2023-12-31 16:57:36
2024-01-01 00:57 Compiled by Gao Yuxuan from United Daily News/Comprehensive Report Udon Kharkov was attacked by Russian military missiles. Local firefighters put out a raging fire in a building on December 31 last year. (…
Ukrainian officials alleged on December 31 last year that Russia used missiles and drones to indiscriminately bombard major cities including Kiev and Kharkiv, the second largest city in eastern Ukraine, overnight, injuring at least 28 people. From the evening of the 28th to the 29th of the same month, the Russian army launched the largest air strike since the war between Russia and Ukraine last February. Russia and Ukraine bombed each other for days. CNN reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking re-election in March and is declaring to both the country and abroad that he is winning the war once morest Ukraine.
According to reports from CNN, Archyde.com and other foreign media, the Russian army carried out large-scale air strikes on many important cities in Ukraine overnight, killing at least 45 people and injuring more than 150 people. The Ukrainian army immediately retaliated, using rockets and missiles to storm the Russian-Ukrainian border city of Belgorod. Russia also accused Ukraine of using cluster bombs, which had killed at least 24 people, including three children, and 108 People were injured, and Moscow threatened revenge.
The Security Council first met on December 29 last year in response to the Russian air strike on Ukraine. At the meeting, the United States, Britain, France and other countries condemned Russia. The next day, the Security Council also met at Russia’s request, during which Russian and Ukrainian representatives exchanged insults. No resolution was reached at the two emergency meetings.
CNN reported that since Russia will hold a presidential election next March, Putin is obviously trying to convince domestic voters and the world that he is in control of victory. He promoted economic achievements at the year-end press conference in December last year, claiming that Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) had recovered from the recession of the previous year, industrial output had also grown, and the unemployment rate had hit a new low of 2.9%, highlighting that Russia’s It has regained its footing under severe sanctions from foreign countries including the Western world.
The war situation between Russia and Ukraine also gave Putin a good opportunity to promote himself. The Uzbek Army’s massive counterattack last year was light and rainy; U.S. President Biden’s more than 60 billion U.S. dollars in aid to Ukraine is still stuck in Congress due to Republican opposition. In addition to U.S. financial aid, which has almost bottomed out, the EU’s latest aid proposal to Ukraine has also been blocked by Hungary. .
Putin hopes that Western aid to Ukraine will become weaker and weaker. Democratic Senator Murphy bluntly stated that the United States is regarding to abandon Ukraine. The West’s stance on Kyiv’s resistance to Russia was originally to fight as long as it lasted, but Biden changed his tune when Ukrainian President Zelensky, who visited the United States in December last year, said that the United States would support it as much as possible.
Russia does have its long-term worries, such as war deaths and a demographic crisis exacerbated by emigration. Nearly 750,000 people left Russia the year before last, and it is generally believed that more people “voted with their feet” to leave Russia last year; labor shortages are driving up wages and inflation. Efforts to circumvent international sanctions and maintain industrial production come at a cost, as many products are now used to replenish staggering losses on the battlefield and budget deficits have ballooned.
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