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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: January 30, 2024
2024-01-31
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title
[Korrespondent] 22:32 According to the legislative initiative of the Ministry of Defense, all citizens of military age will be required to register an electronic account of a conscript subject to military service. Summons will also be sent to the conscript’s electronic account. In addition, all citizens aged 18 to 60 years who are registered (or deregistered) must have a military registration document with them and present it at the request of a TCC representative, police officer or border guard. Read more in the material New draft law on mobilization: basic norms .

21:43 As a result of a cyber attack by GUR specialists, a large-scale failure occurred in the Russian Ministry of Defense server, which was used for special communications, military intelligence reports. As a result of the cyber attack, the exchange of information between units of the Russian Defense Ministry that used a server located in Moscow was stopped. The software on the attacked server was approved by the FSB of the Russian Federation as meeting state information security standards. The corresponding software was installed at various strategic facilities in the Russian public sector, including military ones.

Meanwhile, Russian media write that today there was a large-scale failure in the operation of sites in the .RU domain zone. The Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation announced “a technical problem related to the global DNSSEC infrastructure (this is a set of DNS protocol extensions that guarantees the integrity and reliability of data).”

21:26 The Cabinet of Ministers submitted to the Verkhovna Rada an updated bill on military service and mobilization. The Ministry of Defense claims that comments and observations on the document were taken into account jointly with the General Staff, the government and people's deputies. The agency also published an infographic about the updated version of the draft law:

20:49 Politico writes that Ukraine will receive the first batch of GLSDB missiles from the Pentagon tomorrow. It is expected that the new ammunition, capable of covering a distance of about 150 km, will have significant potential for Ukraine, the publication notes.

20:13 The head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, at a joint briefing with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, announced the creation of an International Group on Security and Euro-Atlantic Integration. It included world-class politicians - former presidents of Poland Alexander Kwasniewski and Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite, former prime ministers of Great Britain Boris Johnson, Sweden Carl Bildt, Finland Sanna Marin, Poland Marek Belka, Slovakia Mikulas Dzurinda, former US Secretary of State, former ambassador to NATO and US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker and many other famous politicians and figures.

The main task of the new working group will be to prepare a comprehensive vision of Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration, in particular future membership in NATO.

19:35 Zelensky said in an evening video message that he held a meeting with the Ministry of Strategic Industry, Minister Alexander Kamyshin reported on the results of work on the production of drones and ammunition: “We are increasing production. It is very important: we are adding new positions, the development of new types of weapons continues. Domestic production of drones, equipment "And by the way, today the minister reported separately on the production of long-range drones - this is one of the key tasks for the defense industry."

19:31 Zelensky said that he had a telephone conversation with the President of Finland Sauli Niinistjo, they discussed the situation on the battlefield, preparations for the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland.

19:23 In the occupied Oleshki of the Kherson region, on January 10, the Russian military started shooting, as a result of which a local resident died, the prosecutor’s office reported.

19:18 CIA Director William Burns said that refusal to help Ukraine would be the biggest “own goal” in US history. He emphasized that 2024 will be the most difficult year for Ukraine during the entire war, since now the United States is “practically leaving the conflict, risking scoring one of the strongest own goals in its history.”

19:07 The Russians launched a missile attack on the Sinelnikovsky district of the Dnepropetrovsk region, said the head of the OVA Sergei Lysak. The rocket hit the yard of a residential building, no people were injured. In addition, the Russians attacked the Nikopol region with ten kamikaze drones and also shelled it with artillery. Nikopol, Marganetskaya and Pokrovskaya rural communities were under attack, one person was wounded.

18:16 Member of the European Parliament from Latvia Tatyana Zhdanok secretly worked for the FSB for decades. Journalists obtained her email correspondence with curators from St. Petersburg. Read more in the article Loud scandal in the European Parliament .

18:09 Macron called on EU countries to be ready to compensate for the reduction in aid to Ukraine from the United States: “We must organize ourselves in such a way that if the United States makes a sovereign choice to stop this aid or reduce it, it should not have an impact on the ground.”

18:05 Budanov said that the Russian offensive on the front began in November 2023 and “will dry up completely somewhere in early spring.” The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate admitted that Russian troops had advanced near Avdeevka, Donetsk region, but “this is not what they expected.” According to Budanov, the enemy wanted to quickly reach the barrier line along the Black Stallion River in the Kharkov region and reach the administrative borders of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. “As you understand, this is not even close,” he noted and added that “when the enemy’s move ends, the move of the Ukrainian troops will begin.”

Also, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence expressed hope that “this year the Crimean Bridge will be destroyed.” According to him, there will be more blows as Ukrainian industry increases production volumes.

17:44 Former NATO Secretary General, head of Rasmussen Global Anders Fogh Rasmussen is visiting Ukraine. Zelensky said that he had already met with him and thanked him for his help in creating the draft Kyiv Security Treaty, which formed the basis of the Vilnius Declaration.

17:30 EU countries do not agree with Orban’s conditions for lifting the 50 billion euro veto for Ukraine, writes Reuters. A senior European official told reporters that EU leaders do not want to agree to an annual review of support for Kyiv, since this would give Orban the right to veto the decision each time.

17:03 The Russian army once again attacked Berislav, Kherson region, from a drone, one person was killed, OVA reported.

16:58 The Russians again struck the Kharkov region, at the moment there were no casualties, said the head of the OVA Oleg Sinegubov.

16:24 Zelensky will take part in the EU summit on February 1 online, European Pravda reports, citing an EU official.

15:55 Defense forces hit a radar station of the Russian air defense system near the village of Razdolnoye in Crimea, StratCom reported.

15:37 The Russians fired artillery at the village of Tokarevka, Kherson region, one person was wounded, the OVA reported. In addition, Russian aircraft attacked two settlements in the Berislavsky region - residential buildings and the building of the Point of Indestructibility were damaged.

14:58 A mechanism for transferring income from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine has not yet been created, said Christian Wiegand, a representative of the European Commission. According to him, Brussels welcomes the approval by EU countries of the proposal to transfer these revenues to a separate account for subsequent transfer to the EU budget. Now the decision must be approved by the EU Council. “The purpose of this proposal is that the proceeds from the reinvestment of these assets will be transferred to the EU budget and used for Ukraine. The European Commission is working to prepare the next steps. There is no exact timing yet,” Wiegand added.

14:39 Russia has not shown readiness to transfer to Ukraine the bodies of prisoners who were allegedly on board the Russian Il-76 that crashed near Belgorod on January 24, said GUR representative Andrei Yusov. At the same time, according to him, such work is being carried out on the Ukrainian side. “If the worst is confirmed, we will do everything possible to take our defenders with a shield or on a shield,” Yusov added.

He also admitted that the plane could have carried both ammunition and prisoners, who were used as human shields. At the same time, Russia’s reaction and the circumstances of the crash were provocative, because a regime of silence was not declared over Belgorod, and the Russian Federation did not inform in advance that it was going to use air traffic to transport prisoners.

14:07 Russians fired artillery and FPV drones at Avdeevka, Chasov Yar and New York in the Donetsk region - one person was killed, three were wounded, the prosecutor’s office reported. In particular, in the city of Chasov Yar, two people were injured as a result of an FPV drone attack on the private sector. One person died in Avdeevka, another was wounded in the New York town of Toretsk.

13:48 The Russians launched a missile attack on the Kharkov region, according to preliminary information - without casualties. The details are being established, said the head of the OBA Oleg Sinegubov.

13:11 The population of occupied Melitopol has become larger than it was before the full-scale invasion and occupation, said the mayor of the city, Ivan Fedorov. According to him, the Russians are eradicating Ukrainians, but they are bringing in thousands of Russian citizens. Thus, until February 24, 2022, 150 thousand people lived in Melitopol. Within six months after the occupation, more than half of the indigenous residents left the city for territory controlled by Ukraine and abroad. However, in almost two years, the Russians brought about 100 thousand of their fellow citizens to Melitopol.

12:53 At night, the Russians hit a residential building in the village of Veletenskoye, Belozersk community, Kherson region - one person was killed, one was injured, the OVA reported.

12:49 The Chinese cargo airline Air China Cargo made four flights to Minsk in January. According to the Belarusian Gayun monitoring group, the same Boeing 747 transport aircraft delivered military equipment from China to Belarus for four days in a row. At the same time, the plane was parked in a VIP parking lot intended for parking Lukashenko’s plane. This parking lot makes it possible to quickly unload and remove the cargo without unnecessary witnesses.

Experts also remind that the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus have adopted Chinese CS/VN3 Dajiang armored vehicles since 2017 - a Boeing 747 can bring at least four to five such vehicles in one flight. But in addition to armored vehicles, the Belarusian military-industrial complex also uses Chinese components for the production of Polonaise MLRS missiles.

12:27 The head of the Tax Committee of the Verkhovna Rada, Daniil Getmantsev, said that Ukraine is not even considering the option of stopping Western funding: “Currently, we are not even considering the option of refusing this assistance. For us, this is critical, because the timeliness and completeness depend on it non-military expenditures."

11:55 Orban said that he is ready to agree to macrofinancing for Ukraine at the summit on February 1 if the amount is approved unanimously every year.

11:34 EU leaders at the summit on February 1 will emphasize the need to speed up supplies of ammunition and missiles to Ukraine, Reuters reports with reference to the summit’s draft decision. The leaders will also reaffirm their determination to continue to provide Kyiv with “timely, predictable and sustainable military support.”

10:59 In the morning, the Russians dropped explosives from a drone near the humanitarian headquarters building in Berislav, Kherson region, one person was wounded, OVA reported. During a night attack by drones, an enemy UAV hit an agricultural enterprise - a fire broke out, which has already been extinguished, no people were injured. Over the previous 24 hours, one person was killed and another was injured as a result of Russian shelling in the region.

10:25 Defense forces destroyed a Russian Su-34 fighter in the Lugansk region, said General Staff Speaker Andrei Kovalev.

09:58 The massive night attack by drones did not lead to critical consequences for the balanced operation of the energy system, but there was damage to equipment at one of the Ukrenergo substations in the central region. Currently, industrial consumers are being healed using backup schemes, the company reported.

09:27 At night, the Russians struck Mirnograd in the Donetsk region - one person was killed, one was wounded, said the head of the OBA Vadim Filashkin. The rocket hit the annex to the hotel - at the time of the strike there were about 30 people in the hotel, they were not injured. Three residential buildings were also damaged.

09:13 At night, the Russians attacked the city of Zmiev, Chuguevsky district, Kharkov region, with at least six Shahed drones. A civilian enterprise and private residential buildings were damaged, two people were injured, said Oleg Sinegubov, head of the OVA. In addition, on the afternoon of January 29, the enemy struck the village of Velikiy Burluk with KABs, damaging a civilian cheese-making enterprise. Another civilian enterprise was damaged as a result of shelling in the village. Khatneye.

09:06 In the Cherkasy region, during a night attack, an enemy drone hit an abandoned structure in the Uman region, no people were injured, said the head of the OVA Igor Taburets.

08:57 The General Staff announced the estimated losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of January 30:

  • personnel - about 384,140 (+960) people,

  • tanks - 6300 (+10),

  • armored combat vehicles - 11,725 ​​(+29),

  • artillery systems - 9144 (+31),

  • MLRS - 972 (+0),

  • air defense systems - 663 (+3),

  • aircraft - 332 (+1),

  • helicopters - 324 (+0),

  • UAV of operational-tactical level - 7084 (+35),

  • cruise missiles - 1846 (+0),

  • ships/boats - 23 (+0),

  • submarines - 1 (+0),

  • automotive equipment and tank trucks - 12,191 (+42),

  • special equipment - 1448 (+5).

08:39 In the Kiev region, during a night attack, as a result of falling debris on the territory of one of the enterprises, a fire broke out, an administrative building and a hangar were damaged. The fire was quickly extinguished, no people were injured, said the head of the fire department, Ruslan Kravchenko.

08:30 Over the past 24 hours, 70 military clashes took place at the front, the General Staff reported in its morning report . In the Avdeevsky direction, the Defense Forces repelled 16 enemy attacks in the areas of Novobakhmutovka, Avdeevka and eight more attacks near Pervomaisky and Nevelsky, Donetsk region. In the Maryinsky direction, eight attacks were repulsed near Georgievka, Pobeda and Novomikhailovka in the Donetsk region.

In the Kupyansky direction, seven enemy attacks were repelled near Sinkovka and east of Peschany, Kharkov region; on Limansky - four attacks in the areas of Serebryansky forestry in the Lugansk region and Ternov in the Donetsk region; on Bakhmutskoye - three attacks near Bagdanovka and Ivanovskoye, Donetsk region; on Shakhtarsky - two attacks in the Zolotaya Niva area of ​​the Donetsk region; on Zaporozhye - two attacks west of Verbovoy and Rabotino, Zaporozhye region. The expansion of the bridgehead continues in the Kherson direction; over the past 24 hours, the enemy has carried out eight unsuccessful assault operations.

08:18 In the Krivoy Rog district of the Dnepropetrovsk region, a Russian drone hit civilian infrastructure, said the head of the OVA Sergei Lysak. A fire broke out, which rescuers have already put out; no people were injured.

08:07 In the Nikolaev region, during a night attack, as a result of the falling debris of a downed drone, a truck caught fire, the driver was injured, said the head of the OVA Vitaly Kim.

