Authorities in the Russian region of Tatarstan reported a “massive drone attack” on Saturday on the city of Kazan, located around a thousand kilometers from the Ukrainian border. The Russian Defense Ministry accused Kiev of targeting “civil infrastructure” in Kazan. According to the Kazan city administration, the attacks sparked fires in several parts of the city. No casualties were reported.
Kyiv initially did not comment on the attack in Kazan. The Ukrainian army regularly carries out attacks on Russian energy infrastructure and industrial facilities. According to Kyiv, these attacks are a response to Russian attacks on Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry had also described its attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as retaliation for attacks on Ukraine carried out with Western weapons. Putin also threatened to attack Kiev with a hypersonic missile if Ukraine did not stop its attacks on Russian territory.
The Russian Ministry of Defense also reported further successes on the front. Accordingly, the troops captured the village of Losova in the northeastern Kharkiv region and the village of Krasnoye in the Donetsk region. The place, called Sontsivka in Ukrainian, is located near the city of Kurakhove, whose capture would bring the Russian army significantly closer to its goal of completely occupying the Donetsk region.
Moscow says it has captured more than 190 Ukrainian villages and towns this year, while the Ukrainian army has fallen behind. Russia has increased its advance in eastern Ukraine in recent months, especially in view of the impending inauguration of Donald Trump as US President. The Republican had announced that he would quickly end the Ukraine conflict without naming any concrete plans.
For his last visit before the change of power in Washington, the head of the US foreign intelligence service CIA, William Burns, traveled to Kiev. “Bill Burns has paid his last visit to Ukraine as CIA director,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday on the Telegram online service.
Since the start of the Russian war of aggression in February 2022, he has met with Burns frequently, the president added. “He and I had many meetings during this war and I am grateful for his help,” Zelensky said. “Normally such meetings are not publicly announced,” he added. The USA is currently Ukraine’s most important supporter in the war against Russia – this could change under Trump. The Republican had repeatedly criticized his country’s aid to Ukraine.
On Sunday, Kyiv also made serious allegations against the Russian army. Russian soldiers executed captured Ukrainian soldiers who had previously surrendered, said Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets on the Telegram online service. He was referring to a drone video released by a Ukrainian unit that showed Russian soldiers shooting Ukrainian prisoners at close range.
The AFP news agency was unable to independently confirm the authenticity of the images. If the allegations are confirmed, it would be a war crime.
Ukraine has accused the Russian army of war crimes several times since the start of the war. Among other things, she accuses the Russian authorities of having abducted thousands of children from homes or other state institutions to Russia from the occupied territories in Ukraine. Because of this accusation, there is an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Putin.
