At least three people have been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike an air base in southern Russia this monday, the day kyiv will request that the united nations security council exclude Moscow as a permanent member.
Russian air defense shot down a Ukrainian drone on Sunday night as it approached angels air force basein the Saratov region, Russian news agencies reported on Monday.
The city of Engels in the southern Saratov region is more than 600 km from the Ukrainian border. Its airbase had already been attacked on 5 December.
Then the Ryazan base near Moscow was also attacked.
At the Engels base are Tu-95 and Tu-160 strategic bombers that have been involved in attacks on Ukraine. Those bombers can carry nuclear weapons.
“As a result of falling debris from the drone, three technical officers The Russians who were at the airbase suffered fatal injuries,” Russia’s TASS news agency said, citing the Defense Ministry.
Security Council
Ukraine, which has not yet reacted to the attack, intends to ask on Monday the removal of Russia as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, announced Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
“We will officially state our position. We have a simple question: Does Russia have the right to remain a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council?” Kuleba said in a speech on national television Sunday evening.
“We have a convincing and reasoned answer: no it hasn’t“, he narrowed.
Russia is one of five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council along with the United Kingdom, France, China and the United States.
The power of veto of these members it allows them to block any resolution and render the entity powerless, as happened in February when Moscow invaded Ukraine and diplomats they just read statements.
After ten months of conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin justified his military offensive on the former Soviet republic on Sunday and ensured the goal was achieved it was “to unite the Russian people”.
“Everything is based on the policy of our geopolitical adversaries, who seek to divide Russia, historical Russia,” Putin denounced in an interview broadcast on Russian television in the absence of his press conference and end-of-year speech which were suspended this year.
The principal usually refers to the concept of “historical Russia” to justify military intervention in Ukraine, in order to unite Ukrainians and Russians, who he believes form one people.
“We are acting in the right direction, we are protecting our national interests, the interests of our citizens, of our people,” he insisted.
During the interview, the Russian leader also promised to remove the Patriot air defense system that the United States will deliver to Kiev.
“Of course we will destroy it, 100%!” he said, just three days after assuring that his army would find “an antidote” to avoid a “rather old system”.
In addition to the Patriot system, Ukraine will receive a new 45,000 million aid package of Washington dollars.
On the ground, the Russian General Staff confirmed its actions in Ukraine a few days ago focused on taking control of the entire Donetsk regionwhich together with Lugansk forms the Donbass basin, partially occupied by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.
Ukraine, on the other hand, has insisted on this he will reconquer the four regions Ukraine annexed by Russia in late September — Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson — as well as the Crimea peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
A wave of missiles They hit the center of Kherson on Saturday, a city in southern Ukraine retaken by Kiev in November after eight months of Russian occupation.
The attacks, classified as an act of “terror” by Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, resulted in at least 10 dead and 55 injured Christmas Eve.
The president has asked his fellow citizens to prepare for possible attacks by the end of the year. “We must be aware that our enemy will try to exploit this momentum be dark and difficult”he has declared.
AFP extension
Source: Clarin
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.