07:59 Air defense at night destroyed 15 of 35 attack UAVs of the Shahed-136/131 type, which Russia attacked from three directions: Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Kursk, Crimean Cape Chauda. The drones were destroyed within the Nikolaev, Sumy, Cherkasy, Kirovograd, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Kherson and Kyiv regions, the Air Force command reported. The enemy sent some of the UAVs along the front-line territories, trying to hit the infrastructure of the fuel and energy sector, civilian and military facilities on the front line and the border with the Russian Federation.

In addition, Russia fired two S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles at the Donetsk region.

06:44 The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that air defense systems allegedly destroyed and intercepted 21 drones over the Crimea (11), Belgorod (5), Bryansk (3), Kaluga (1) and Tula (1) regions.

06:26 All recent attacks on targets on Russian territory were carried out not by foreign weapons, but by the developments of Ukrainian factories and underground workshops, Minister for Strategic Industries Alexander Kamyshin said in a comment to Time magazine. He added that there is no time to test new weapons at the training ground, so they are tested in combat conditions, and the necessary changes are made based on the results.

04:53 US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discussed with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg the critical need to quickly increase defense production for the needs of Ukraine, the Pentagon reported following the meeting. They also stressed the importance of maintaining NATO unity and continued support for the Alliance.

Link


Europe
Alarm Grows Over Weakened Militaries and Empty Arsenals in Europe
2023-12-11
[WSJ] The British military—the leading U.S. military ally and Europe’s biggest defense spender—has only around 150 deployable tanks and perhaps a dozen serviceable long-range artillery pieces. So bare was the cupboard that last year the British military considered sourcing multiple rocket launchers from museums to upgrade and donate to Ukraine, an idea that was dropped.

France, the next biggest spender, has fewer than 90 heavy artillery pieces, equivalent to what Russia loses roughly every month on the Ukraine battlefield. Denmark has no heavy artillery, submarines or air-defense systems. Germany’s army has enough ammunition for two days of battle.

In the decades since the end of the Cold War, weakened European armies were tolerated by governments across the West because an engaged America, with its vast military muscle, underpinned the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and defense policy in Europe.

The U.S. accounted for nearly 70% of NATO’s defense spending last year.

But alarm has grown as America has moved toward a more isolationist stance, and as the understanding of a potential threat to Europe from Russia re-emerges, after nearly two years of bloody fighting in Ukraine.

There is no immediate military danger to Europe from Russia, and Western military and political leaders think that Russia is for now contained by its war of attrition in Ukraine. But if Russia ultimately wins in Ukraine, few doubt Moscow’s capacity to rearm completely within three to four years and cause trouble elsewhere. Russian President Vladimir Putin has for years mourned the loss of a Russian empire that encompassed Ukraine and other Eastern European nations including the Baltics.

Much of Europe’s industrial capacity to make weapons has eroded over years of budget cuts, and turning that around is a challenge at a time when most governments face budget constraints amid slow economic growth and aging populations, as well as large political opposition to cutting back on welfare spending to fund defense.

Europe has "systematically demilitarized itself because it didn’t need to spend the money," thanks to the lack of an apparent threat and U.S. military dominance around the globe, said Anthony King, a professor of war studies at the University of Warwick. "They have basically gone to sleep."

The Ukraine war has made clear the depth of Europe’s problem.

"Although NATO countries’ combined economic and industrial might dwarfs that of Russia and its allies, we are allowing ourselves to be outproduced," said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former NATO Secretary-General. "Ukraine is now in a war of attrition, if we do not get serious on ammunition production the threat of war will likely come closer to us."

AID FOR UKRAINE
President Biden has reaffirmed America’s steadfast support for NATO and said the alliance was stronger than ever. But former President Donald Trump, running again for the 2024 election, has repeatedly questioned NATO’s value. While he endorsed NATO’s clause of collective defense, he clashed with NATO leaders over funding and U.S. troop numbers. Leaders of both political parties have long urged Europe to pay more for its own defense.

Efforts to pass new U.S. aid for Ukraine have hit resistance from Republicans in Congress, and fighting in Gaza has pulled U.S. political focus away from Ukraine. The White House has said the U.S. will be unable to continue providing more weapons and equipment to Ukraine if Congress doesn’t approve additional funding by the end of the year.

European nations have pledged billions in aid to Kyiv but have said they face economic constraints and production limits on weapons. If the U.S. pulls back from providing the bulk of aid, Europe doesn’t have the stockpiles to make up the difference, nor can it resupply Ukraine and rebuild its own forces at the same time. The head of NATO’s military committee, Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer, said this year that Europe could now "see the bottom of the barrel" in terms of what it could offer Ukraine.

The European Union looks unlikely to keep a promise to supply a million desperately needed artillery shells to Kyiv by this spring, achieving only around a third of that so far. North Korea, an impoverished dictatorship with a population of 25 million, has shipped over a million shells to Russia in the same period, according to Western officials and Russian government statements.

Ukrainian officials have said that if aid dries up completely they will be unable to continue an already struggling military campaign to retake lost land and may be unable to hold back Russian units supported by a far larger country with superior reserves of manpower.

Gen. Patrick Sanders, the U.K. army’s most senior commander, compares this moment in European history to 1937, when the U.K. and its allies debated whether they would ultimately have to face down Hitler. "The lesson from the 1930s is that when the strategic context and the threats begin to increase, and I think that’s what we’ve seen, then you need to begin to prepare for it," he said, from his office in London’s Ministry of Defence.

Putin could pressure other non-NATO countries such as Moldova or Georgia, launch sabotage attacks in the Baltics or further bolster Russia’s military presence in Kaliningrad, a strategic Russian enclave sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, said Mark Sedwill, the U.K.’s former national security adviser.

Poland has raced to beef up its military and both Finland and Sweden joined NATO to get its security guarantees.

During the Cold War, Europe’s conventional forces were far smaller than the Soviet military, so deterrence relied on the threat of a nuclear response should the U.S.S.R. roll across the continent to expand the Iron Curtain. But none of the smaller actions by today’s Russia would likely be seen as worth risking nuclear war, so a bigger conventional military deterrence is vital, Sedwill said.

Military spending among NATO countries fell from about 3% of annual economic output during the Cold War to about 1.3% by 2014, according to NATO data. Things began to change after the 2014 Russian invasion of Crimea, but only slowly. In the past decade, EU defense spending rose 20%, according to the European Parliament. Over the same period, Russia and China boosted their defense budgets by almost 300% and close to 600%, respectively.

A militarily weak Europe is a huge shift for a continent that boasted the world’s best armed forces from at least the early 1500s to the 1940s, a stretch of five centuries in which European armies and naval power carved up the world into global empires. That dominance ended during World War II, when the region’s armies pulverized each other for the second time in roughly two decades. After that, the U.S. and U.S.S.R. emerged as the bigger powers.

During the Cold War, European nations on both sides of the Iron Curtain maintained robust armies. The post Cold War peace dividend allowed governments to slash military spending in favor of everything from pensions to healthcare, raising wealth and standards of living across the continent but leaving their militaries hollowed out.

Germany’s army, which at the end of the Cold War had half a million men in West Germany and another 300,000 in East Germany, now has 180,000 personnel. West Germany alone had more than 7,000 battle tanks by the 1980s; reunified Germany now has 200, only half of which are likely operational, according to government officials. The country’s industry can make only about three tanks a month, these officials said.

"The armed forces are lacking in everything," Eva Högl, the parliamentary commissioner for Germany’s armed forces, said as she presented the findings of her report earlier this year. German military bases not only lack armaments and ammunition, but functioning toilets and internet, she said. One attack helicopter unit has been waiting a decade to be fitted with helmets, her findings show.

The Netherlands disbanded its last tank unit in 2011, folding the remaining few tanks into the German army. Conscription across most European countries was scrapped after the Cold War.

Today, Russia, China and India are all ranked as more potent military powers than the U.K., the highest rated European military, while South Korea, Pakistan and Japan are ranked above France, the second-highest rated European power, according to Global Firepower, a website that uses public data to publish an annual ranking of military strength.

South Korea, where the Cold War never ended given the threat from North Korea, now has a military of equal size—roughly half a million personnel—as the U.K., France and Germany put together. It also has a world-class military industry that is helping arm Poland.

COUNTERINSURGENCY FOCUS
American military officials and political leaders have long urged Europe to carry more of the military burden, including every American president since Dwight D. Eisenhower, who warned Western European allies in 1959 that they risked "making a sucker out of Uncle Sam" by not spending more of their own money on defense.

In 2014, NATO allies agreed to move toward spending 2% of economic output on defense within a decade. This year, only 11 of NATO’s 31 members are expected to hit the target, according to the group.

Within days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Germany pledged to spend 100 billion euros, or about $110 billion, on defense in a one-off surge in spending, but only about 60% of that amount is expected to be earmarked by the end of this year.

Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, combined with military budget cuts, left most European armies built for counterinsurgency operations in far-flung countries, and poorly equipped to fight a well-armed foe in a grinding land war, in the style of Ukraine.

Britain invested in lightly armored equipment, such as armored Land Rovers, rather than heavy artillery, as it took on less well-equipped enemies.

The thinking was "for us, all wars are optional," said Simon Anglim, a military historian at King’s College London.

Putin has changed that. Beginning around 2005, he has openly hinted at his aim of recapturing lost parts of the former Soviet Union, such as Armenia and Georgia.

That has ratcheted up tension with the West in a way that few expected just over a decade ago.

Poland, Finland and the Baltics—all sharing or near borders with Russia—have moved the fastest to build up their militaries. Poland said it wants to spend more than 4% of its annual economic output on defense next year, almost double what it did in 2022. Poland could have the strongest conventional forces in Europe in two or three years, said Bence Nemeth, the academic program director of the Advanced Command Staff course at the Defense Academy of the U.K., the country’s top postgraduate military program.

Russian spending on national defense will grow to 6% of its economic output next year, from around 3.9% this year, according to Russia’s finance ministry. That would be the highest level since the demise of the Soviet Union, economists who track the data said. If the Ukraine war stopped today, it would take Russia three to five years to rebuild enough capacity to attack another country, according to Estonia’s military intelligence.

"It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which Russia will not rebuild, and by the late 2020s, it will be able to learn a lot of lessons of its own and field a formidable army which could pose a threat" to Europe, said Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director at the Royal United Services Institute, a military think tank, in London.

While Russia doesn’t disclose data on its weapons manufacturing, statistical lines in its industrial production reports indicate significant growth. The output of finished metal goods—a line that analysts say includes weapons and ammunition—rose by 31% in the first 10 months of the year compared with the period last year. Other lines associated with military output also increased. Production of computers, electronic and optical products rose 34%, and so-called special clothing jumped by over 37%. In contrast, production of medicines was down around 2%.

Germany is currently unable to fight a war of defense and must rearm in light of Russia’s massive military buildup, the commander of Germany’s armed forces said. "We must get used to the idea that we will maybe have to fight a war of defense," Gen. Carsten Breuer told the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper on Sunday. The reign of peace that society has become accustomed to "exists no more," he said.

’NOT FAST ENOUGH’
For European politicians, spending more on defense is a tough political sell, especially at a time of stagnant economic growth, soaring government borrowing costs and an aging population that will strain government budgets for years to come.

Once pooled, NATO forces are technologically superior to Russia, some European officials say, though NATO’s ability to fight jointly is untested. Ukraine is proof that a smaller but better managed force can challenge a juggernaut like Russia.

Still, military analysts say Ukraine’s forces are having trouble dislodging the Russians partly because Russia has advantages in numbers of soldiers and equipment, which could make a difference if the U.S. stalls its support and Europe runs out of military equipment to give.

"People may say the Russians have taken it on the chin, and we don’t need to worry. That’s a valid point, but it ignores residual Russian strength," said John Deni, a professor at the U.S. Army War College and an expert on European militaries. "If the Russians present us with a mass problem in Europe, the challenge is, can technology and advanced capabilities do it? And there we see some challenges."

Another major concern is the time needed to get the European defense industrial base to shift gears if the Russia threat grows. "Definitely more money is being spent, but the increased military capability could be years away," says Nan Tian, a senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, who tracks military global expenditure.

The British army is widely regarded as being run by highly capable soldiers and has among the best special forces in the world.

But defense spending as a share of U.K. GDP halved since the mid-1980s to around 2.2%, and the army is only now undergoing a modernization. A combination of underfunding and botched procurement deals for equipment upgrades weakened the service. "You need a super capable air force. You need a super capable navy. We’ve got them. But you’re incomplete if you don’t have an army," said Sanders, the U.K. army senior commander.

Britain hasn’t had a fully deployable armored division since the 1991 Gulf War, Ben Wallace, who was U.K. Secretary of State for Defence until the end of August, said recently to Parliament.

Sanders said the U.K. had taken a risk by allowing stockpiles to dwindle and its industrial base to atrophy. He said he has spent more time in the past year visiting factories than inspecting troops in the field.

Britain announced its biggest increase in defense spending since the Cold War in 2020. But the overall army size is still expected to shrink to 72,500 full-time troops from a previous target of 82,000. It is replacing its 227 tanks with 148 more-modern versions, but those won’t be deployed until 2027. Of its existing 227 tanks, only 157 can be deployed within 30 days and perhaps only 40 are fully functioning and ready to move, military analysts said, as many are in storage or being upgraded.

The U.K. has pledged to ramp up defense spending to 2.5% of GDP, but only when economic conditions allow.

Sanders declined to comment on how much equipment the army could currently deploy. He said the army will get an average of 200 new armored vehicles a year between 2024 and 2028. It will also address the shortfall in ammunition capacity, though he declined to give a timeline.

"As the bloke who is responsible, not fast enough," Sanders said.

