Air strikes intensified as the United States pursued difficult diplomatic efforts to mediate an end to the war in Russia.
President Putin rejects compromise on Ukraine at year-end press conference
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia has no intention of easing its demands for Ukraine to abandon NATO membership and leave occupied territories.
- Moscow has been attacking Ukraine’s Odessa region almost nonstop.
- Ukraine claims Russia is seeking to destabilize the country by attacking civilians, as the battlefield has reached a near stalemate.
KYIV – Russia on Saturday (December 20) intensified its attacks on the Odessa region on the Black Sea, including energy facilities and a key route to the border with Moldova, with Ukrainian officials announcing that Russia had attacked the port of Pivdeni in southern Ukraine.
After the Russian government threatened to “cut Ukraine off from the sea,” it launched near-continuous drone and missile attacks on areas where ports important to Ukraine’s external trade and fuel supply operate.
Airstrikes have intensified even as the United States pursues difficult diplomatic efforts to broker an end to the war. U.S. negotiators were scheduled to meet with Russian officials in Florida on Saturday in the latest attempt to wring an agreement from Russia and Ukraine.
A day after a missile attack on the port killed eight people and injured at least 30, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on the messaging app Telegram that Saturday’s attack on the Pivdeni port had hit a reservoir.
A smaller army would make Ukraine more vulnerable to future invasions
The current peace plan includes limits on the size of Ukraine’s military, leaving it critically vulnerable to future Russian aggression.
On Thursday and Friday, Russian forces targeted a bridge at the mouth of the Dniester River near the village of Mayaki, northeast of Pivdeni, Ukrainian officials said.
The bridge connects parts of the region separated by rugged coastlines and river estuaries, and is the only major route to the Moldova border crossing in the west.
“Without significant successes on the (combat) front, the enemy is trying to terrorize civilians and destabilize the country. These plans are clear and we are effectively countering them together with the people of Odesa,” Victor Mikyuta, deputy head of presidential administration, said on Telegram.
Russian officials have not commented on the attack.
Ukrainian authorities temporarily rerouted passengers to other crossings, including waterways, to enter Moldova. Mikita said Ukraine intends to establish as many alternative crossing points as necessary “no matter how hard the enemy tries to destroy the connection.”
Last week, one of the war’s biggest Russian air attacks on the strategic Black Sea region damaged energy facilities and caused a power outage in Odessa, leaving hundreds of thousands of civilians in the dark for days.
In December, three Turkish-flagged ships were damaged in an airstrike on the port.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to cut off Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea in retaliation for Kiev’s maritime drone attacks on “Shadow Fleet” tankers that violated Russian sanctions.
Ukraine claims the vessels are used to transport oil, which is Russia’s main source of revenue to fund its nearly four-year-long full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
