The fighting on the Ukrainian front continues unabated. The Russian army, destroyed a stronghold of the Ukrainian army in the direction of Zaporozhye, with the help of a BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system (MLRS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russian forces acted at night. The fighters moved in the dark, so that their movements could not be detected by enemy drones. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that Russian troops shot down six Western-made MLRS and MARS II MLRS launchers in the Zaporozhye region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deputy head of the Zaporozhye region, Yevgeny Balitsky, said that Russian troops continue to hold lines in the region and prevent any enemy attack attempts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Strikes against its energy infrastructure<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Putin has declared that the ongoing barrage against Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure, which has left millions of people struggling without power and water in frigid weather, is a response to the October 8 attack on the Kerch Bridge, the bridge that costing $4 billion that connects Russia to the Crimean peninsula (which Russia has occupied since 2014).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Protesting that and several other incidents he blamed on Ukraine, Putin said he would ignore international criticism, including that his plan to dismantle Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure is a “war crime”, as the Speaker of the Commons claimed US leaders Mark Milley and others, reporting that they will continue these attacks, which began on October 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most recent wave of attacks against Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure came on December 5. The Black Sea port of Odessa suffered the most damage, said Ukrainian officials working to repair affected systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fierce battles and innovation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n On the battlefield, it appears that Russia is not only continuing its attacks on Bakhmut in the Donetsk Region, but is also increasing pressure on Ukrainian troops with counterattacks in the Kharkiv and Luhansk regions. There was also an attack on the Crimean port of Sevastopol, home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the battlefield, it appears that Russia is not only continuing its attacks on Bakhmut in the Donetsk Region, but is also increasing pressure on Ukrainian troops with counterattacks in the Kharkiv and Luhansk regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was also an attack on the Crimean port of Sevastopol, home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sevastopol, about 140 miles southeast of the nearest Ukrainian forces, has been a frequent target of long-range Ukrainian drone strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Referring to the long-range attacks, recall that Russia claims that the American defense manufacturer Raytheon helped improve the (Soviet-era) aircraft that Ukraine recently used to attack two Russian air bases, Engels and Dyagilevo, which resulted in the destruction of at least one Tu-22M3 Backfire-C bomber and apparently also a Tu-95MS Bear-H.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russian officials, and at least one Ukrainian official, had previously attributed those explosions to Ukrainian drone strikes, with Moscow saying they involved the use of Soviet-era types, referring to the Tu-141 Strizh aircraft, originally built as a reconnaissance UAV. Smaller Tu-143s have probably been used as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless of the aid it receives, Ukraine continues to innovate on the battlefield. The Ukraine Weapons Tracker OSINT account reported that Ukrainian troops converted a Ford F-150 Raptor pickup into an improvised multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) by mounting a 12-tube launcher using 80mm S-8KO rockets typically fired from tactical aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ukrainian troops also apparently installed two 57mm UB-32 anti-aircraft missiles on a BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle chassis, turning it into a mobile missile launcher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The fighting on the Ukrainian front continues unabated. 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