Kiev strikes the heart of Russia

Ukraine arrives to strike in the heart of Russia with drones. Moscow unloads yet another hail of missiles on Kiev. The war never stops and, indeed, increases in intensity at a crucial stage. The imminent arrival of Donald Trump at the White House is considered the prologue to the opening of a negotiation phase to stop the conflict: stopping hostilities is the objective of the new president of the United States, a true game changer on the international stage. Ukraine and Russia, therefore, are accelerating to consolidate their positions to then spend in a possible negotiation.

For the first time, Ukraine struck the city of Kazan, about 1200 km from Kiev, with 8 drones. The videos released on Telegram show a drone hitting a skyscraper, sowing panic among the population who until now had been unfamiliar with the war. No casualties, but the effect of the action is nothing short of disruptive. Kiev claims the target was the Kazan gunpowder factory.

Zelensky’s message

“We will continue to attack Russian military facilities with drones and missiles, and there will be more and more Ukrainian projectiles. We will attack military bases and military infrastructure that are used for terror against our people”, promises Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian leader defends the legitimacy of the actions and thanks the European countries that “improve and modernize the arsenals”. The real problem, for Ukraine, it’s the shortage of men.

As the Guardian reveals, Kiev has to resort to specialists in air defense management who are transformed into front-line soldiers and find themselves in the trenches. A truce would allow the Ukrainian armed forces to close ranks, take a breather and appropriately train new elements which today, however, are deployed with inadequate preparation: “We have received 90 men, only 24 are ready. The others are drunk, sick or old”, the picture outlined to the British newspaper by an anonymous source from the front line.

Russia, at the same time, continues to hammer. The latest offensive landed 113 drones on Ukrainian targets. “This week alone, terrorists used over 500 guided bombs, around 550 attack drones and more than 20 missiles of various types. This is Russian terror that we are countering,” says Zelensky. “In Kherson – he reports – an oncology center was destroyed, in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia buildings were hit, after ballistic missiles targeted Kiev and bombings hit Sumy, Kryvyi Rih, as well as the regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk”.

Moscow’s accusations

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, responds from Moscow to the Ukrainian president’s accusations. “Kiev is venting its impotent anger over tangible military defeats on the peaceful population of Russia,” he says after the raid on Kazan.

“The attack on the capital of Tatarstan is also a kind of revenge for the successful Brics summit in October 2024, which demonstrated the power and influence of this association, as well as an attempt to intimidate the population of one of the regions in dynamic development path of our country”, he adds. “It is no coincidence that all Ukrainian media and Telegram channels published footage from Kazan with sadistic pleasure, accompanying them with obscene verbal outbursts. This is the inhuman essence of the ‘late president’s regime,” adds Zakharova, alluding to the ‘expired’ mandate ‘ by Zelensky.

“Once again, we urge the international community to make a severe assessment of the criminal actions of Zelensky’s junta. There is no justification for terrorism. It cannot be ignored. It deserves condemnation and zero tolerance – says the spokeswoman – We are outraged by the hypocritical silence of the whole West and its mass media, which react immediately to any outbreak of extremism and even more so to terrorist attacks in different parts of the world, but in the case of Russia they behave as if nothing was happening”.