(updated at 11:40 am)
Russian air defense shot down a Ukrainian drone on Sunday (25) night as it approached Engels air base, Russian news agencies reported on Monday (26). The city of Engels in the Saratov region is more than 600 kilometers from the border with Ucrania. The air base had already been attacked on December 5th.
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A Ucrania, which has so far not made any comment on the attack, asked this Monday (26) for the removal of the Russia as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
“Ukraine calls on UN Member States (…) to deprive the Russian Federation of its 'status' as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to exclude it from the UN as a whole,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. in a statement.
Russia is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, alongside the United Kingdom, France, China and the United States.
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The demand has no prospects of success, as Moscow has veto rights in the Security Council.
O veto power allows permanent members to block any resolution and renders the body powerless, as happened in February when the Russia invaded the Ucrania and the diplomats limited themselves to reading statements.
“Historical Russia”
After 10 months of conflict, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, justified on Sunday (25) the military offensive in the former Soviet republic and declared that the objective is to “unite the Russian people”.
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“Everything is based on the policies of our geopolitical adversaries, who intend to divide Russia, historical Russia,” Putin denounced in an interview shown on state television.
The head of state uses the concept of “historical Russia” to justify military intervention in Ucrania, which would have the goal of uniting Ukrainians and Russians, who according to Putin are just one people.
During the interview, he also promeyour to eliminate the Patriot air defense system that the United States government will supply to Ucrania.
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In addition to the Patriot system, Kiev will receive a new $45 billion aid package from Washington.
Bombings on Christmas Eve
On the battlefield, the Russian General Staff confirmed a few days ago that the actions in Ucrania focus on trying to completely control the Donetsk region, which alongside Lugansk forms the Donbass basin, partially occupied by pro-Moscow separatists since 2014.
A Ucrania insists that it will reconquer the four regions that Russia claims to have annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson at the end of September, as well as the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
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Saturday (24) was marked by bombings in the center of Kherson, a city in the south of Ucrania recovered by Kiev on November 11, after eight months of Russian occupation. The attacks, called an “act of terror” by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, left at least 10 dead and 55 injured on Christmas Eve.
The president asked his compatriots to prepare for possible attacks until the end of the year. “We must be aware that our enemy will try to make this moment dark and difficult,” he said.
(To AFP)
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