KIEV PLAYS DANGEROUS GAMES WITH RUSSIAN LONG-RANGE AVIATION

The situation on the Donbass front lines remains almost unchanged, while the warring sides are striking each other’s strategic facilities. Fierce battles for Bakhmut continue. To the south of the city, Wagner fighters are pushing through the Ukrainian defenses near the village of Opytne, while fighting is ongoing on the eastern outskirts of the town. Russian troops continue assault operations in the area of Yakovlevka and Belogorovka near Soledar in an attempt to take full control of a strategically important section of the road. In the LPR, fighting is ongoing in Zhitlovka and Krasnopopovka, located to the north of Kremennaya, where Ukrainian forces are trying to take control of the road; so far without any success. On the Donetsk front, Ukrainian artillery again shelled a dozen settlements. The city of Donetsk was subjected to a massive strike, where at least 4 civilians were killed over the past day. Having had no significant successes on the fronts, the Ukrainian military managed to attack Russian long-range aviation airfields involved in strikes on targets throughout Ukraine. On the morning of December 5, Soviet-made Ukrainian UAVs attempted to hit at the Diaghilev military airfields in the Ryazan region and Engels airfield in the Saratov region. The UAVs flying at low altitude were intercepted by Russian air defense means. As a result of the explosion of the wreckage, the hull plating of two aircraft was slightly damaged. Three Russian servicemen were killed. Four others were wounded. On December 6, the Ukrainian military continued its attacks on Russian airfields, but chose targets located much closer to the Ukrainian borders. For the fourth time since the beginning of Russian military operations, a UAV attacked Russian airfield in Kursk. As a result of the attack, the oil storage tank caught fire. Another target was the Belbek airfield in Sevastopol; but the attack failed and all the drones were intercepted by Russian air defenses. In response to Kiev’s attempts to disrupt the work of Russian aviation, Russian forces launched another massive strike at military and energy facilities throughout Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that all 17 targets in Ukraine were hit. Explosions were reported in more than 10 regions of the country. Strikes on infrastructure facilities led to another collapse of the entire energy system of Ukraine. Due to the imbalance in the system, a wave of emergency power outages is still rolling across the country, accompanied by massive accidents in the power grid. According to Ukrainian officials, it will take at least 2 days to stabilize the system and at least partially return to the predicted rolling power outages. Such a delay is crucial, since frosty weather has already set in in all regions. The lack of electricity, water and communications throughout the country is accompanied by loud statements from Kiev that the Ukrainian Air Defense allegedly successfully intercepted almost all Russian missiles.