The Ministry of Defence placed a £410 million, or about $515 million, order with BAE Systems this year for artillery shells and ammunition to bolster production eightfold. But that production capacity won’t be reached for another two years. It also bought 14 Archer artillery systems from Sweden to replace the 32 AS90 long range artillery pieces it handed over to Ukraine, plugging a gap until the U.K.’s own upgraded long range artillery systems arrive in the late 2020s. "We are on the right trajectory," said James Cartlidge, the British Minister for Defence Procurement.

The British army’s new armored reconnaissance vehicles, called Ajax, show just how long it can take to upgrade a fighting force. On a recent day this fall, a group of army officers stood in the pouring rain watching as two Ajax vehicles cruised over the muddy plains in southwest England. It was the first time the Ajax was used in a military exercise, 13 years after the army first announced it would purchase them.

Initially ordered at a cost of £5.5 billion to replace aging tracked reconnaissance vehicles used since the 1970s, Ajax, made by the U.K. subsidiary of General Dynamics, suffered numerous technical problems. During test runs hundreds of soldiers fell physically ill due to the vibration and noise when driving them. The delays were so long that the army had to extend the use of its ’70s-era vehicles.

Those problems are now fixed. But the nearly 600 new vehicles won’t be fully deployed until the end of 2028. Meanwhile the new high tech communications kit the Ajax is supposed to use is also delayed, perhaps by longer.
Link


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Casting for the role of 'chief hawk'. Who aims for the chair of NATO Secretary General
2023-06-10
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Mikail Zakharov

[REGNUM] US President Joe Biden played along with one of the likely candidates to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as NATO Secretary General. The owner of the White House, hosting British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on June 8 , said that he admits the possibility of appointing the current British Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace as the head of the alliance.

Actually, Sunak went to Washington with a request to Biden to support the British candidate. It’s another matter how “plus” this support for the US president will go to Wallace, who, by the way, confused Sunak’s position, calling him “Mr. President” (and during his visit to Britain he did not recognize the prime minister at all).

Stoltenberg, who has been in office since 2014, announced in February of this year that he would not renew his powers and would retire from September. Despite the declared adherence of the West to democratic procedures, the process of electing the head of the alliance remains hidden from the public eye. “This is the most non-transparent election of all elections,” a Foreign Policy source said on this occasion.

The increased speculation about which of the Western politicians could take the post of head of the most, perhaps, the most effective and aggressive military organization in the world, is quite understandable - Stoltenberg's replacement may be announced not in September, but at the Vilnius summit on July 11-12.

Theoretically, any of the 31 member countries of the alliance, for example, Iceland or North Macedonia, can propose its candidate. But it is obvious that the nomination of passing candidates is the task of influential powers: France, Great Britain or Germany, and Washington will play the first violin in making a “collegiate decision”.

LIST OF CANDIDATES (AND CANDIDATES)
The head of the British military department, Captain Ben Wallace (it was to this rank that the minister rose in the army, where he served until 2005), according to his “lobbyist”, Prime Minister Sunak, “is highly respected among his colleagues in the world, including given the role he plays in Ukraine".

Wallace can compete with another British candidate, a purely civilian, but better known, ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, known for his assertiveness and outrageousness. As head of government, Johnson planned to increase British defense spending by the end of the decade to 2.5% of GDP. If he continues to seek this not only from his native country, this line of behavior of the new secretary general - more money and more populism for the sake of NATO's popularity - may well suit Washington.

The media previously named two current prime ministers as potential candidates - the head of the government of the Netherlands Mark Rutte and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, however, both Rutte and Sanchez denied the information that they allegedly apply for the post of NATO Secretary General. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis , about whom the press also wrote , is unlikely to become the new Secretary General. The current deputy secretary general of Stoltenberg, Mircea Geoana, is a Romanian and does not intend to leave his post, so it is unlikely that the two most senior NATO officials will be representatives of Romania.

The 21st century has made its additions: now many experts see a woman as the head of NATO, in full accordance with the principles of the policy of inclusiveness and diversity. Recently, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has been named as a likely candidate . However, she later denied rumors that she would take the post.

Among the possible candidates were often called the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the former head of EU diplomacy Federica Mogherini and Christia Freeland - the Canadian finance minister and - which is now also "in trend" - an ethnic Ukrainian. The latter has a good knowledge of Eastern European politics and history, persistent anti-Russian views, but Friedland noted that she already has two jobs (she is also the country's deputy prime minister).

As for Ursula von der Leyen, her achievements in the role of Minister of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany - in a post close to the tasks of the Secretary General of the military alliance - were not impressive. Judging by the publications of the German media, the existence of systematic corruption in the German Ministry of Defense and the shortage of weapons of the Bundeswehr are associated with it. Who knows, analysts believe, maybe the post will eventually belong to Federica Mogherini, previously known for her activity as the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

It is unlikely that the new head of NATO will be an American, since the post of supreme commander of NATO forces is usually reserved for the US representative.

Most likely, the new secretary general will not be a northern European - before the Norwegian Stoltenberg, NATO was headed by the Dane Anders Fogh Rasmussen . Not so many chances for immigrants from the Baltic countries and Poland. Of course, the intransigence towards Russia of another lady-pretender, Estonian Prime Minister Kai Kallas , who is also on the list of contenders, appeals to NATO "hawks", but more moderate Berlin and Paris may not suit her candidacy.

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE APPLICANT
Typically, NATO Secretaries General previously held the posts of heads of government or state, but there are no formal rules. Both the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country - a member of the alliance can become Secretary General - it all depends on personal qualities and the "support group".

As Jamie Shea, a former NATO spokesman, noted in a Reuters commentary, the bloc's leaders are looking for a highly skilled politician and diplomat. “Keeping the alliance united, keeping everyone up to date at all times, being in touch with all allies to make sure you are solving their problems is an important part of the job,” Shi adds.

Of course, the package of requirements for the candidate includes support for Ukraine and complete loyalty to the organization. As political scientist Dmitry Drobnitsky explained to IA Regnum , “If you look closely at the documents of the North Atlantic Alliance, the secretary general’s office performs technical functions. Another thing is that the factor of maximum obedience, maximum corporate loyalty for this person is important here. He must do what is required."

The US is seriously alarmed by the new coalition in the Indian Ocean
There are a lot of names of the alleged successors to Stoltenberg, but it is far from certain that one of those who are now tipped to be candidates for the post of Secretary General will become him. Rather, the flickering of names speaks of a tense "fight for the flag" between Washington, Brussels, European allies and their intra-NATO groups, experts say.

Political scientist Dmitry Solonnikov, director of the Institute of Contemporary State Development, believes that the main thing for the leaders of the significant powers of the alliance will be the choice not so much between personalities, but between two types of leader.

Or the NATO Secretary General will be “a representative of some small country that does not have its own ideas about the further development of the bloc, behind whose back decisions will be made . Or "it will be some kind of independent politician who will pursue his own line and have his own idea of ​​​​how and what needs to be organized," Solonnikov told IA Regnum . In this regard, the expert believes, the alliance faces a difficult choice: to nominate an insignificant “talking head” for the post or take a risk by appointing an independent player.

THE LEADER MAY REMAIN THE SAME, BUT THE ALLIANCE IS IN DANGER OF CHANGE
It is possible that internal contradictions will prevent the bloc from finding a compromise, and then Stoltenberg will have to hold office for several more months. This, according to Reuters sources , many NATO member countries would like to avoid. In a month, an alliance summit will be held in Lithuania, and the bloc would like to demonstrate its unity, and not squabbles and disagreements. In addition, Stoltenberg has already extended his term of office three times. Back in September 2022, he was supposed to move to the post of head of the central bank of his native Norway, but after the start of the NWO, his mandate was extended.

On the other hand, the question outlined above remains whether the new secretary general will change the policy of the alliance. Drobnitsky is sure that the NATO bloc - in the past the main instrument of the Cold War in confrontation with the Soviet bloc - is waiting for a big transformation. According to the expert, the Atlantic bloc, whose mission will be to contain the new "Russian threat", will become an addition to other international military structures led by the United States.

The prototype of these new instruments of "American peace" is the association of the Anglo-Saxon countries AUKUS (within which, and not within the framework of NATO, there is cooperation in the development of hypersonic weapons), "pulling up" the Far Eastern allies - Japan and South Korea, proposals to India"to be friends against" China, etc. The role of the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance in these transformation processes will be purely nominal, the interlocutor believes.

“It is clear that NATO in the form in which it exists now is not for long. The next Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance will be present during the de facto dismantling of the bloc and its replacement with various other formats, alliances and other forms. At the same time, he strenuously pretends that everything is developing in the right direction. NATO is waiting for big changes, but this will have nothing to do with the personality of the Secretary General,” Drobnitsky believes.

Link


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: June 8th, 2023
2023-06-09
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] 23:05 Biden promised to keep aid to Ukraine, despite the fact that there are doubts in Congress about the appropriateness of such a policy: “Support for Kiev will be provided, even though some voices are heard on Capitol Hill who express doubts about the appropriateness of continuing support Ukraine... I invited people to imagine what would happen if we didn't support Ukraine. Do you think that Russia will stop in Kiev? Do you think it will stop there? I think not. I think the majority agrees with me that it won't stop there."

22:57 The Zaporozhye NPP is still taking water from the Kakhovka reservoir despite its level dropping below 12.7 meters, the IAEA reports. The pumps will probably still be able to operate even if the level drops to about 11 meters or even lower, the agency said.

22:43 After the explosion of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, Ukraine urgently needs the help of international humanitarian organizations. But these organizations, in fact, refused to support. Such an indifferent reaction of international structures struck the Ukrainian people. As an example, social media users recalled the earthquake in Turkey, when almost the whole world, including Ukraine, came to the rescue. And now, when a tragedy of this magnitude has occurred in our state, everyone has turned their backs on Ukraine. Read more in the article How humanitarian missions turned their backs on Ukrainians .

22:06 The Russians launched rocket attacks on the Uman region. The rockets hit an industrial facility and a car wash, in the second case, a fire broke out as a result of the hit, said the head of the Cherkasy OVA, Igor Taburets. According to preliminary information, eight people were injured, two of them in serious condition.

21:58 Due to the drop in the water level in the Kakhovka reservoir in Krivoy Rog, the water supply with economical consumption remained for a month and a half, said the head of the city's Defense Council Alexander Vilkul. He explained that the Kakhovka water had already stopped flowing into the Yuzhnoye reservoir. During these month and a half, for which there is enough stock, it is necessary to implement a number of serious projects in order for the city to continue to have water, Vilkul added.

21:46 Zelensky appealed to world eco-activists, opinion leaders and international experts about the consequences of the Russians undermining the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station. According to the president, the number of ecosystems destroyed or brought to the brink of extinction by this terrorist attack is already measured in the thousands.

Zelensky emphasized that it was a deliberate crime: “There are many questions about what happened. But it happened in the occupied territory. Last year we warned about mining by the occupiers of the dam and other structures of the station. Russian troops are now shelling areas where evacuation is underway. Obviously, it is Russia that is interested in the catastrophe." He called for spreading the truth about this Russian ecocide.

21:13 Western media write that the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine began on Thursday morning. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine calls for informational silence, but confirms heavy fighting in the Zaporozhye and Donetsk regions. Read more about what is happening at the front in the material Strike to the South .

20:27 The water level in the reservoir of the Kakhovskaya HPP has reached below the "dead point" and is 12.5 meters. This is 0.2 meters below the level when it is still possible to take water to settlements and for the Zaporozhye NPP for cooling, said Igor Syrota, General Director of Ukrhydroenergo. Half of the station is under water, the second half is 70% in the water. The land between the lock and the station will also be eroded by water, he added.

20:08 The Russians attacked the Beryslavsky district of the Kherson region with guided bombs - one person was killed, one was injured, the local prosecutor's office said.

19:55 Ukrainian forces encountered resistance and losses while trying to break through Russian positions in the east of the country, CNN reports citing US officials. According to them, the Armed Forces of Ukraine suffered losses in both heavy equipment and manpower, as the Russians seriously fortified their defensive positions and laid minefields. At the same time, Ukrainian forces managed to capture Russian positions in the Bakhmut area. Also, US officials believe that the losses will not affect the larger planned Ukrainian counteroffensive.

19:23 A number of NATO countries are ready to send troops to Ukraine if security guarantees are not provided to Kiev at the upcoming summit of the Alliance, former Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned. About the possible prospects for such a scenario - in the material Is it real?

19:12 Russia's shipments of key microchips and electronics it needs for its military industry have returned to pre-war levels as Moscow has learned to get around sanctions better, said Jim O'Brien, US State Department sanctions coordinator. According to him, the US has identified five countries that help the Russian Federation to circumvent Western sanctions: Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia, the United Arab Emirates and Armenia.

18:59 An extraordinary meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission was held in Brussels, convened by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the request of Kiev due to the destruction of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric dam. Stoltenberg said the consequences for thousands of people and the environment would be dramatic and called on allies to provide swift support. Allies have expressed strong solidarity with Ukraine, and many of them are already providing critical assistance, including water filters, pumps, generators and shelter equipment.

18:28 Russian representatives spoke at the International Court of Justice with accusations against Ukraine in the alleged destruction of the Kakhovka dam by massive artillery shelling. "The Kiev regime not only launched massive artillery strikes on the dam on the night of June 6, but also deliberately raised the water level in the Kakhovka reservoir to a critical level," Russian "diplomat" Alexander Shulgin said.

