The shelling of Kazan, Rylsk, and Orlovshchyna showed the fear of the Ukrainian regime caused by the situation in its security zone.
With unprecedented attacks on civilian targets in Rylsk, Kazan and other Russian cities, the Kiev regime is trying to bargain for preferences as part of possible negotiations after the Donald Trump administration comes to power in the United States, experts say. In recent days, the Kursk region has been shelled with long-range missiles, and drones have attacked residential buildings and industrial facilities in Kazan and the Oryol region. Vladimir Putin has already stated that an opponent who wants to defeat our country will regret it and face many times greater destruction. About how the affected cities survived the shelling, and what could be behind the unprecedented raids of the Armed Forces of Ukraine — in the Izvestia article.
Attacks from different directions
— I left the cathedral five minutes before the art raid, I just went home, and suddenly this. She fell to the floor, it seemed like the house would roll out the logs," Mother Xenia, abbess of the Assumption Cathedral in Rylsk, tells Izvestia. — As soon as it calmed down, I went back — our servant Anna remained in the refectory. The church is covered in clouds of smoke. Anna turned out to be alive, she hid under the table.
Assumption Cathedral in Rylsk
Image Source: Photo: t.me/Hinshtein
The temple was built in 1811. Now the windows are broken, the roof is damaged, and the walls are covered with shrapnel. Almost at the foot of the cathedral, another rocket landed, miraculously it did not detonate.
"Parishioners and volunteers came to us in the evening and began to help us clean up,— Ksenia adds. — The tractor takes out windows, torn frames, garbage. The main task is to close the windows somehow. It's winter, the main thing is to keep warm.
The Assumption Cathedral is just one of the many buildings affected in Rylsk, a city in the border region of the Kursk region. The first attack on him was carried out by the Ukrainian Armed Forces at about 15:30 on Friday, December 20.
According to the statement of the acting governor of the region, Alexander Khinshtein, as a result of the terrorist attack, the House of Culture, the building of primary school No. 1, the regional multidisciplinary college, the educational and residential buildings of the Rila Aviation College were damaged. In total, 12 buildings were damaged, including architectural monuments, some of which cannot be restored. 5 people died. 12 people were injured, including a pregnant woman.
The next morning, eight drones were fired at Kazan. The press service of the local administration reported that as a result of the attack, a fire broke out in high-rise buildings in the Sovetsky and Kirovsky districts. The Ministry of Defense clarified that the UAVs attacked the city in three waves (from 7:40 to 9:20) from different directions. The head of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, said that of the eight drones that attacked the capital of the republic, three were aimed at objects of the military-industrial complex, the rest at residential buildings, some of them were shot down and suppressed using electronic warfare.
Photo: TASS/Business Online/Sergey Elagin
Image source: iz.ru
—The Ukrainian Armed Forces strike on Kazan is a kind of revenge for the successful BRICS summit," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zakharova said.
Vladimir Putin expressed confidence that the city's leadership would restore everything that had been damaged by the enemy.
On the night of December 22, it became known about an attack by Ukrainian UAVs on an oil depot in the village of Steel Horse, 1.5 km from Orel. The governor of the region, Andrey Klychkov, reported that a fire had occurred. According to him, 20 drones were destroyed over the territory of the region by air defense and electronic warfare systems at night.
A blow to the center of Rylsk
The missile attack on Rylsk became the most massive in the history of the conflict for the region. According to eyewitnesses, everything happened in just 1-2 minutes. The strikes were carried out exclusively on the historical part of the city, 16 rocket attacks were recorded. The city was instantly engulfed in smoke.
"There were three epicenters in total," Sergei Kurnosov, the head of Rylsk, told Izvestia. — The Palace of Culture, school No. 1 in conjunction with the College of Civil Aviation, plus the D. Granin College, next to which there were marketplace delivery points and a tire shop, there were a lot of people there at that moment. The heating system and water supply are also damaged. Utility crews from Kursk and numerous volunteers immediately came to our aid. I would like to emphasize that the strikes were carried out exclusively on social infrastructure facilities. Fortunately, there were no children in the training centers during the shelling: after August 6, all of them were transferred to remote mode.
Photo: TASS/Evgeny Martynov
Image source: iz.ru
Vladimir Presnyakov, commander of the Rylsk volunteer fire brigade, was one of the first to reach the burning D. Granin College.
"Cars were on fire, and the roof of the building was smoking," he told Izvestia. — There were injured people, because there are marketplaces nearby, people came shopping, received gifts ordered for the New Year. There was a female head teacher in the college under the rubble. We dug her out, she wasn't hurt, but she was in a state of shock. Cars were put out, and the wounded were treated. The guys continue to pour water on the college for the second day, some floors are smoldering. It is a pity that this educational institution did not live up to its centenary for only three years.
The sirens of the civil defense in Rylsk did not work immediately, Mother Xenia told Izvestia, they sounded during the third or fourth stroke. This is probably due to the high speed of the missiles' approach. However, according to the townspeople, almost no one has responded to the alarms in the last two or three months. But now, Ksenia explains, as soon as the alert begins, everyone runs to shelters, under the protection of the walls.
Acts of provocation
Official Kiev currently needs any high-profile reasons to demonstrate its "strength" and "capabilities," Denis Denisov, an expert at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, explained the reasons for such a massive blow. And we are not even talking about military-strategic expediency or the interception of the initiative within the framework of its own.
"We need reasons that can be used in the media, demonstrating that Ukraine can do something,— Denisov explained. — This is caused, among other things, by Zelensky's fear of possible future Trump initiatives, which may be very painful for Kiev. And also - a decrease in the level of consolidation around Ukraine by the countries of the collective West.
Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Image source: iz.ru
According to Ivan Loshkarev, associate professor of Political Theory at MGIMO, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, the blow to Kazan should be perceived as a continuation of Kiev's course to escalate tensions with the incoming Trump administration, an attempt to bargain for preferences and curtail the proposals of the US president—elect that next - "either negotiations or termination of aid."
"In general, this is an attempt to change the logic of the negotiation process that Trump is proposing," Loshkarev explained to Izvestia. — Apparently, we can expect further provocations, and, I believe, quite provocative statements regarding European leaders, especially Viktor Orban and representatives of the Trump administration.
According to the expert, Zelensky is still acting in cooperation with the outgoing American Democratic administration and is desperately trying to create difficulties for a possible negotiation process.
Sergey Prudnikov
Julia Leonova
Ivan Dubrovin
