Translated material
War
One thousand four hundred and thirty-first day. Russia, against the backdrop of trilateral negotiations in Abu Dhabi, dealt a massive blow to Ukraine. In Kyiv, thousands of houses are without power again; in Kharkov, more than 30 victims
Since February 24, 2022, Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian-Ukrainian war. We publish your letters every day because we are sure that we need to continue talking about the war. Share with us your thoughts about the war. What feelings are you experiencing? How does war affect your life and your attitude towards the world? If you have a story related to the war, tell it . The feedback form is at the end of this article. A review of the previous day can be read here .
Ukraine
On the night of January 24, Russian troops launched a combined attack on Ukraine using drones and missiles, the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement. In total, according to the Ukrainian army, the Russian military fired 375 drones and 21 missiles. The main direction of attack was the Kyiv region. Ukrainian air defense systems shot down 15 missiles and 357 drones.
Kharkov came under drone attack. According to the mayor of the city, Igor Terekhov, the Industrial and Nemyshlyansky districts suffered the most. Residential buildings and the private sector, as well as a hostel for displaced people, were damaged. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky also reported damage to the medical college and maternity hospital.
Terekhov later clarified that 31 people were injured as a result of the night attack.
In Kiev, as a result of a Russian strike, one person was killed and four more were injured, the State Service of Ukraine for Emergency Situations said . In the Goloseevsky district there is destruction on the top floor of a confectionery factory. As Victoria Syumar, a member of the European Solidarity faction, clarified, the blow hit the Roshen factory; a woman died there. “A woman died from a direct hit from Shahed at the Roshen plant... She worked in the production workshop. <…> Two more workers were injured,” the deputy said.
The mayor of Kiev, Vitaliy Klitschko, said that due to the attack and damage to critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian capital, almost six thousand houses were again left without heating. Most of them are those that have already been connected or tried to be connected to the heating supply twice after the shelling on January 9 and 20.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on the morning of January 24 that in response to Kyiv’s attacks on civilian targets on Russian territory, attacks were carried out on a plant producing drones, as well as energy facilities “used in the interests of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine.”
The massive blow to Ukraine was dealt at a time when two-day negotiations between the delegations of Russia, Ukraine and the United States were taking place in Abu Dhabi. “Peace efforts? Trilateral meeting in the UAE? Diplomacy? For Ukrainians, it was another night of Russian terror. It is cynical that Putin ordered a brutal, massive missile attack on Ukraine just as delegations are meeting in Abu Dhabi to advance the American-led peace process. His missiles hit not only our people, but also the negotiating table,” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrei Sibiga.
Reuters notes that the first day of negotiations in Abu Dhabi showed that there were no signs of compromise between the parties. The White House called the discussions productive. Negotiations resumed on the morning of January 24. As on the first day, they are held behind closed doors.
War in photographs. Consequences of attacks on Kyiv and Kharkov
Kyiv
Kharkov
War through the eyes of Meduza readers
How we choose letters
Meduza's readers live in different countries and have different attitudes towards the war. We publish your letters to see this event through your eyes. Our editors try to present all points of view, even if they do not coincide with the editorial position. However, in accordance with the Meduza code, we do not publish messages that contain “hate speech,” justify the murder of civilians, or express direct support for an aggressive war.
Christina (Moscow) . I read a letter from a resident of Kharkov and wanted to share how I would explain this war to my children.
I am about 20 years old, I live in Moscow with my parents. Since the beginning of the war, I haven’t felt it much, [although] I knew what happened in Bucha, I know what happens to Ukrainian girls kidnapped at the front by Russian soldiers, I know how ordinary civilians or Red Cross volunteers who are trying to take people out of the gray zone die.
However, I was really able to at least somehow, a little bit, understand the Ukrainians with the first drone attacks on Moscow, with the first explosions at four in the morning. It will probably sound funny to Ukrainians, but I couldn’t sleep after that for two days, and it immediately dawned on me that people had been living like this for three or four years. At that moment, I could (with a low probability) die because fragments of the drone would fall or the drone would just accidentally hit the house, but quite a lot of Ukrainians had already suffered and died, and they were innocent, ordinary people.
Since then, the idea of a single picket has been spinning in my head, I want to go out with a poster “no to ***” or “no to voble”, or “no to war” after all. They will take me away for 14 days, and then the police will come to see me. I don’t know how it all works, and whether for one picket I will receive an article for discrediting the RF Armed Forces, but I know one thing for sure: I will be much more useful if I save up money and leave Russia, rather than sit down and sew balaclavas for the military in prison. I will do more good if I go and write about what Russian soldiers did and are doing at the front, about how Ukraine is suffering. I want to leave to show the very Nazism, invisible to Russian citizens, that they are fighting against.
I am not going to lie to my children about what Russia did in this war, about how it mocked another nation, culture and sovereignty. And in this case, who am I in your eyes - an accomplice or an indifferent person?