com/world/ukraine-young-soldiers-russia-war-e7c28620