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"We now know for sure that the great fire of the Marywilska shopping centre in Warsaw was caused by arson ordered by the Russian special services," Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X. "Some of the perpetrators have already been detained, all the others are identified and searched for."

This week, the world watched in anticipation for Russia’s Victory Day parade after President Volodymyr Zelensky commented that he could not guarantee the safety of those attending. Meanwhile, the European Union moves one step forward to banning Russian gas from the European continent. It is also revealed this week that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has fallen out of step with the White House.

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Air Force: Ukraine downs 18 drones, 8 missiles launched by Russia overnight

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Air Force: Ukraine downs 18 drones, 8 missiles launched by Russia overnight
Fragments of the Iranian drone Shahed-136 (Russia named Geran 2), displayed in Kyiv on Aug. 24, 2023. (Illustrative purposes only) (Aleksandr Gusev/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Ukrainian forces downed all the 18 Shahed "kamikaze" drones and all the eight ballistic missiles launched by Russia overnight, the Air Force reported on Dec. 11.

According to the U.K. Defense Ministry, the past few days saw the start of Russia's "more concentrated" campaign against Ukraine's energy infrastructure just as the besieged country braces for another tough winter.

The ballistic missiles of an undetermined model were reportedly launched against Kyiv Oblast at around 4 a.m., likely from Russia's Bryansk Oblast.

Officials in Kyiv reported that a 31-year-old man sustained shrapnel injuries as a result of the attack, and three women aged 60, 33, and 31 suffered acute reactions to stress.

The falling missile fragments also caused damage in the city, starting a fire in an unfinished residential building, said Serhii Popko, the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration.

Russian forces further attacked Ukraine with 18 Shaheds launched from occupied Crimea, the Air Force said.

All of the drones were reportedly shot down in the area of responsibility of the Southern Air Command, most of them in Mykolaiv Oblast.

Alexander Khrebet: Don’t write off Ukrainians living under Russian occupation
Standing at an intersection just outside Russian-occupied Donetsk in the town of Marinka two years ago felt bittersweet. I could see the curtains in the windows of a nine-story residential building with my naked eye a few kilometers in the distance. The huge antenna tower I still remember standing…
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Martin Fornusek

Senior News Editor

Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.

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