Ukraine said its forces had repelled Russian assaults along the length of the front line on Thursday on the eve of the war’s anniversary, as President Vladimir Putin, empty-handed after a bloody winter offensive, talked up Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
After a series of strident speeches in the runup to the anniversary of his invasion, Putin announced plans on Thursday to deploy new Sarmat multi-warhead intercontinental ballistic missiles this year. Earlier this week he suspended Russia’s participation in the START nuclear arms control treaty. Russia would “pay increased attention to strengthening the nuclear triad,” Putin said in remarks released by the Kremlin, referring to nuclear missiles based on land, sea and in the air.
Ukraine and its Western allies have brushed off the nuclear talk as a diversion from a failing Russian military campaign on the ground, a year after Putin launched the biggest land war in Europe since World War II. The last weeks have seen Russia mount infantry assaults across frozen ground in battles described by both sides as the bloodiest of the war. At a Ukrainian tank park near Bakhmut, the small eastern city that has become Russia’s main target, constant explosions could be heard echoing in the distance. “If we give up Bakhmut, everything else will get even more complicated. We can’t give it up, under no circumstance. We will hold through,” Junior Sergeant Oleh Slavin, a tank operator, said. “We are in place for now and trying to get all the territory back.”
The US embassy in Ukraine issued an alert to Americans in the country about what it called an ongoing heightened threat of missile attacks across Ukraine including Kyiv and the Kyiv region. The alert urged US citizens “to observe air alarms, shelter appropriately, follow guidance from local authorities.” Western officials said Russia had planned an offensive to capture new territory ahead of the anniversary, using hundreds of thousands of reservists conscripted in recent months to give Putin a victory to announce.
Ukrainian forces repelled 90 Russian attacks in the northeast and east over the past 24 hours, the military said early on Thursday.
Ukraine has shut some schools for the war’s anniversary in anticipation that Moscow might launch long-range missile attacks to mark the date. But Kyiv officials said they believe Moscow no longer has the capability for a dramatic show of force. “Nothing unusual will happen. Usual (Russian) effort… A small missile strike is planned,” military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told the Ukrainska Pravda news website. “Believe me, we have experienced this more than 20 times.”
Ukraine’s central bank marked the invasion anniversary by issuing a new banknote commemorating resistance in the war. One side shows three soldiers hoisting the Ukrainian flag after recapturing the Black Sea outcrop of Snake Island, one of Kyiv’s biggest victories of the war. The other side shows hands bound together with tape, to depict war crime victims.
After a series of strident speeches in the runup to the anniversary of his invasion, Putin announced plans on Thursday to deploy new Sarmat multi-warhead intercontinental ballistic missiles this year. Earlier this week he suspended Russia’s participation in the START nuclear arms control treaty. Russia would “pay increased attention to strengthening the nuclear triad,” Putin said in remarks released by the Kremlin, referring to nuclear missiles based on land, sea and in the air.
Ukraine and its Western allies have brushed off the nuclear talk as a diversion from a failing Russian military campaign on the ground, a year after Putin launched the biggest land war in Europe since World War II. The last weeks have seen Russia mount infantry assaults across frozen ground in battles described by both sides as the bloodiest of the war. At a Ukrainian tank park near Bakhmut, the small eastern city that has become Russia’s main target, constant explosions could be heard echoing in the distance. “If we give up Bakhmut, everything else will get even more complicated. We can’t give it up, under no circumstance. We will hold through,” Junior Sergeant Oleh Slavin, a tank operator, said. “We are in place for now and trying to get all the territory back.”
The US embassy in Ukraine issued an alert to Americans in the country about what it called an ongoing heightened threat of missile attacks across Ukraine including Kyiv and the Kyiv region. The alert urged US citizens “to observe air alarms, shelter appropriately, follow guidance from local authorities.” Western officials said Russia had planned an offensive to capture new territory ahead of the anniversary, using hundreds of thousands of reservists conscripted in recent months to give Putin a victory to announce.
Ukrainian forces repelled 90 Russian attacks in the northeast and east over the past 24 hours, the military said early on Thursday.
Ukraine has shut some schools for the war’s anniversary in anticipation that Moscow might launch long-range missile attacks to mark the date. But Kyiv officials said they believe Moscow no longer has the capability for a dramatic show of force. “Nothing unusual will happen. Usual (Russian) effort… A small missile strike is planned,” military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told the Ukrainska Pravda news website. “Believe me, we have experienced this more than 20 times.”
Ukraine’s central bank marked the invasion anniversary by issuing a new banknote commemorating resistance in the war. One side shows three soldiers hoisting the Ukrainian flag after recapturing the Black Sea outcrop of Snake Island, one of Kyiv’s biggest victories of the war. The other side shows hands bound together with tape, to depict war crime victims.