18:04 After the explosion of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, a lot of mines are observed in the Dnieper, they are already being washed ashore, Vladislav Nazarov, speaker of OK Pivden, said. According to him, the current carries away garbage, fragments of various objects, boats and even building structures. They are already partly located in the Black Sea. Streams also tore down mine-explosive barriers, which the Russians equipped on the left bank. Now a large number of mines drift in the water with the flow. One of these anti-landing mines has already been found on the coast of the Odessa region and destroyed. Nazarov added that along the banks of the Dnieper, the Black Sea coast of the Nikolaev and Odessa regions, there is an increased mine danger.

17:37 Ukraine has very good prospects for launching missiles with a range of more than 1,000 km, Reznikov said. The minister recalled that Ukraine has approved a missile program, for which funds are already being allocated. The executors of the program are Ukrainian manufacturers.

17:11 The lower house of the Swiss parliament rejected a plan for humanitarian support for Ukraine for more than 5 billion euros over the next 5-10 years.

17:05 Ukraine on Thursday, June 8, launched a counteroffensive, now its active phase is underway, writes ABC News, citing two Ukrainian officials, including a source from Zelensky's entourage.

16:56 As a result of Russian shelling of Kherson during the evacuation of local residents, nine people were injured, including two employees of the State Emergency Service, a policeman, a doctor and a volunteer from Germany, said the head of the OVA Alexander Prokudin. It is also reported that the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Asman came under fire in Kherson.

16:49 Ukrhydroenergo appealed to the ECHR in connection with the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station. Ukrhydroenergo emphasizes that the organized undermining of the dam violates the Geneva Convention and the order of war, creates additional and unjustified risks to the life, health and property of civilians.

Earlier, the ECHR accepted for consideration the claim of Ukrhydroenergo against Russia for compensation for damage caused as a result of unprovoked military aggression against Ukraine. The total amount of the claimed damage to the company's assets - the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station and the unfinished wind farm on Zmeiny Island - according to an independent expert assessment, amounted to almost 17 billion hryvnias.

16:38 In the Bakhmut direction, active operations of Ukrainian troops are underway, fighting is underway. In places, the enemy is trying to go on the offensive, but to no avail, Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said. Also, the defense forces repelled numerous enemy attacks in the area of ​​​​the city of Marinka, inflicting significant losses on him. In the South, there are battles for Bolshaya Novoselka in the Novopalovsky direction. In the Zaporizhia direction in the Orekhov area, the enemy is on active defense.

16:29 In the flooded Oleshki, the death toll has risen to nine people, Mayor Yevhen Ryshchuk said. The figure is not final, he added.

16:06 Great Britain announced the expansion of sanctions against Belarus for supporting Russia. In particular, a ban is introduced on the import of gold, cement, timber and rubber from Belarus, as well as on the export of dual-use goods, industrial equipment and banknotes to Belarus. More than 100 people and organizations that contributed to or supported repression in Belarus will also fall under British sanctions.

15:50 The West is discussing the possibility of transferring "dozens" of F-18 fighters to Ukraine along with F-16s, the deliveries of which have already been agreed, writes Politico. According to the publication, the Ukrainian delegation raised the issue of F-18 deliveries at closed meetings during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore last week. The newspaper recalls that Australia, Canada, Switzerland and Finland are switching from F-18 to F-35.

15:41 Zelensky said that he was on a visit to the Nikolaev region, visited the main pumping station of the Ingulets River Canal Administration, flooded due to the destruction of the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station. In the Snegirevskaya community, a headquarters has been set up to eliminate the consequences of the disaster, which operates around the clock.

15:28 Kuleba said that the F-16 coalition is "strengthening": "This coalition, let's say, is growing stronger. As the classic said, "the percentage of fats in oil is growing daily"... I have said and I will say it again: everything will be. There will be F-16. We just need to solve the technical issues. Everything will be fine, we will win."

15:20 The UN will immediately form groups in Zaporozhye and Kherson, which will be sent to the affected occupied territories of the Left Bank to provide humanitarian assistance and evacuate people. The Organization will also increase the volume of assistance and send additional forces to Kherson and other affected regions, the Foreign Ministry said following a meeting between Kuleba and Denise Brown, the UN system coordinator in Ukraine.

The parties agreed that UN units will go to the affected areas in the occupied territories from Ukrainian territories as soon as Russia provides access and security guarantees. The organization is waiting for the provision of guarantees from the Russian side and access to the occupied territories affected by the explosion of the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station.

15:12 A group of members of the US House of Representatives from the Republican and Democratic parties, led by lawmaker Jason Crowe, is increasing pressure on Biden to transfer ATACMS long-range ammunition to Ukraine as soon as possible, as Kiev's long-awaited counteroffensive seems to have begun, writes Politico. They are also calling on the White House to approve the transfer of other advanced weapons, including F-16 fighter jets and an additional Patriot system, and to expedite the transfer of M1 Abrams tanks.

15:01 As a result of Russian shelling of Kherson during the evacuation, at least three people were injured - one civilian, a policeman and a rescuer, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported.

14:28 Russian troops shelled the area in Kherson, where people were evacuated. Journalists of the Grati edition came under shelling. The president's office also confirmed that the Russians were shelling Kherson during the evacuation. According to the OVA, a total of 2,198 people were evacuated from the settlements of the Kherson region that were in the flood zone.

14:10 Members of the Russian elite - even those who support the Russian invasion of Ukraine - no longer believe in Putin's ability to win and consider a frozen conflict the best option for the Kremlin now, Bloomberg writes, citing seven unnamed people familiar with the situation.

13:42 As of 12:00 on June 8, the level of the Kakhovka reservoir in the Nikopol area is 12.83 meters, Ukrhydroenergo reported. Hydroelectric power plants of the Dnieper cascade continue to reduce production capacity to minimize the scale of flooding.

13:40 Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station could not collapse from an outside strike, Ukrhydroproject said. They explained that the station was designed and built to withstand a nuclear attack from outside. According to the company's experts, most likely, the dam itself and the hydroelectric power station building, where hydroelectric units were installed to generate electricity, were mined from the inside. The fact that it was the HPP building that was blown up suggests that the Russians wanted to destroy the entire HPP as an energy facility as a whole. Ukrhydroproject believes that it is realistic to rebuild the hydroelectric power station, this issue will be dealt with after the de-occupation of the territories.

In turn, the Director General of Ukrhydroenergo, Igor Sirota, said that a solution was being developed to eliminate the consequences and urgently build a ceiling in the upper part of the reservoir so that it would be possible to block the place where the station was blown up. This will take two months.

13:33 The State Border Guard Service showed what the Kakhovskaya HPP and the flooded villages nearby look like now:

13:27 In Lugansk, strikes were made on the territory of the Luganskteplovoz plant, where equipment was being repaired and the Russian military were located, local publics report.

13:20 Kuleba said that the West will not send its troops to the territory of Ukraine until the end of the war, "moreover, we do not ask for this." At the same time, the head of the Foreign Ministry stressed that if Ukraine becomes a member of NATO, then Ukrainian brigades "will be stationed in other NATO countries and will protect them."

12:58 After the disaster at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, Crimea is actively pumping water into the reservoirs from the North Crimean Canal, which will gradually shallow, said the "head" of the occupation administration, Sergei Aksenov.

12:54 Hydroelectric power plants located on the Dnieper upstream of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station are reducing production capacity to limit the flow of water into the Kakhovka reservoir in order to reduce flooding. About 20,000 consumers in Kherson and the region have been disconnected due to flooding, Ukrenergo reported.

12:31 In the occupied Oleshki, people have been sitting on the roofs for the second day due to flooding, the mayor of the city Yevhen Ryshchuk said. According to him, yesterday 120 people were admitted to a local hospital with hypothermia. The day before it was known about three dead - the mayor expects that the number of victims will increase. All 13 settlements of the Oleshky community are flooded, Oleshky is 90% flooded. According to the mayor, the occupation authorities still do not carry out the evacuation.

12:19 A week later, at a meeting in the Ramstein format, the status of military support for Ukraine before the counteroffensive will be updated, Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anushauskas said: "Ukraine has already confirmed plans for a counterattack, and it will begin regardless of the catastrophe caused by the actions of the invaders. A week later, at a meeting in the format Rammstein's military support status will be updated so as not to miss anything in the fight against the occupiers."

11:47 Zelensky said that he was on a working trip to the Kherson region , where he held a coordination meeting to eliminate the consequences of the explosion of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric dam. Also in Kherson, the president visited the crossing, where the population is being evacuated from the flooded territories.

11:35 "Authorities" of the occupied Kherson region reported that after the disaster at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, five people died, 41 were hospitalized.

11:28 Lukashenka said that Ukraine allegedly blew up the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station to hide the three days of the counteroffensive, during which there were heavy losses. According to him, Kyiv was the first to talk about blowing up the hydroelectric power station, "and even a hat is on fire on a thief."

11:17 Orban convened a meeting of the Defense Council because of the "escalation of fighting in the Russian-Ukrainian war." The Hungarian prime minister said that the fighting allegedly intensified last night, and "for us, the security of Hungary is still our priority."

10:56 Russian media reported explosions in Lugansk. "LNR Colonel" Vitaly Kiselyov said that Ukrainian troops allegedly attacked the city with Storm Shadow missiles.

10:32 In Maryansky, Zelenodolsk community of the Dnipropetrovsk region, there was a massive fish kill due to the rapid shallowing of the reservoir after the explosion of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, said the head of the OVA Serhiy Lysak. According to him, more than 850 kg of bioresources died, the damage caused to the fisheries of the region exceeds 7.6 million hryvnias. The coastline has already been cleared of fish, it has been disposed of.

10:25 Not just Russia, but the military-political leadership of the Russian Federation is behind the terrorist attack on the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, said Andrey Yusov, a spokesman for the GUR. According to him, this is proved by a number of available direct and indirect evidence: “If we talk about the evidence base, then it exists, and now it is being collected. There is a lot of direct and indirect evidence that behind the targeted destruction of the hydroelectric dam, we are talking about not just the Russian Federation, but the military-political leadership and the official troops of the invaders.

"The fact that a week before the terrorist attack, changes were made to the legal framework of the Russian Federation, which made it possible not to calculate the consequences of a man-made disaster in wartime, it seems to be a confession," he added.

09:51 The Netherlands and Ukraine are putting pressure on Spain to join the "Patriot coalition" and provide Kiev with a missile defense battery, writes El País, citing sources. According to them, this issue was the subject of Zelensky's consultations with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Turkish President Erdogan, since it was in Turkey that Spain deployed a Patriot battery. However, Erdogan opposes the withdrawal of the Patriot before the end of the contract, which expires at the end of this year.

09:19 In the Donetsk region over the past day, as a result of Russian shelling, three people were killed (in Ukrainsk), seven more were injured, Pavel Kirilenko, head of the OVA, said.

09:14 British intelligence claims that, despite heavy fighting, Ukraine retains the initiative in most sectors of the front. Analysts say Russian troops are still under orders to return to offensive action as soon as possible. In particular, Chechen units made an unsuccessful attempt to capture Maryinka near Donetsk, where the front line has remained virtually unchanged since 2015.

09:10 The Russians might not have fully realized the scale of the consequences of the blowing up of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, but they were well aware that these were criminal actions, Andrey Yusov, a spokesman for the Main Intelligence Directorate, said in a commentary to UMN: "They could count on other consequences, but the result for everything world is obvious - this is another terrorist act of Russian occupiers."

According to him, the goal of the invaders is obvious - to stop and complicate the actions of the Ukrainian defense forces to liberate their territories in the south of the country. Yusov also said that the enemy had taken part of the personnel to pre-prepared positions even before the attack, but individual units located on the left bank of the Dnieper did not know about the explosion of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station.

"This information was not brought to some occupation units, because this is an operation blatant in its criminal consequences. Accordingly, in order to exclude leaks, and also so that there are no people who refuse to perform tasks, some simply were not informed," the representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate said. MO. According to him, at the time of the terrorist attack, there was an insignificant amount of enemy manpower in this direction.

09:04 Israel believes that it was Russia that blew up the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said. He added that his country is considering the possibility of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.

09:01 The decrease in the water level in the Kakhovka reservoir continues, the level of the reservoir in the Nikopol area is 13.05 meters, Ukrhydroenergo reported. During the day, the water level in the Kakhovka reservoir dropped by almost a meter. Now the destruction of the spillway dam, the earth insert between the station building and the lock continues.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that if the water level in the Kakhovka reservoir falls below 12.7 meters, the Zaporozhye NPP will not be able to pump water from it. As the full extent of the damage to the dam remains unknown, he said, it is impossible to predict when this will happen. But if the current rate of decline continues, the critical level will be reached within the next two days. Preparing for such a scenario, ZNPP replenishes its water reserves.

08:54 The Russians tried to hide the catastrophe at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, so they jammed the connection, said Natalya Gumenyuk, speaker of OK Pivden. According to her, they did not even inform their own units about this: "There is information that many of the occupying troops either remained under water or are suffering from floods and hope that their brothers will return for them."

08:38 The average level of flooding is 5.6 meters, 600 sq. km of the Kherson region, of which 32% are on the right bank and 68% are on the left bank, said Alexander Prokudin, head of the OVA. The evacuation from the flood zone continues, as of 06:00, 1999 people left the dangerous territories, most of the evacuees were from the Korabel microdistrict (1495 people). The most difficult situation is on the left bank, where people not only do not have drinking water, but also suffer from Russian terror. They are not allowed to evacuate.

08:16 The General Staff announced the approximate losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of June 8.

