WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia launches new barrage of drones at Ukraine, kills one, Kyiv says

Russia launched a barrage of drones in an overnight attack on Ukraine on Friday, killing one civilian and injuring four others in the Kyiv region, the military and regional officials said.

Ukrainian air defences shot down 60 out of 93 Russian drones, the air force said. It also said that 26 drones were "lost", in reference to Ukraine's use of electronic warfare to redirect Russian drones.

One Russian drone was still in the air, the air force added.

Mykola Kalashnyk, acting governor for the Kyiv region, said that a truck driver was killed by drone debris. The debris also damaged several private houses, injuring four people, including a 16-year-old boy, he said.

The air force said that the Russian drones targeted nine Ukrainian regions across the country. Residential houses and commercial buildings were damaged in the Donetsk region in the east and the Chernihiv region in the north, the military said.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Kiev set to comply with US demand to draft teenagers – Moscow

Kiev will make a decision soon on how to respond to US demands that it lower the conscription age in the country to 18, in order to bolster troop numbers on the front lines of the conflict with Moscow, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) claimed on Friday.

Concerns are growing in Western countries regarding the Ukrainian army’s capacity to withstand pressure from Russian forces, an SVR statement has claimed. US President Joe Biden could intervene to prevent this, according to the agency. 

Merely supplying advanced weaponry, including long-range missile systems, will not be enough to stabilize the front lines, the SVR added.

“Countries in Eastern Europe bordering Ukraine are quietly preparing to receive new waves of Ukrainian refugees, who this time will be fleeing not from an imaginary threat posed by Russia, but from the real danger of getting a one-way ticket to the front lines,” the press release claimed.

According to the SVR, Western leaders are acutely aware that the conflict represents an “existential” challenge for Russia, and retreat is not an option.

In a televised interview on Ukraine’s Telemarathon on Thursday, Zelensky acknowledged that desertions within the army surged in 2024 amid escalating war fatigue and a shortage of reserve forces.

Reuters/RT