Ukraine declares it will counterattack, Russia says negotiations are far away, "nightmare" for Kiev's air defense revealed

As the conflict in Ukraine has seen new developments heating up the situation, the Eastern European country's army said it is planning to attack Russian forces.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is heating up after new developments behind the scenes regarding Kiev's long-range strike rights and Moscow's testing of a new missile. (Source: Al Mayadeen)

On November 26, blogger Kirill Sazonov’s personal Telegram channel wrote: “The opinion of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (VSU), General Alexander Syrsky, is: we must stop the enemy. But the VSU cannot win by defending. We must take the initiative and counterattack. We can and we will do so.”

According to General Syrsky, last week the Pokrovsk and Kurakhovsk directions were in trouble, the situation was really critical and some units had to retreat and leave their positions, but now things are "better".

The last time the Ukrainian army launched a major counter-offensive was in 2023, but Kiev admitted that the operation failed to achieve its goals. According to former CIA Director David Petraeus, the reason was the delay in the process of equipping the VSU with Western weapons.

However, in recent weeks, the outgoing US administration has given Ukraine the green light to use long-range weapons supplied by Washington to strike deep into Russian territory, prompting the UK to make a similar decision with the Storm Shadow missile.

This led to a dangerous escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, when the country launched its first attack on Russian territory with the US ATACMS long-range missile, causing Moscow to respond with its latest Oreshnik hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile.

Meanwhile, on the Russian side, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that, considering the situation on the front line, "there is still a long way to go" to reach a political and diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis.

On November 26, TASS news agency quoted Mr. Lavrov as saying: "The US and its satellites are still obsessed with the idea of ​​causing strategic defeat for Russia and are ready to do everything to achieve this goal, even though it is far-fetched and unrealistic."

According to the veteran diplomat , it was the conduct of airstrikes deep inside Russian territory that contributed to this escalation, while ignoring Moscow's warnings that "unacceptable actions will be met with an appropriate response."

Besides, Mr. Lavrov stated: "No matter what the opponent does to escalate the situation, we will never give up our efforts to achieve the goals of the special military campaign and are ready to face any developments but want to resolve problems and disputes by peaceful means."

Regarding the new Oreshnik hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile that Russia announced it launched into Ukraine on November 21, former Polish Army Commander Waldemar Skrzypczak recently commented that this weapon has become a serious problem for Kiev.

“In my opinion, Russia has proven that Ukraine's air defense systems are incapable of countering intercontinental missiles flying at high altitudes,” General Skrzypczak said in an interview with the Fronda news portal.

According to him, no one recorded the Russian missile launch on November 21. Reconnaissance satellites, whether US military or commercial satellites used by Ukraine, should have detected the launch and the missile's flight path, but nothing happened, not even an alarm signal was sounded.

On the US side, as of November 26, the US Department of Defense had not yet completed its assessment of the damage caused by the Oreshnik missile to Ukraine.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/ukraine-tuyen-bo-se-phan-cong-nga-noi-con-xa-moi-den-dam-phan-con-ac-mong-danh-cho-phong-khong-kiev-lo-dien-295252.html