While many of the citizens of the U.S. and its allies spent the night of Christmas Eve marking the supposed path of Santa Claus across flight trackers, Ukrainian civilians were huddled in bunkers as their armed forces attempted to shoot down the Russian drones and missiles they saw streaking across their skies.
According to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, must have been planning the early Wednesday morning attack for some time.
“Every massive Russian strike requires time for preparation. It is never a spontaneous decision. It is a deliberate choice – not only of targets but also of timing and date,” he shared Wednesday morning.
“Today, Putin deliberately chose Christmas for an attack. What could be more inhumane? Over 70 missiles, including ballistic ones, and more than a hundred attack drones. The targets are our energy infrastructure. They continue to fight for a blackout in Ukraine,” he said.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that Russia’s Christmas attack included “78 missiles of various types and 106 UAVs,” and proves “nothing sacred for the Russian terrorists.”
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed in a statement they had conducted a “massive” strike against Ukraine on Wednesday, and that “the aim of the strike was achieved. All facilities have been hit.”
Ukrainian forces were able to shoot down 50 of the missiles, and many of the drones, but Zelenskyy said those that made it past their defenses have caused power outages in “several regions.”
In response to the attack, NATO member Poland’s Armed Forces Operational Command warned residents via social media that they had scrambled their aircraft as a precaution. This is at least the second time this month Polish forces felt the need to guard their airspace in the midst of Russian strikes on Ukraine.
“Due to the attack by long-range aircraft of the Russian Federation, which may target facilities located, among others, in western Ukraine, military aviation has begun operating in our airspace,” they said in an initial announcement, according to translation. The alert was canceled about two hours later.
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink said via social media that Russia’s “Christmas gift to Ukraine” was “directed at Ukrainian families celebrating in their homes and the energy infrastructure that keeps them warm.”
“For the third holiday season, Russia weaponizes winter,” she wrote.
Former Ukrainian Interior Minister Anton Gerashchenko said that as a result of Russian aggression, “The holidays are not that merry in Ukraine this year. Times are dark and hard.”
“But the story of Christmas is a good lesson that there is hope in the darkest of times. That sacrifices are worth it. That light will overcome darkness,” he said.
Russia has been attacking its fellow former-Soviet state for more than a decade, going back at least as far as 2014, when Putin illegally annexed Crimea. The conflict, which continued in a pair of separatist regions during the following eight years, exploded into full-scale war in February of 2022, when the Russian military further invaded their democratic neighbor on three fronts.
The Kremlin had apparently planned for just days of military actions, but Russian forces have mostly been stalled in their advances by Ukrainian troops and civilian volunteers armed and trained by a global coalition of 50 nations.
The United Nations estimates that the war has displaced more than 10 million Ukrainian civilians and left half again as many in need of humanitarian assistance. Zelenskyy confirmed earlier this month that 43,000 members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have died in the conflict, and more than 370,000 have been injured.
According to the Department of Defense, the U.S. has “committed more than $63.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden Administration, including approximately $62.9 billion since the beginning of Russia’s unprovoked and brutal invasion on February 24, 2022.”
The DoD says that the U.S. will continue “to work with its Allies and partners to provide Ukraine with additional capabilities to defend itself.”
A further aid package is expected in the coming days, according to Reuters. Citing “two sources familiar with the matter,” the news agency reports the next offer of support — likely the last of Biden’s term — will include about $1.2 billion in arms and equipment.
Christmas didn’t become an official state holiday in Ukraine until 2017, when the country declared that both December 25 and January 7 would be commemorated as public holidays in keeping with the differences between the Julian calendar used by some Christian sects and the Gregorian calendar used by others. In 2023, in a deliberate attempt to distance themselves from Russian influence, Ukraine declared Christmas would be celebrated on December 25 alone.
Zelenskyy, on Wednesday, shared his thanks for the Ukrainian armed forces, and promised that power would be restored and that “Russian evil will not break Ukraine and will not spoil Christmas.”
Herald wire services contributed.