M2CC FEBRUARY 2024

8 | M2CC - News www.m2cc.us FEBRUARY 2024 EDITION WWW.M2CC.US
Newsletter | 9
illegally a decade ago, with Russia’s southern Krasnodar
Other Ukrainian officials said it aims to manufacture
Zelenskyy thanked Germany late Thursday for a delivery of
region. The span is a crucial supply link for Russia’s war
this year more than 10,000 attack drones with a range of
military aid, especially air defense materiel that he said “is
effort.
hundreds of kilometers, as well as more than 1,000 longer-
timely and focused on our priorities.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said its defenses intercepted
36 drones over Crimea and one over Krasnodar, part of an
range drones that can hit targets well behind the front line
and inside Russia.
Ukraine “should look to continue degrading Russia’s ability
to wage war by conducting an escalating campaign of
emerging pattern of intensified Ukrainian aerial attacks in
Both sides are raising the stakes of their long-range warfare
airstrikes on targets far behind the front lines throughout
recent days.
as soldiers remain bogged down on the wintry battlefield.
occupied Ukraine and inside Russia itself,” according to
Ukraine Unleashes More
Drones and Missiles at
Russian Areas as Part of
its New Year Strategy
Russian air defenses downed dozens of Ukrainian drones in
occupied Crimea and southern Russia on Friday, officials
said, as Kyiv pressed its strategy of targeting the Moscowannexed
peninsula and taking the 22-month war well beyond
Ukraine’s borders.
Air raid sirens wailed in Sevastopol, the largest city in
Crimea, and traffic was suspended for a second straight day
on a bridge connecting the peninsula, which Moscow seized
illegally a decade ago, with Russia’s southern Krasnodar
region. The span is a crucial supply link for Russia’s war
effort.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its defenses intercepted
36 drones over Crimea and one over Krasnodar, part of an
emerging pattern of intensified Ukrainian aerial attacks in
recent days.
Russian air defenses downed dozens of Ukrainian drones in
occupied Crimea and southern Russia on Friday, officials
said, as Kyiv pressed its strategy of targeting the Moscowannexed
peninsula and taking the 22-month war well beyond
Ukraine’s borders.
Air raid sirens wailed in Sevastopol, the largest city in
Crimea, and traffic was suspended for a second straight day
on a bridge connecting the peninsula, which Moscow seized
A Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missile also was destroyed
over the northwestern part of the Black Sea, the ministry
said.
The developments came after three people were injured
Thursday night by other Ukrainian rocket and drone attacks
on the Russian border city of Belgorod and the surrounding
region, said Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov.
He posted photographs on Telegram of an apartment building
with some windows shattered and damaged cars. He said
authorities could help those wanting to move farther from
the border.
Ukrainian attacks on Dec. 30 in Belgorod killed 25 people,
officials there said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pledged to
hit more targets on the Crimean Peninsula and inside Russian
border regions this year. The goal is to unsettle Russians as
President Vladimir Putin seeks another six years in power
in a March 17 election.
A Ukrainian attack on military facilities in Crimea on
Thursday affected a command center and the peninsula’s air
defense system, according to a spokesperson for Ukraine’s
southern joint forces, Nataliia Humeniuk.
She said the Russian military recently relocated its Crimean
launch sites for Shahed drones.
It was not possible to verify either side’s claims.
Following a drone strike deep inside Russia last year,
Zelenskyy said Ukraine had developed a weapon that can
hit targets 700 kilometers (400 miles) away. He said last
month Kyiv plans to produce 1 million drones, which have
become a key battlefield weapon.
The U.K. Defense Ministry said Friday that “ground
combat has continued to be characterized by either a static
front line or very gradual, local Russian advances in key
sectors.”
The Kremlin, meanwhile, has acquired ballistic missiles
from North Korea and fired at least one of them into
Ukraine on Dec. 30, the White House said Thursday, citing
recently declassified U.S. intelligence. It also is seeking
close-range ballistic missiles from Iran, National Security
Council spokesman John Kirby said.
British Defense Minister Grant Shapps said Pyongyang
would pay a high price for supporting Russia, although
he didn’t say in what way, and he accused Moscow of
violating a U.N. embargo on arms shipments to and from
North Korea.
“The world has turned its back on Russia, forcing Putin
into the humiliation of going cap in hand to North Korea
to keep his illegal invasion going,” Shapps said on X,
formerly Twitter.
Asked about the development, Ukrainian air force
spokesman Yurii Ihnat said in televised comments Friday
that he couldn’t immediately confirm the use of the North
Korean-supplied missiles, adding that experts need to
study the fragments. Russian officials have refrained from
commenting on previous U.S. claims that North Korea has
supplied ammunition to Moscow.
Ukraine said it stopped 21 out of 29 Russian Shahed
drones launched late Thursday and early Friday. The
assault injured two people, including a 14-year-old, and
was the latest of almost daily Russian drone attacks in the
new year.
Mykola Bielieskov, a research fellow at Ukraine’s National
Institute for Strategic Studies.
“This could include attacks on troop concentrations, military
bases, and munitions stores along with logistical hubs and
armament production facilities,” he wrote in an assessment
published by the Atlantic Council, a U.S. think tank.