  • personnel - about 212,760 (+730) people liquidated,

  • tanks - 3891 (+18),

  • armored combat vehicles - 7576 (+16),

  • artillery systems - 3668 (+28),

  • MLRS - 595 (+1),

  • air defense systems - 355 (+3),

  • aircraft - 314 (+0),

  • helicopters - 299 (+0),

  • UAV operational-tactical level - 3234 (+15),

  • cruise missiles - 1171 (+0),

  • ships/boats - 18 (+0),

  • automotive equipment and tankers - 6384 (+35),

  • special equipment - 500 (+8).

08:04 The Russian army continues to focus its main efforts on attempts to completely occupy the Lugansk and Donetsk regions. Over the past day, there have been 30 combat clashes, the General Staff said in the morning summary.

According to the General Staff, the Russians were not prepared for the consequences of the blowing up of the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, they suffered losses in manpower, weapons and military equipment. In particular, in the units of the 7th Airborne Assault Division and the 22nd Army Corps of the RF Armed Forces, there are injured, dead and missing. Also, several field depots with ammunition and provisions, automobile and armored vehicles, and other military property were lost in these units.

On June 6, a mass evacuation of the civilian population from the city of Kakhovka took place, during which people used their own cars. Along with civilian evacuation routes, the Russian military used the locals as human shields.

07:23 Responsibility for the destruction in Ukraine as a result of the explosion of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station lies with Russia, which "should not have been there" at all, said White House Speaker Karine Jean-Pierre: "We are still assessing what happened. This is damage, obviously, and "The devastation we are seeing is heartbreaking. We will do our best to help the people of Ukraine, of course... This dam was under Russian control and they are responsible for the destruction caused by this war."

00:15 Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that some NATO member countries could send troops to Ukraine if Kiev does not receive guarantees of membership and guarantees for the transition period at the Alliance summit. Yermak thanked him "for his public support of the opinion that it is dangerous to leave Ukraine in the NATO waiting room for an indefinite period. It is very important that our state receive an invitation to the Alliance."

Yermak also recalled the Kiev Security Treaty - the work of the International Working Group on Security Guarantees for Ukraine, co-chaired by Anders Fogh Rasmussen together with the head of the Presidential Office. It contains proposals for security guarantees for Ukraine, which should be an intermediate stage before joining NATO.

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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
'Coalition of Stakeholders.' What threatens Kyiv with the introduction of NATO troops
2023-06-09
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Oleg Krivoshapov

[REGNUM] Some NATO countries will probably try to deploy their troops in Ukraine, regardless of their partners in the alliance. This will happen if the member states of the North Atlantic Alliance do not provide Ukraine with real security guarantees at the summit in Vilnius, scheduled for July 11-12. This opinion was expressed by former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen (the immediate predecessor of the current head of the alliance Jens Stoltenberg ) in a commentary to The Guardian in London

"We know that Poland is actively engaged in providing concrete assistance to Ukraine. And I would not rule out the possibility that Poland will act even stronger in this context on a national basis. The Baltic states will follow, possibly including the possibility of deploying troops “on the ground," Rasmussen said.

"I think the Poles will seriously consider going in and putting together a coalition of the willing if Ukraine doesn’t get anything in Vilnius," the former NATO secretary general added.

As the Guardian reminded its readers, Rasmussen is acting as an official adviser to the President of Ukraine "on the question of Ukraine's place in the future European security architecture. "Now the ex-secretary general is touring NATO countries, including the United States, to "assess the change in mood before the start of a critically important summit."

Rasmussen's interview with the British edition was the actual reaction to the statement of the current head of NATO. Stoltenberg, also on June 7, said that the issue of security guarantees for Ukraine would be on the agenda in Vilnius, but recalled that NATO, in accordance with Article 5 of the Washington Treaty (on the collective security of the countries of the alliance), provides full security guarantees only to full members. At the same time, he pointed out that at the moment for the collective West, the absolute priority is to prevent the victory of Russia in the current armed conflict.

Earlier, Stoltenberg stated that Ukraine's entry into NATO until the end of the military conflict with Russia is not considered.

The nature of the statements of the former and current heads of the North Atlantic Alliance naturally raised the question of the real prospect of an invasion of Ukraine by the Eastern European members of NATO.

Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev , we recall, in April pointed out the grandiose risks in the event of Ukraine joining NATO. “I will express a seditious thought. A quiet division is better than Ukraine in NATO or a world war,” Medvedev said, noting that Hungary, Poland and Romania intend to annex the western regions of Ukraine to themselves.

UNSTOPPABLE EASTERN EUROPEANS
Rasmussen and Stoltenberg's statements on the eve of the Vilnius summit are a reflection of the discussion that is currently unfolding in NATO, Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, told IA Regnum.

"There are a number of influential countries that understand that giving Ukraine an official status in NATO at a time of acute escalation of the conflict is a demonstrative step that will intensify the escalation," the source said. "This will bring NATO closer to confronting Russia directly. Therefore, there are statements in Western Europe that so far it is impossible to talk about membership or a formal procedure for admission to NATO."

But there is another point of view in the North Atlantic Alliance, the expert notes. It is represented by the Eastern European countries most radically opposed to Russia, calling for more decisive steps.

“And Rasmussen plays on this second side, in his statement there is an emphasis on the need to give Ukraine some official status,” Lukyanov believes. —

And if not, then "we will not keep the Eastern Europeans from interfering, who are experiencing everything very painfully." Well, it means that there will be a war.”

"PIECES OF THE TERRITORY"
If Poland, as Rasmussen warns, decides on a separate entry of troops into Ukrainian territory, then this will create a precedent, experts believe. And we are talking not only and not so much about joining the Polish expeditionary corps of the military from the Baltic states. In the event of the invasion of the Polish armed forces into Ukraine, other neighboring Eastern European NATO countries will not stand aside , military observer Mikhail Onufrienko does not exclude.

“Both Hungary, and Romania, and possibly even Slovakia will, of course, lay claim to pieces of territory, ” a military observer predicts in a commentary to IA Regnum. “ Whether these territories will allow them to take control is another matter. In the same Transcarpathia, a large number of Hungarians live in just a few areas. But there are really a very large number of them, there people really speak Hungarian, they know their history well, they have relatives on the other side of the border. These areas may well be part of Hungary. Slovakia may also occupy some small piece.”

As IA Regnum previously noted , Hungarian nationalists, who are usually referred to as Prime Minister Viktor Orban , consider the country's modern borders established by the Trianon Treaty of 1920 to be unfair. Orban publicly does not question the principle of the inviolability of territorial integrity, but even the appearance of the prime minister in a football scarf depicting the borders of “pre-Trianonian” Hungary (with Transylvania, Transcarpathia, Slovakia and Serbian Vojvodina) caused a scandal.

In any case, the nationalist authorities of Budapest have repeatedly made it clear that they will not leave the ethnic Magyars of Transcarpathia in trouble, with whom the Hungarian authorities were actively working in the 1990s and zero. Hungarians do not prevail in the region (they are 12%), but along the Ukrainian-Hungarian border they constitute the ethnic majority.

Romanian nationalists - which include the previous president of the country, Traian Basescu - do not forget about the borders of Greater Romania until 1940, which included, recall, not only the right-bank Moldova (Bessarabia), but also South Bessarabia (the current south-west of the Odessa region with the cities of Akkerman and Izmail), as well as Northern Bukovina (the current Chernivtsi region in western Ukraine). Nationalists consider Romanians and Moldovans to be one nation, and from this it follows that in Southern Bessarabia, in Northern Bukovina and in the same Transcarpathia there live a total of about 260 thousand "compatriots" who may need "protection".

There are relatively few Slovaks in Ukraine - mainly in the same border regions of Transcarpathia - about 6.3 thousand, but let's also not forget about historical borders. The first Czechoslovak Republic from the moment of its creation in 1918 until 1938-1939 (and de jure until 1946) included Subcarpathian Rus - the current Transcarpathian region of Ukraine. The indigenous inhabitants of the region and adjacent territories, the Carpathian Rusyns , by the way, have the status of a national minority in Slovakia and are in fact recognized as a separate - the fourth East Slavic - people, and in Ukraine they are not even considered a sub-ethnos of the Ukrainian people.

DREAMS ABOUT "CROSSES"
The ideology of territorial revenge is perhaps the most developed in Poland, where they periodically recall either the “Prussians of Krulewski” (part of the former East Prussia, which gives rise to fantasies about the “return” of Kaliningrad), or about the “sprout crosses” - the “eastern outskirts” of Poland, which until 1939 included Vilnius (Vilna) taken from the Lithuanians, as well as Western Belarus and most of Western Ukraine captured as a result of the Soviet-Polish war.

“For the Poles, the return of the crosses is an issue that cannot be resolved by instructions from Washington or by agreement with anyone, ” Onufrienko believes. - Any president of Poland who returns these “crosses”, including Lviv, to the Commonwealth, will have a golden monument erected in the center of Warsaw during his lifetime. Regardless of anything. The Poles will be deeply indifferent to what the Americans, NATO or anyone else think about this. This is a question that they will decide anyway.”

And it is in Poland that the question of the eastern territories is openly raised by politicians. The junior partner of the ruling Law and Justice party, the Sovereign Poland party, headed by the Minister of Justice, the country's Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro , at its congress proclaimed the thesis about the need to "create a new space of personal, religious and economic freedom on the territory of the former First Rzeczpospolita."

In April, official Warsaw hastened to refute the statement of the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin , that the United States and Poland were developing a plan to establish Polish control over "historical possessions" in Ukraine. There are no plans for annexation, Stanislav Zharyn, a spokesman for the Polish special services, assured .

But this does not exclude the possibility that the ruling Law and Justice party follows the idea of ​​“ prometheism ” formulated by Józef Pilsudski – the “liberation” of the Eastern European peoples from the “domination” of Moscow and the creation of a Baltic-Black Sea union of states, of course, with the leading role of Poland.

In turn, Rasmussen's statement and all other similar statements by Western public figures look like attempts to institutionalize the ongoing process of informally drawing NATO's Eastern European flank into the conflict in Ukraine, Onufrienko notes.

In the autumn of 2015, on the territory of Poland, we recall, an armed formation was created, which received the name "Litpolukrbrig." The predominantly Polish personnel of the new "brigade", whose creation was presented as "part of a long process of consistent and long-term military cooperation", was, for the sake of formality, diluted with a certain number of citizens of Lithuania and Ukraine.

The interlocutor of IA Regnum admits that this formation will enter a certain contingent, formally peacekeeping. “He will be able, in fact, to release several brigades of the Kiev regime, which, in turn, will be able to transfer to the front,” Onufrienko argues. He believes that for some time the Litpolukbrig will be able to position itself as a peacekeeping contingent, but in the case of a team from Warsaw, simply occupy the occupied territories.

Link


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: September 13th, 2022
2022-09-14
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] 23:47 US House of Representatives committees will hold secret meetings on Ukraine over the next two weeks, CNN reports, citing its sources. According to the publication, lawmakers are pushing for the inclusion of additional assistance to Ukraine in a future bill on short-term government funding.

22:58 Zelensky said that he had held another Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief today: "The first and main question is the reports of the commanders in the areas. Alexander Syrsky reported on the successes in the Kharkiv region, Andriy Kovalchuk - on the movement of our forces in the south."

22:42 Zelensky said in an evening video message that, as of now, stabilization measures have been completed in areas with a total area of ​​more than 4,000 square meters. km, stabilization continues on approximately the same liberated territory. The President stressed that the issuance of pensions for five months at once has already begun in Balakliya and Grakovo.

22:26 Ukraine has made significant progress in liberating territories from Russian occupation thanks to the courage of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, as well as international support, but it is too early to make long-term forecasts, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said: "The Russians keep very significant forces and equipment in Ukraine , weapons and ammunition. As we can see, they continue to use them indiscriminately not only against the Ukrainian armed forces, but also against civilians and civilian infrastructure."

22:01 The invaders began to flee from Melitopol towards the Crimea. Columns of military equipment have already been fixed at the checkpoint in Chongar, Mayor Ivan Fedorov said. In order to take stolen goods out of the Zaporozhye region, the Russian military break into garages and steal cars from local residents.

21:23 The IAEA announced the restoration of the third standby power transmission line to the Zaporozhye NPP.

20:47 The Cabinet of Ministers approved the draft state budget for 2023, which provides for defense spending in the amount of UAH 1 trillion 006 billion, People's Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak said. In total, budget revenues are determined in the amount of UAH 1.28 trillion, expenses - UAH 2.57 trillion.

20:41 After the counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russian officials turned to Ukraine to resume negotiations, but the Ukrainian side refused , Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanishyna said in an interview with France 24.

19:58 The Armed Forces of Ukraine successfully repelled enemy attacks in the areas of the settlements of Zaitsevo, Odradovka, Bakhmut, Bakhmutskoye, Veselaia Dolina, Avdeevka, Bezymyannoye and Novogrigorievka, the General Staff reports in the evening report .

Meanwhile, the Russian invaders continue to loot. So, on the section of the Starobelsk-Lugansk highway, in the direction of Luhansk, about 300 civilian cars were noted, mostly with state license plates of the Kharkiv region. Most of the vehicles with trailers loaded with looted property are driven by the Russian military.

A similar trend is observed in the settlements of the temporarily occupied territories in southern Ukraine. In the city of Pologi, Zaporozhye region, Russian invaders break down the gates of private garages and take away cars from local residents. In Novaya Kakhovka, Kherson region, the invaders massively began to take out furniture and household appliances from temporarily abandoned houses.

