Russia has intensified its attacks in eastern Ukraine.
While war fatigue seems to be growing in Kiev,
Russia now says it is advancing on all sections of
the frontline and registered some gains in the eastern villages
as well.
But the latest Ukraine says 2 power lines connecting its
electricity grid to the Lapporetia nuclear power plant were cut
overnight.
This put the plant at the risk of an accident.
Kiev says the plant was on the verge of a
nuclear and radiation
accident before offsite power was restored by Ukraine.
Time and again, Zaporizia plant became the centre of fighting.
Since it was taken over by Russian forces last year.
Both sides often accuse each other
of compromising its safety. Despite minor changes being made on
the front lines,
intense fighting has continued in several regions.
The recent battle has been centred around industrial town of
Abdika.
Ukraine says it is engaging with Russian forces.
Russia launched a bid to capture the town in October.
Earlier, Moscow also claimed to take in control
of Kromov,
a small village on the outskirts of Bakhmut.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also signed a decree to ramp
up its forces by
170,000 troops. The number of servicemen in Russian army currently
stands at
1.3 million. The Russian Defence Ministry says the strength is
being increased due to the growing threats to Moscow associated
with special military operation.
Special operation is how Russia describes its invasion of Ukraine.
This comes at a time when Ukraine is struggling to
recruit soldiers.
The wartime president, Volodymyr Zielinski,
says changes are needed in its mobilization system.
Corruption and recruitment has been pressing issues for Ukraine for
some time now.
Calls for demobilizations have also been rising in Ukraine.
Early on Friday, Ukraine says Russia launched 25 drone attacks
overnight,
killing one person and injuring another in southern Harson.
While in the town of Mikolai
a war warehouse suffered damage.
Ukraine also added a downed 18 drones that had been
launched from southwestern Russia and Crimea.
Ukraine's agency claimed to have detonated explosives on a Russian
railway line in Siberia.
Earlier this was the 2nd SATA tank on military supply
routes.
This week,
Russia says train was a blown up
or was blown up in a terrorist act by unidentified
individuals.
Trump's Siberian railway network is essential for Russian freight transport.
With the winter reaching its peak,
Kiev fears Russia will try to destroy Ukraine's critical energy
infrastructure.
The White House has said that US is helping prepare
Ukraine for expected Russian winter attack.
Fred Weir is a journalist and also political commentator from
Moscow.
He is now joining us live on the show.
Welcome Fred. It's winter season and Kiev is facing war
fatigue.
How is that likely to play out as far as
the war is concerned?
Well, it's still very difficult to predict when and how
this war will end,
but it is clear that we've passed some kind of
a turning point
in the recent months. The big Ukrainian offensive has
clearly failed, I mean, utterly and completely failed.
And yesterday, Vladimir Zelensky did say that
that Ukraine is going to start building defensive lines
much as the kind the Russians had built earlier,
which is pretty much the final
admission
that Ukraine isn't going to be retaking any of that
territory that Russia seized anytime soon.
So we do see the initiative passing to the Russians
all along the front line
in the past months or so.
The the victories and you enumerated them a few minutes
ago are still very small that we're talking about incremental
gains,
but it is a war of attrition.
Russia is is grinding down the Ukrainian forces.
They are suffering like terribly.
The Russians are are taking a beating too.
It's a it's just a horrendous war.
It it just you know that when the casualties become
known,
I think we're all going to be horrified.
But so far, the mathematics does favor Russia,
and the tide does seem to be turning in Russia's
favor.
And I think that Putin's announcement of beefing up the
forces means that Russia will be over the winter
accumulating a new army. Not one that's pinned down on
the on the front line,
but in Russia, training them,
arming them
to launch some sort of
a fresh attack perhaps from the north
in the springtime.
Fred, let's talk about what you just mentioned there,
the mathematics of this war.
And also you've you've just said that the counter of
the counter offensive by Ukraine is failing.
Looking at that, how would you gauge the war moving
forward because it has been two years,
almost two years past two years now.
How would you gauge the war to be
likely to play out in the next
year or so?
I think. I think we can hope that it won't
be another year.
It is dawning in Kiev
and in western capitals that
Ukraine is not going to win the war as maybe
a year ago.
There was a lot of euphoria,
a lot of hope and reasons to hope
that Ukraine might deal some sort of a knockout blow
to Russia.
It's pretty clear now that Russia is not only
holding on and taking the initiative,
but the Russian economy is gearing up to a war
footing.
Like the the none of the
calculations of of of crippling Russia with sanctions have played
out.
On the contrary, the Russian economy is growing and
turning to war production on a very big scale.
Russia's manpower reserves are are
still strong. They have like 20 million people
on the reserve list who could be mobilized if needed,
whereas Ukraine is clearly scraping the bottom of the barrel
for manpower.
I read the other day that the
average age in the Ukrainian army is
43.
I mean the average age of soldiers in World War
2
in Allied Forces was like
22.
This is this is terrible and it and I think
it bespeaks
the real destruction that's been wreaked upon Ukraine by this
war.
So I'm I'm not saying it's to be hoped for
that Ukraine will collapse or anything like that.
They fought with such courage and determination and and
for their own country. But I think,
I hope that it's dawning on people by now that
there need to be peace talks.
There needs to be some kind of a settlement,
a legal one, that will end this.
All right. I've been talking to a journalist and political
commentator.
Fred Weir. Thank you very much for talking to us
today.
Thank you.
Weon is now available in your country.
Download the app now and get all the news on
the move.