Is Ukraine Winning the War against Russia?

Saint Alexander Nevsky Church in Yegoryevsk was named in honor of St. Egor (Saint George). Often called “Russian Manchester” Yegoryevsk, a historic Russian town located some 100 kilometers from Moscow, is famed for its industrial style buildings.

This year, Ukraine has been gaining the upper hand in the war against Russia. Recently, they have launched their long range drones and missiles into Moscow along with 12 towns in the south and southeast.

Southeast of Moscow, in the town of Yegoryevsk, a falling drone had ignited a fire trapping two adults and two children inside a house from the rubble. 

While the four civilians were pulled out of the rubble, an infant was killed while being taken to the hospital by emergency respondents. Near the Ukrainian border in Belgorod, a man was taken to the hospital from a separate drone attack. 

According to the Moscow Times, “Russia’s Defense Ministry said it intercepted 419 Ukrainian drones across Russia and in annexed Crimea between Monday night and Tuesday morning.”

Back in Moscow, a Russian satellite, known as the Dubna satellite was hit by a Ukrainian drone. The site was located 500km from the Ukraine-Russia border. 

Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy said that Ukraine has “reached four such Russian centers” in both Moscow and Vladimir, east of Moscow. 

Zelenskyy wrote on X formally Twitter, “Step by step, we are implementing our plan of long-range sanctions and making it as difficult as possible for the aggressor state to carry out its invasion operations against Ukraine and the occupation of our territories. Relevant actions are also being prepared against other similar enemy facilities.” 

However, across three Ukrainian cities, about 10 people were killed in Russian attacks. Specifically, in Dnipro, a missile attack killed six people while wounding 29 civilians. 

Then in the southeast town of Zaporizhzhia, two men and a woman were killed after a Russian drone struck a minibus with seven more people including two children injured after the drone exploded near a bus. 

Furthermore in Kharkiv, a city in the northeast of Ukraine, a glide bomb had killed a 23-year old woman while wounding 10 people. In addition, it also damaged a tram and 15 cars. 

But Russia is also losing allies, even at the beginning of the war. Armenia`s Prime Minister has decided to position Armenia toward the West and develop relations with the European Union. 

In Belarus, their leader Alexander Lukashenko is facing pressure after Zelenskyy ordered Minsk to shut down Russian-installed drone relay stations along the border resulting in the equipment going dark.

President Zelenskyy had also warned Belarus that they had one week to remove the Moscow-installed equipment or Ukraine would act. 

Minsk had also told Moscow that they do not want to enter the war with Ukraine.

President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has refused to assist Russia with the invasion of Ukraine and emphasized that he would also not recognize Russian backed separatist groups in Ukraine.

Relations between Russia and Azerbaijan have been on a decline after a Russian surface-to-air missile struck an Azerbaijani Airlines jet killing 38 people. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev had demanded compensation but Russia denied responsibility for nearly a year. 

Other reports claim that there is an approved secret military training in China alarming Europe. The report had also described a three-week session on chemical, biological and radiological defense.

Described in the report were Russian soldiers listening to a Chinese instructor during a lecture at a military facility in Beijing in November studying “radiation reconnaissance,” “chemical reconnaissance” while looking at a model of a nuclear reactor and ways to prevent ventilation systems from contamination. However, Beijing has denied this. 

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, there has been an estimate of 1.2 million casualties of Russian forces with 2 million Russian and Ukrainian casualties combined. Moscow also received sanctions and was expelled from the European Council.