19:21 Scholz had a telephone conversation with Putin. According to the German government, the conversation lasted an hour and a half and was devoted to the situation in Ukraine and its consequences. Scholz urged Putin to find a diplomatic solution as soon as possible, based on a ceasefire, the complete withdrawal of Russian troops and respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. The chancellor promised that any further Russian steps towards annexation would not go unanswered and would not be recognized under any circumstances, and also stated the need to ensure the safety of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

19:18 Zelensky met with Danish and Estonian Defense Ministers Morten Bedskow and Hanno Pevkur in Kiev.

19:12 Ukraine started preparing a counteroffensive a few months ago. During preparation, the country's leadership conferred with the United States and took into account some tips, writes The New York Times, citing its sources in military circles. So, on the orders of Zelensky, the Ukrainian military prepared an operation plan - the Armed Forces of Ukraine were to liberate Kherson and cut off Mariupol. However, both Ukrainian and American generals believed that the operation would lead to heavy losses, and Ukraine might not be able to capture such vast territories. For a long time, Kyiv did not want to share all the details, but gradually told partners in Washington more and more.

The Americans and Ukrainians played strategic "war games" that showed that such a large-scale counter-offensive in southern Ukraine would end in failure. With this result, the Ukrainian generals went to Zelensky. Instead of one big counter-offensive, the Armed Forces of Ukraine decided to launch two small ones - in the Kherson and Kharkiv regions. Ukraine, the US and the UK jointly evaluated the plan and agreed that it could be successful.

The United States notes that the merit for the successful counteroffensive lies entirely with Zelensky and the Ukrainian generals, who were able to achieve a serious victory in the Kharkiv region with relatively small forces.

18:40 Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said that the official figure announced today for the liberated territory in the Kharkiv region is 3800 square meters. km - half the real. She explained that 3800 sq. km - these are confirmed figures, taking into account stabilization measures: "The real figure of the liberated territories in the Kharkiv region is almost twice as much. Tomorrow there will be already updated data."

18:37 The main difference between Article 5 of the NATO Charter and the developments presented today on the Kiev Security Treaty is the number of security guarantors, ex-NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen explained: "NATO has a number of allies - 30, now there will be 32 "We have a smaller group of guarantors. This is, of course, the main difference between the way we read Article 5 of the NATO treaty and the security guarantees formulated for this document. But the goal is the same - to ensure the security of Ukraine."

18:32 Collaborators with their families and loot leave the liberated territories even before the Russian army completely leaves from there, said Natalia Gumenyuk, speaker of OK Pivden. According to her, the collaborators are well aware of what awaits them after the liberation of the territories.

18:05 The head of the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs, the leader of the LDPR and a member of the negotiating group with Ukraine, Leonid Slutsky, called the recommendations on security guarantees presented by the Yermak group an "escalation": "All of its points are aimed only at further escalation, and not at resolving the current situation. In fact, it is proposed to document the advancement of the military infrastructure of the Western countries to the Russian borders, the pumping of Western weapons. These are no guarantees of security, this is a draft pact to involve NATO countries and their allies in the conflict. A project against Russia, against a nuclear power."

17:48 The European Union would like peace talks on Ukraine "as soon as possible", but the Ukrainian leadership will decide, Borrell said. At the same time, he noted that it is necessary to negotiate with Russia on a number of issues, including the safety of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

17:46 Borrell discussed with Kuleba the provision of military assistance to Kiev from the European Union and the possibility of deploying an EU military support mission for Ukraine, the European External Action Service reported. In particular, the EU representative informed the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry about the technical parameters of a possible mission, which will be determined with the participation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, EU member states and partner countries.

17:37 Zelensky said that he had a telephone conversation with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva: "Thanked for the allocated 1.4 billion additional support. We discussed future cooperation to strengthen the financial stability of Ukraine."

17:31 Putin will hold a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Samarkand, during which the parties will "discuss in detail" the topic of the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin said.

17:29 In the Kharkiv region, 21 former policemen have already been suspected of high treason, another 40 are being checked for possible cooperation with the enemy, said Volodymyr Tymoshko, head of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Kharkiv region: "Yes, we have people who have begun to cooperate with the occupier. But I'm proud that it's a very small amount."

17:26 Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur is visiting Kiev. According to Reznikov, he brought Ukraine a modern mobile hospital.

16:47 After the liberation of Izyum, numerous facts of the atrocities of the Russian invaders surfaced, Deputy Mayor Vladimir Matsokin said: "I cannot estimate the number of victims, it can be more or less than a thousand people, but I will tell you that very disturbing information is coming from Izyum. Discovered mass graves, the bodies of people who were killed were found ... We know about prisons, we know stories from there, how people escaped when the Armed Forces entered ... We know that in these prisons women were tortured with electric shocks, mocked, subjected to incredible tests.

According to Matsokin, the humanitarian situation in Izyum is very difficult - up to 75% of the city has been destroyed, there is no water, electricity, gas, and the streets are strewn with "petal" mines that the Russians scattered before leaving. He urged not to rush to return to the city.

16:15 In Uman, Cherkasy region, before the celebration of the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah, 21 simplest shelters were prepared in case of an air raid warning, as well as a special shelter near the place of celebrations, said Igor Taburets, head of the IVA.

15:42 On September 14, the German government will hear a report from German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock on the results of her visit to Ukraine. According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, the issue of increasing military and military-technical assistance for Ukraine will probably be raised, in particular, the possibility of supplying German-made air defense systems, tanks and infantry fighting vehicles not according to the "circular exchange" scheme with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, but directly to Ukraine.

15:13 What has unfolded on the battlefield in the Kharkiv region in recent days has become a stunning turning point in Ukraine's bitter struggle against the Russian invasion, Western journalists write. More details - in the material Beginning of the collapse of the Russian Federation .

15:04 During the counter-offensive in the Kharkiv region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated more than 300 settlements , said Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar: "This operation to liberate the Kharkiv region lasted several days, and it was planned for several days, and from September 6 to today, 3800 square meters have been liberated . km, more than 300 settlements, and about 150 thousand of our people became free from the occupation. The operation continues, it is planned until the complete liberation of the Kharkov region."

15:00 Kuleba accused Germany of ignoring requests for the supply of Leopard tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles: "Signals from Germany are disappointing, while Ukraine now needs Leopards and Marders to free people and save them from genocide. Not a single rational argument why this is weapons cannot be provided, only abstract fears and excuses. Why is Berlin afraid, but Kiev is not?"

14:57 The European Commission has prepared a draft regulation to resolve the energy crisis in the EU, in which there is no mention of setting a ceiling price for Russian gas or any imported gas, writes The Guardian.

14:54 In Melitopol, three loud explosions thundered in the area of ​​​​the airfield, where the invaders unsuccessfully equipped one of the military bases, the mayor of the city Ivan Fedorov said.

14:51 In the colony in Yelenevka, where Ukrainian military prisoners from Mariupol are being held, conditions have been improved on the eve of a possible visit of the UN mission, Andriy Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate, said in an interview with Suspilny: "For the first time in a very long period, even a hairdresser was invited. The diet is improving. This may indicate that the Russians are preparing for the mission's visit. It can take place. This is very good, and we hope that its work will be objective."

14:47 Russian media write that more than ten explosions thundered in the sky over Kherson. It is also reported that there are problems with electricity, water and communications in the occupied territories of southern Ukraine. So, in Melitopol, mobile communications have disappeared and the Internet does not work, and in Kherson there is no electricity and there are problems with water supply.

14:45 The invaders are urgently evacuating their families from the Crimea and the South of Ukraine. According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, despite the assurances of the population about the safety of staying on the peninsula, representatives of the occupying administration of Crimea, FSB officers and commanders of some military units, secretly from their subordinates, are trying to sell their homes and urgently take out relatives.

At the same time, the occupiers have banned the conclusion of housing purchase and sale transactions, have established restrictions on movement along the Crimean bridge, and are trying in every possible way to block access to information about the counter-offensive actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

14:39 Yermak outlined the main principles of security guarantees for Ukraine:

  • Create the Kyiv Security Treaty - a joint document on strategic partnership that will unite Ukraine and the guarantor states.

  • A layered approach to safeguards: a core group of allies will make clear commitments to support the Armed Forces, while a broader group will provide non-military guarantees built around sanctions mechanisms.

  • The agreement is not a substitute for joining NATO - it is a means of ensuring security until such accession takes place. Kyiv, as before, seeks to join the EU and NATO.

  • The strongest guarantee of security for Ukraine is its ability to defend itself against an aggressor in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter. To do this, Ukraine needs resources to maintain a powerful armed forces. This requires long-term stable investments in Ukraine's defense industrial base, large-scale arms transfers and intelligence support from allies, intensive training missions and joint exercises under the auspices of the EU and NATO.

  • Security guarantees must be affirmative and clearly articulated, politically and legally binding on the basis of bilateral agreements, but consolidated under a joint strategic partnership document called the Kyiv Security Treaty.

  • The treaty will unite the main group of allied countries and Ukraine. This group of guarantor states may include the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Poland, Italy, Germany, France, Australia, Turkey, as well as the Nordic and Baltic countries, Central and Eastern Europe.

  • The package of guarantees contains both preventive measures of a military, financial, infrastructural, technical, informational nature in order to avoid new aggression, as well as measures that must be taken without delay in the event of a new encroachment on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. In addition, the structure of the agreement provides for a full-fledged sanctions package against the aggressor country, and may also contain additional components, for example, agreements on providing Ukraine with modern air defense / missile defense systems, regional agreements on security in the Black Sea, etc.

14:14 Until the end of the year, the EU plans to allocate an additional 3 billion euros to Kiev, said European Commissioner for Budget Johannes Hahn. He did not rule out that this assistance would be provided in the form of grants.

13:58 Kuleba said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine that he had not heard from his European colleagues for a long time about the conditional "red lines" that they do not want to cross in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. So, according to him, it was with the rhetoric "let's not provoke Putin" that negotiations on military assistance to Ukraine began, but at the moment the situation has changed, and the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has not heard such arguments for two or three months.

Kuleba also added that at the level of foreign ministers, the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons is not seriously discussed: “There is a question, it is voiced from time to time, but if at the beginning of the war everyone was buzzing about it, now I don’t hear this buzz.”

13:54 Critical remarks about the "special military operation" in the light of "recent events" are permissible "within the framework of the current legislation," however, "the line in this matter is very thin," Peskov said and warned that "one must be very careful here" .

13:50 The counteroffensive in the Kherson region is moving more slowly than in the Kharkiv region, because it is an agricultural region with numerous irrigation canals that the Russians use as defensive trenches, Reznikov explained in a Financial Times commentary.

13:47 Yermak and former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen today in Kiev will present recommendations on security guarantees for Ukraine, developed on behalf of Zelensky.

13:44 Ukrposhta and Novaya Poshta have started working in the de-occupied Balakliya.

13:20 American officials are discussing the possibility of transferring combat aircraft to Ukraine, writes the Financial Times. According to the publication, Washington and its allies are considering whether it is advisable to provide Kyiv with fighter jets in the medium and long term.

13:17 "Head of the CAA" of the occupied Energodar, Alexander Volga, said that the defense of the city "is being prepared for the activities of the Ukrainian troops," "people remain at their jobs."

13:14 Podolyak predicts political destabilization in Russia after the de-occupation of Luhansk or Donetsk: "Firstly, it is necessary to protect critical infrastructure with air defense systems. Because Russia will only fight civilians. Secondly, the liberation of Luhansk or Donetsk will cause a domino effect, bring down the Russian front and will lead to political destabilization in the Russian Federation. This is real. Will (weapon) is needed."

13:10 Kuleba said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine that Russia will try to disrupt the extension of the grain deal: "Not now, but closer to the end of its operation in November, we will see Russia's attempts to question this agreement and disrupt its extension. We are already working for this with all key players, both with the UN and with Turkey as facilitators of this agreement, and with the recipient countries of our agricultural products in order to prevent this disruption."

13:06 Peskov assured that the Russian authorities do not intend to announce mobilization: "At the moment, no, this is out of the question."

12:50 Zelensky said that he had a conversation with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi: “We talked about the development of the situation at the front. Defense cooperation with Italy is important for Ukraine. It needs to be strengthened. station security.

12:38 The occupiers are preparing another provocative shelling of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said. He also stressed that after the capture of the plant, the Russians “saw a certain impunity on the part of the international community” and are now attacking the entire energy system of Ukraine, which may eventually affect other nuclear plants.

12:33 Activists of the Zhovt Strichka movement distributed regular leaflets in Crimea. Activists call the "head" of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, a "goblin" and call for him to be caught.

12:26 Russia is trying to buy ammunition for Soviet artillery systems and spare parts for military equipment in the Central Asian republics. According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation recently turned to the Ministry of Defense of Tajikistan with a request to transfer 220-mm rockets to the Uragan MLRS. The Russians are also interested in ammunition for the 203-mm self-propelled guns Pion and UTD-20 engines for the BMP-1 and BMP-2, which are stored in large quantities in military warehouses in Tajikistan.
Oh?
In addition, retired servicemen and employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan are receiving offers to sign a contract with the RF Armed Forces and take part in the war against Ukraine. A recruitment campaign is also unfolding in Kyrgyzstan.
Retired Tajiks? That’s certainly an interesting choice.
12:12 Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands no longer accept documents from Russians for issuing tourist visas, the Association of Tour Operators of the Russian Federation reports. Italy, Spain, Greece, France, Hungary and Cyprus (national visa, not Schengen) continue to accept documents for visas for tourist trips, among others.

12:08 After a successful counter-offensive of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region, Russian troops may be forced to give up other territories they have captured, writes The Washington Post, citing representatives of US intelligence circles. The interlocutors of the publication note that the Russian Federation has problems, it has shown its weakness, and now the question is how the Russians will react to these events.

