Ukraine reveals losses of 300 terrifying days of Russian bombing

The Ukrainian authorities revealed, on Tuesday, irreparable losses and destruction after 300 days of continuous Russian bombing of the country, while Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged the difficult situation in the regions Russia annexed it to its control.

Russia fired 4,700 missiles at Ukraine, causing 16,000 fires, and 97 percent of the targets targeted by Moscow’s forces were civilian, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

The Russian bombing caused the destruction of 1,132 cultural artifacts, and the destruction of 2,556 educational institutions, and there are 114 health facilities that were destroyed or damaged as a result of the bombing, and the Ukrainian authorities recorded 54,898 war crimes and aggression.

The strikes, which Ukraine says clearly target civilians, have repeatedly cut off electricity and water supplies in Ukrainian territory amid freezing temperatures.

On Tuesday, the World Bank announced that it would grant Ukraine an additional $610 million to enable it, in particular, to meet the most urgent needs in the field of health.

This support, which takes the form of two loans from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which is part of the World Bank Group, is guaranteed by Britain, in particular, with a ceiling of $500 million.

This new funding allows covering the expenditures of the Ukrainian government in the field of health and assistance to families, as well as paying the salaries of state employees and ensuring the operation of public administrations.

This raises the value of the World Bank’s financing to Ukraine to 18 billion dollars in the form of loans and grants since the beginning of the conflict, knowing that 15 billion of them have been disbursed so far.

The World Bank estimates that the equivalent of 5.5% of health facilities in Ukraine have been destroyed or damaged since the start of the war.

Since the beginning of the conflict, the country has received significant financial and military support from the international community, especially from the United States.

Donor countries meeting in Paris early last week agreed to provide more than one billion euros to Ukraine to support its citizens during the winter at a time when Russian attacks are targeting energy infrastructure.

On the 300 days anniversary of the Russian operation in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the federal security services to intensify monitoring of Russian society and Russian borders to prevent any emergence of new threats from abroad or traitors at home.

On Tuesday, Putin acknowledged the difficulty of the situation in the regions that Russia recently announced its annexation from Ukraine at the time.

Putin told Russia’s security services that they needed to improve their work dramatically, in one of his clearest public admissions yet that the invasion he launched nearly 10 months ago didn’t go according to plan.

Putin’s speech followed a visit to close ally Belarus, which raised fears, dismissed by the Kremlin, that Minsk could help Russia open a new front of invasion against Ukraine.

In a statement contrary to what was announced by official channels that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is proceeding smoothly, Putin acknowledged the existence of serious problems in the regions that Moscow announced unilaterally annexing from Ukraine in September, and ordered the Federal Security Office to ensure the safety of those living there.

“The situation in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics of the Kherson and Zaporizhya regions is very difficult,” Putin said in a video address to security personnel.

Footage was later shown of Putin awarding medals to the leaders of the four regions appointed by Russia at a televised ceremony in the Kremlin.

Putin’s announcement to annex regions of Ukraine, a measure that Ukraine and its Western allies described as illegal, came as part of his efforts to turn things around after a series of defeats on the battlefield.

But the following month, Russian forces withdrew from Kherson, one of the regions it recently annexed from Ukraine, failing to capture new territory while continuing to bomb Ukraine’s energy facilities in a move said to weaken the army.

For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited, on Tuesday, Bakhmut, the city that Russian forces have been trying to control for months and is currently the hottest point on the front line in the east of the country, describing the war-ravaged city as the fortress of the front in Ukraine.

A video recording showed Zelensky visiting the city, on Tuesday, wearing military uniform and distributing medals to the soldiers, amidst applause.

“The East is standing firm because Bakhmut is in a state of fighting… In the midst of fierce battles and at the cost of many lives, all of our freedoms are being defended here”.

One of the fiercest battles of the past few weeks took place around the city of Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine.

During the past 24 hours, units of the Ukrainian forces repelled Russian attacks outside 25 settlements.

This came in a report by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on its Facebook page, Wednesday.

According to the General Staff, Russian forces launched five missile attacks, 16 air strikes and carried out 61 attacks, using MLRS multiple launch rocket systems.

As a result, extensive damage was inflicted on civilian infrastructure and the civilian population in Kherson, Kostyantinivka and Vovchansk.

“On Tuesday, the Ukrainian Defense Forces’ aircraft launched 10 attacks on Russian military personnel and equipment areas, and 12 raids on enemy anti-aircraft missile systems”.

Units of the missile and artillery forces of the Defense Forces of Ukraine bombed an enemy ammunition depot, three command posts and ten areas of army personnel.