However, the successes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are encouraging and show that Ukraine can regain territories in the coming weeks and force the Russians out of the lands they have held since the beginning of the war.

11:52 In Mariupol, a patrol of invaders was blown up along the street. Karpinsky in the Kalmiussky district. As Piotr Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of the city, said, the occupiers tried to erase the symbol of resistance "Ї" and catch up with the residents of Mariupol who painted it. Three invaders were hospitalized in a hospital in Donetsk, Mariupol residents were not injured.

11:31 The Russians have completely left Kremennaya, but the Armed Forces of Ukraine have not yet entered the city , said the head of the Luhansk OVA, Sergei Gaidai. According to him, the situation is similar in Starobelsk, while in Svatovo the occupiers first fled, but returned after some time. According to Gaidai, a large-scale de-occupation of the Lugansk region will begin from Kremennaya and Svatovo, the Russians have already begun to pull equipment closer to these cities, and the main blow will be there. The liberation of the Liman is also key for the region, there are still fights around the city. According to Gaidai, there is a shortage of fuel in the occupied territories due to the large-scale flight of occupiers and collaborators.

In turn, Pushilin said that the Ukrainian military attacked Liman at night, the DRG tried to break through there, but the attempts were allegedly repulsed.

11:17 The issue of imposing new sanctions against the Russian Federation in some European countries is "fading away", so the adoption of each new package will be more difficult, Kuleba said in an interview with RBC Ukraine: "Decisions are made by consensus, so even if one country loses its appetite, you need to feed it "Indeed, it will be very difficult. I can say right away: each next package of sanctions will be more difficult for us than the previous one under the current status quo."

10:54 The FSB of the Russian Federation announced that in the Moscow region, the quality director of the Russian aircraft factory was arrested in the case of treason in favor of Ukraine. Having access to top secret documentation, he allegedly photographed fragments of drawings with details of military aircraft and sent them to an employee of the Odessa Aviation Plant.

10:39 APU, "with a high degree of probability", for the first time destroyed an Iranian strike drone near Kupyansk, StratCom reports. An analysis of the appearance of the elements of the drone's wing allows us to definitely state that it was a long-range kamikaze UAV Shahed-136.

10:21 The United States may announce a new $600 million military aid package to Ukraine this week, Politico writes.

10:02 SBU detained a collaborator who was hiding in the occupied territories of Kharkiv region. According to the investigation, the woman actively cooperated with the Russians and in May agreed to take the pseudo position of "head of the organizational and information department" in the local "administration" in the Shevchenkovo ​​village. Already in July, she was informed in absentia of suspicion of collaboration activities, she was put on the wanted list. After the liberation of the village, law enforcement officers detained her.

09:35 The General Staff announced the estimated losses of the enemy on the morning of September 13th. The enemy suffered the greatest losses in the Kharkov and Donetsk directions.

  • personnel - about 53,300 (+350) people liquidated,

  • tanks - 2175 (+7),

  • armored fighting vehicles - 4662 (+22),

  • artillery systems - 1279 (+10),

  • MLRS - 311 (+0),

  • air defense systems - 165 (+3),

  • aircraft - 244 (+1),

  • helicopters - 213 (+0),

  • UAV operational-tactical level - 904 (+1),

  • cruise missiles - 233 (+17),

  • ships/boats - 15 (+0),

  • automotive equipment and tankers - 3469 (+6),

  • special equipment - 117 (+0).

09:28 The subway does not work in Kharkiv amid power outages, the subway reported.

09:18 At night, the Armed Forces of Ukraine again hit the Antonovsky bridge, securing its unsuitability for use, OK Pivden reported.

09:16 Forbes has calculated that the Russians lost $673 million worth of equipment during the counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The most expensive loss of the enemy is the Moscow-1 electronic warfare complex for 57 million, which was destroyed in the Zaporozhye region. In the Kharkiv region, the invaders lost a Su-34 fighter-bomber for 36 million rubles and a counter-battery radar system Zoopark-1M for 25 million dollars.

According to the analytical project Oryx, from September 6 to 10, the Ukrainian military seized 129 pieces of equipment, which Forbes estimates at $104 million, including nine Msta-S and Msta-B howitzers worth more than $43 million.

09:10 Over the past day in Kharkiv, one person died from enemy shelling, six were injured. Two people died in the Kupyansky district. Also, one person was wounded in the Izyum region, two wounded in the Kharkov region, one of them was blown up by a mine in Russian Tishki, Oleg Sinegubov, head of the OVA, said.

09:05 In the Donetsk region over the past day, as a result of Russian shelling, five civilians were killed - three in Vugledar, one each in Georgievka and Slavyansk. Ten more people were injured, Pavel Kirilenko, head of the OVA, said.

08:59 The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports, citing satellite images, that pro-Russian troops have left Kiselevka, an operationally important point in the Kherson region. The apparent withdrawal of Russian forces from this position could jeopardize the ability of the Russians to defend the northwestern outskirts of Kherson and indicate that Russian forces in the area are under imminent threat to their positions.

According to ISW, Ukrainian troops continue to make significant progress in the Kherson region, which significantly worsens the morale and combat capabilities of Russian troops. The Russian military command may suspend the deployment of newly formed units in Ukraine due to recent losses of Russians and a general deterioration in morale.

Also, Russian troops fail to strengthen the new front line after the Ukrainians conquered the Kharkiv region and are actively leaving the area or redeploying to other areas. And Ukraine's return of Izyum likely worsened the ability of Russian troops to launch artillery strikes along the Izyum-Slavyansk highway.

08:36 British intelligence reports that the units of Russian troops withdrawn from the Kharkiv region over the past week were from the 1st Guards Tank Army, which was designated in the Russian Federation for counterattacks in the event of a war with NATO. This army, which is subordinate to the Western Military District, suffered significant losses during the initial phase of the invasion and was not fully restored until the start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kharkov.

The First Guards Tank Army was one of the most prestigious Russian armies, dedicated to the defense of Moscow and determined to carry out counterattacks in the event of a war with NATO. Thus, the forces of Russia, aimed at countering NATO, have seriously weakened. It will likely take years for Russia to regain that potential, analysts say.

08:05 Ukrainian defenders repulsed the invaders' attacks near seven settlements. Attacks were made on command posts, areas of concentration of manpower and military equipment of the enemy, the General Staff said in the morning report .

03:36 The front line in southern Ukraine has advanced 12 km, more than 500 square meters have been liberated. km of the occupied territories, said Major General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Dmitry Marchenko. According to him, thanks to the successful planning of the Pivden Operational Command, the Ukrainian military liberated 13 settlements.

02:12 A high-ranking Pentagon official said at a briefing that the Ukrainians have achieved success in the south and east of the country: "Near Kharkov, according to our data, the Russian forces basically conceded their territorial gains to the Ukrainians and retreated to the north and east. Many of them crossed the border with Russia." According to him, Ukrainian troops "most likely took control of Kupyansk and Izyum, as well as some smaller villages."

The Russian Federation focused on the sector of the front from Seversk to Bakhmut in the Donetsk region: "Bakhmut continues to be the center where Russian forces are trying to gain positions. We continue to observe the intensive use of artillery and air strikes." In the Kherson region, according to the Pentagon, "deliberate and well-considered operations by the Ukrainians are taking place, which provide for a certain moderate movement forward."

01:23 The Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation has included the topic of "special operation" in Ukraine in the basic course of history lessons for high school students, teachers have already completed "advanced training" courses.

00:18 Governor of the Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov urged residents of the border villages of Zhuravlevka and Nekhoteevka to evacuate.

Link


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: July 1st, 2022
2022-07-02
Direct Translation via Google Translate Edited.
[Korrespondent] 23:13 Johnson became an honorary citizen of Odessa, the mayor of the city Gennady Trukhanov said: "We highly appreciate the Prime Minister of Britain. Therefore, I signed an order to award Boris Johnson with honorary signs named after Grigory Marazli I, II, III degrees."

23:03 In Kremenchug, after removing the rubble on 90% of the area of ​​the Amstor shopping and entertainment center, 29 fragments of bodies were found, the State Emergency Service reports. As of the evening of July 1, 19 dead and 64 injured are known, of which 26 were hospitalized.

22:11 Zelensky said that he had held telephone conversations with Argentine Presidents Alberto Fernandez and Chile Gabriel Boric: "I continue to establish ties with an important region - Latin America. I talked with Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, thanked for humanitarian assistance, condemnation of Russian aggression and suspension of Russia's membership in the UN Human Rights Council. <...> I am glad to establish contact with the newly elected President of Chile. Thanked for the support in the UN, humanitarian assistance for Ukraine. We discussed the possibility of involving Chilean specialists in demining Ukrainian territories."

22:06 Ukraine turned to Turkey with a request to detain and arrest the cargo ship Zhibek Zholy, which sails under the Russian flag and transports Ukrainian grain exported from Berdyansk, Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasily Bodnar said.

22:00 Moroccan and British servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, "sentenced to death" by the court of the so-called "DPR", appealed their sentences, reports Reuters. The Supreme Court of the "DPR" received appeals from lawyers Brahim Saadoun and Sean Pinner. Another "convicted" Briton, Aiden Eslin, has not yet filed an appeal.

Russian media reported today that a similar "verdict" awaits two more British prisoners. These are Dylan Healy and Andrew Hill, who were taken prisoner respectively at the Ilyich plant in Mariupol and in the Mykolaiv region.

21:39 The United States is providing Ukraine with a new $820 million military aid package , the Pentagon said. This package was previously announced by Biden. The new military assistance package includes additional ammunition for HIMARS, 150,000 artillery shells for Western howitzers, two NASAMS air defense systems, and four counter-battery radars.

21:13 Today, at about 18:00, a pair of Su-30 aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces twice launched an air strike with phosphorus bombs on Zmeiny Island from the Bilbek airfield, where they allegedly "completed the tasks," Zaluzny said. One of the bombs hit the sea.

20:49 Monthly volumes of gas transit through the Ukrainian GTS in June of this year reached a historic low since 1991 - 1.25 billion cubic meters. So, compared to May 2022, the volume of transit through Ukraine fell by 37%, and compared to June of the previous year, transit decreased by almost three times. Gazprom used only 38% of the booked capacity (3.29 billion cubic meters) under a long-term contract, the GTS Operator of Ukraine said.

20:44 Kuleba said that Ukraine has filed a Memorandum with the International Court of Justice: "We prove that the Russian Federation violated the Genocide Convention, justifying its military aggression by groundless accusations of Ukraine of" genocide ". This is an important step to hold the Russian Federation accountable and compensate for the damage caused ".

20:32 A few years ago, the Russian government decided to appropriate the Ukrainian national dish. But now the culture of cooking Ukrainian borscht has been included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko called the UNESCO decision "a victory in the war for borscht". More about this - in the material Borsch is de-Russified .

20:14 Zaluzhny said that he spoke with the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, who assured him that "the United States will support Ukraine for as long as it takes."

20:09 The German government called today's shelling of the Odessa region a war crime. "Attacks on civilians are a war crime. Russian President Vladimir Putin and the perpetrators will have to be held accountable," said German government spokesman Steffen Hebeshtreit.

20:02 In Donetsk, the issuance of Russian passports has begun today, the "Ministry of Internal Affairs of the DPR" reported. Earlier, the opening of the first point of issue of Russian passports was reported in Luhansk.

19:59 The Ukrainian military repelled a hostile reconnaissance attempt in the direction of the Lisichansk gelatin plant, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in an evening report .

18:42 At the height of the war against Russia, Ukraine decided to change the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights. Lyudmila Denisova was dismissed from this position with a scandal, and people's deputy Dmitry Lubinets will replace her. Read more in the material Scandal with the Ombudsman .

18:25 The Armed Forces of Ukraine knocked out the Russian invaders from Zmeiny Island with the help of not only Western weapons, but also Bogdan's self-propelled artillery mount of Ukrainian design and production. This first Ukrainian NATO-caliber howitzer is capable of effectively destroying the enemy at a distance of 40 kilometers. More about it - in the material Ukrainian self-propelled guns Bogdan .

18:14 Reznikov said that since the beginning of the war, more than 90,000 Russian servicemen have been wounded, Russia's losses amount to more than 30,000 people. There are also a lot of missing people: the Russian leadership passes many off as "lost" in order not to pay monetary compensation to their families.

18:12 Yermak said that a preliminary version of an agreement on international security guarantees for Ukraine may appear during July. At the same time, according to him, the agreement on security guarantees will not become an alternative to Kyiv's movement into NATO.

18:10 Zelensky called the Russian missile attack on the Odessa region a targeted act of terrorism against the Ukrainian people: "Today, the Russian army launched another brutal missile attack. It was a supersonic cruise anti-ship missile. It hit an ordinary residential building in the Odessa region. Such missiles were created to destroy aircraft carriers and other large warships... This is not an accidental strike, as the media in the Russian Federation say about it. This is a targeted Russian missile attack, Russian terror, let's be frank, against our cities and villages, against our people, adults and children" .

18:07 Yermak said that Ukraine considers the possibility of a ceasefire only as the first step towards the withdrawal of Russian troops: "If a ceasefire is the first step towards ending the war and the withdrawal of Russian troops, we can think about it. Just a ceasefire as a step towards a frozen conflict We are not interested. This is not the Ukrainian plan. We are interested in winning this war. And it will definitely happen."

18:04 The European Commission has proposed to allocate the first tranche of emergency macro-financial assistance to Ukraine in the amount of 1 billion euros, Ursula von der Leyen said.

17:58 Zelensky met with Prime Minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Stere in Kiev. "I have come to express support for the people of Ukraine. Norway will transfer 1 billion euros by the end of this year or at the beginning of 2023 for the needs of the people," Stere said at a briefing with the President of Ukraine.

17:47 In Donetsk, graduates of the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the DPR without documents are going to be taken to the front. Parents came under the academy and staged a protest, "military men" threaten with weapons, write local publics. The "workbook" of the commander of the 1st separate battalion of the Russian Federation states that the cadets of the academy of the 1st and 2nd courses will guard the air defense crews, warehouses and locations, and the cadets of the 3rd, 4th and 5th courses will be sent to front.

17:40 At night, the Russian Federation launched rocket attacks on high-rise buildings and recreation centers in the Odessa region. Korrespondent.net has collected everything that is known about the tragedy at the moment, in the material of the Russian Federation the terror continues .

17:33 Zelensky met in Kiev with former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, thanked him for his direct participation in the process of working on international security guarantees for Ukraine, as well as for agreeing to lead the corresponding platform together with Yermak.

17:27 The European Commission has temporarily exempted EU member states from paying duties and VAT on the import of humanitarian aid for Ukrainians. This measure will apply retroactively from February 24 and will be valid until December 31, 2022, the European Commission said.

17:04 Russia has obliged Ukrainian teachers in the occupied territories to sign a document by July 21 confirming their readiness to switch to teaching according to the Russian school curriculum, writes The Guardian. Otherwise, they should quit. The publication notes that this puts many teachers in a difficult position: if they do not sign the document, they will lose their jobs and risk retribution from the Russian forces, and if they sign, they risk facing accusations from the Ukrainian authorities, who consider studying under the Russian program as form of cooperation with the enemy.

16:49 Forbes has calculated that the Russians have lost a total of $915 million worth of military equipment during the occupation of Snake Island. The biggest loss is the cruiser Moskva, which cost $750 million.

16:35 Putin said at the Forum of Regions of Russia and Belarus that the West is pushing the Russian Federation to "unification processes" with Belarus: "Unprecedented political and sanctions pressure from the so-called collective West is pushing us to speed up the unification processes."

Putin did not specify what kind of acceleration he was talking about, but explained that "during a recent meeting with Lukashenka in St. Petersburg, we discussed this issue in detail, including an agreement to use the transshipment capabilities of the Russian port terminal at Baltic".

16:33 The number of victims of a missile attack on the Odessa region has increased to 21 people , OVA speaker Serhiy Bratchuk said on the air of the telethon.

16:31 The Russian Foreign Ministry said that NATO's decision to recognize Russia as a direct threat is "a serious bid for confrontation with Russia on all fronts and using all tools."

16:17 Gazprom announced that it would completely stop Nord Stream from July 11 to July 21 "to carry out planned preventive work."

16:13 As a result of the Russian missile attack on Sergeevka, Odessa region, the Rehabilitation Center for Children belonging to Moldova was damaged, said the Minister of Health of Moldova, Alla Nemerenko. According to her, the Center on the Black Sea coast was intended for the rehabilitation of children from Moldova with serious illnesses. After the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the center was temporarily closed, with minimal staff remaining.

“The Center itself was not seriously damaged by the shelling, only the windows of the boiler room were shattered. But we were told with regret that five employees of the Center were injured and one died. All of them lived in the building damaged by the shelling,” Nemerenko said.

15:56 Erdogan announced the preparation of telephone conversations between Putin and Zelensky, writes Anadolu. "We will negotiate for the re-export of agricultural products. There are countries that have problems, and we can help. Our 20 ships in the Black Sea are ready for action. After Putin and Zelensky's response, we will determine our next steps," Erdogan said.

15:39 The ECHR, by an interim decision on the claim of the wife of the Ukrainian military, obliged Russia to respect the rights of all captives and provide them with access to the necessary medical care. The decision was made in the case of Oleinichenko v. Russia and Ukraine , the lawsuit was filed by the wife of a captive Ukrainian, Yaroslav Oleinichenko.

The court asks the Russian Federation to confirm within a week whether this soldier is in captivity and in what conditions he is being held, including information on medical examinations and treatment, if any. Ukraine is also asked to report within a week what is known about the fate of the captive Oleinichenko.

15:36 In the Odessa region, July 2 was declared a day of mourning in memory of those killed in a missile attack on the Belgorod-Dnestrovsky district.

15:34 Russian invaders are increasingly using inaccurate shells in the war against Ukraine. About what this means - in the article Why the Russian Federation is hitting Ukraine with old X-22 missiles .

15:25 The EU may prescribe in the new package of anti-Russian sanctions the corrected rules for the transit of sanctioned goods to Kaliningrad, which will allow it to be unblocked, Bloomberg reports. And Der Spiegel writes that the European Union has changed its position on the issue of transit to Kaliningrad at the request of Berlin.

15:16 The military exercises of the Belarusian army, which were supposed to end today, have been extended until at least July 9, Belarus Gayun reports.

15:07 There are seven battalions of the Belarusian Armed Forces on the border with Ukraine, the threat of an invasion by the Belarusian army remains. However, according to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, a direct military offensive from Belarus is currently unlikely, since a grouping of troops has not been created, and a control system for this grouping has not been deployed. But the presence of enemy troops near the border diverts the resources of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the eastern front, and the constant movement of troops is aimed at keeping Ukraine on its toes, intelligence noted.

15:00 The defense has filed a cassation complaint with the "court" in the "DPR" to mitigate the sentence of the Moroccan who fought for Ukraine, "condemned" to death, lawyer Yulia Tserkovnikova said.

14:51 The EU intends to impose an embargo on Russian gold in a new package of sanctions, writes Bloomberg.

14:38 Poland has signed a $1.8 billion contract for the purchase of 32 AW149 helicopters manufactured by the Italian company Leonardo. The Minister of Defense of the country, Mariusz Blaszczak, said that two squadrons and the first helicopters will enter the Polish army next year. He added that in the face of the war in Ukraine, Poland is modernizing its armed forces and intends to spend more than 3% of GDP on defense from next year.

14:19 On Nikolaev this morning Russians have let out about ten rockets, the mayor Alexander Senkevich reported. The missiles hit private enterprises, one of them was seriously damaged.

14:06 Peskov, in response to a question about a strike on the Odessa region, said that Russia does not shoot at civilian targets: "I want to remind you once again the words of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Federation that the armed forces of the Russian Federation do not work during a special military operation for civilian purposes and civilian infrastructure".

13:55 As of 13:30, as a result of a missile strike in the village of Sergeevka, Belgorod-Dnestrovsky district in the Odessa region, 20 people were killed (16 people - a residential building and four people - a recreation center, one of them is a child), the State Emergency Service reported. 38 people were hospitalized.

13:42 Ukrainian borscht has been recognized as a UNESCO cultural heritage site requiring immediate protection, Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko said. At the V Extraordinary Meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the element Culture of cooking Ukrainian borscht was included in the UNESCO Cultural Heritage List .

13:20 Macron announced new assistance to Ukraine: "France will promptly deliver to Ukraine the equipment necessary for self-defense, including six more Caesar howitzers and a significant amount of armored vehicles. France, allies and European partners are and will be."

13:13 The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the United24 platform have opened a fundraiser for the Army of Drones. At the first stage, it is planned to purchase 200 drones for aerial reconnaissance, which can fly up to 24 hours at a distance of 160 km and remain almost invisible. The goal is to cover the entire front line with drones, about 2470 km in total. You can help the Armed Forces of Ukraine and join the collection from any corner of the world on the platform https://u24.gov.ua/dronation

13:11 The telephone code of Donetsk in July will be changed from +38 (062) to +7 (856), Russian media reported, citing the "mayor" of the city.

13:07 The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that in the Odessa region, missiles hit "a radar station for detecting air targets."

13:05 The Rada appointed Dmytro Lubinets to the post of Commissioner for Human Rights, People's Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak said.

13:03 Lukashenka said that the post-Soviet countries should move closer to the "Union State" of Belarus and Russia, "unless, of course, they want to preserve sovereignty and independence."

13:00 The government of the Russian Federation has submitted a bill to the State Duma that will be able to force business to serve state needs in the interests of the army and special services, and Russians to work for this at night, without days off and holidays. The explanatory note to the bill says that in the conditions of the war in Ukraine "there is a short-term increased need for the repair of weapons and military equipment and the provision of material and technical means," especially in the context of foreign sanctions.

The bill allows the introduction of special measures in the economic sphere. They include a change in the legal regulation of labor relations, including work after hours, at night, on weekends and holidays, and changes the procedure for granting annual paid leave. In this case, the legal entity will not have the right to refuse the "offer" of the state, journalists say . We can explain .

12:56 NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoane said in an interview with Moldova 1 that Russia does not yet have sufficient forces to pose a military threat to Moldova: "Now Moldova has no reason to worry. Russia does not have military resources for this. But elements of pressure, destabilization, statements and threats after the good news from Brussels are certainly in the field of our attention."

12:52 The Rada has created a special commission on the law of war and war crimes in the context of Russia's aggression. As people's deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak said, this is an important decision, since the commission is vested with the rights of the main committee of the Verkhovna Rada on these issues. It was headed by Kharkiv resident Alexander Bakumov.

12:38 Peskov, when asked about the message to Putin, allegedly brought by the President of Indonesia from Zelensky, said that "we are not talking about some kind of written appeal."

12:29 The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced that the armies of Russia and the "LNR" went directly to Lisichansk and took control of the Lisichansk Oil Refinery, the Matrosskaya mine, the Gelatin plant and Topolevka.

12:27 US General Christopher Cavoli has taken command of NATO forces in Europe. He is considered an expert on Russia. He is fluent in Russian, Italian and French and holds a master's degree in Russian and East European Studies from Yale University.

12:24 The invaders are trying to escape from the scene of hostilities to the Crimea through the Arabat arrow. As Ukrainian military intelligence found out, in the occupied Kalinovka, Kherson region, a group of deserters aged 18-20 appeared, they are moving towards Crimea, while moving only at night, and hiding during the day.

According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, frequent cases of desertion of the Russian military are recorded in the Kherson region. The main reason is the heavy losses of the invaders due to accurate strikes by Ukrainian artillery. Most often, the fugitives try to get to the Crimea through the Arabat Spit - this route is considered safe and well-established.

12:11 Zelensky, during his speech in the Rada, said that the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU was implemented by 63%. He recalled that recently Ukraine signed a transport visa-free regime, an aviation visa-free regime, received the most open access to the European market - without duties and quotas, joined the common European energy network and got the opportunity to export electricity to the EU countries. Next in line are customs visa-free and digital visa-free, that is, Ukraine's accession to the Digital Europe program.

The President stressed that it is necessary to speed up work on industrial visa-free travel and achieve the abolition of roaming with the EU countries on a permanent basis. The deputies, he said, will have to develop and adopt dozens of bills, even if this or that decision "does not garner applause."

11:58 Scholz said in an interview with CBS News that Putin has been preparing for a war with Ukraine for at least a year, so Moscow will be able to wage war "for a long time": "I think that the decision to start this war was made a year before it started, or perhaps earlier, because he was preparing for it. And so he will be able to continue the war for a very long time."

At the same time, the chancellor expressed the opinion that although Putin "does not really recognize this," Russia feels the impact of Western sanctions: "Now this is happening with a country that is not so developed, that really needs all the technology from the rest of the world in order to have a similar standard of living and have a chance to be part of the growth of the global economy."

11:55 The Office of the Prosecutor General said that at the moment there is information about 19 civilians who died after a missile attack in the Odessa region , whose bodies were removed from the rubble. 38 victims were hospitalized, six of whom are children. Two minors are in critical condition.

11:52 The Czech Republic intends to join the training of the Ukrainian military, Defense Minister Yana Chernokhova said: "At the moment, intensive negotiations are underway on how we could participate in some exercises of the Ukrainian armed forces on the territory of the Czech Republic." The Minister also announced the need to modernize the Czech army, which is gaining importance in connection with the war in Ukraine.

11:25 Zelensky said that together with Stefanchuk and Shmyhal he signed "a joint statement, which is a signal of the unity of all branches of government and evidence of our determination to achieve Ukraine's strategic goal, namely full membership in the European Union." According to the President, the signing of this statement "should mean the same as the signing of an application for entry on the fifth day of the war."

"It took us 115 days to get to the candidacy. And our path to membership should not take years or decades. We must overcome this path quickly. To make our part of the work perfect. To enable our friends in the European Union to accept more quickly and in a consolidated manner for us one historic decision," Zelensky said.

11:17 Deputy head of the OP Kirill Timoshenko said that as a result of a missile attack on the village of Sergeevka, Odessa region, a nine-story house and a recreation center were completely destroyed. In a nine-story residential building, 16 people died, 34 were injured, five of them children. Managed to save eight people, including three children and a pregnant woman. At the recreation center, two people died, one of them was a child - a boy of 12 years old, and five more were injured. Three people remain under the rubble of the base, two of them are children.

11:15 The speaker of the Odesa OVA, Serhiy Bratchuk, said that rescuers had completed the search for bodies in a high-rise building in the Belgorod-Dnestrovsky district. The house was completely damaged on one side, the slabs on the floors were destroyed, the State Emergency Service reported. In total, 150-160 people lived in nine-story buildings. Under the rubble at the recreation center, located nearby, there may still be people.

11:13 In Severodonetsk, Russians are hunting for people who support Ukraine. Fortunately, the vast majority of them were evacuated, Mayor Alexander Stryuk said. According to him, at the expense of the local population, the enemy is trying to replenish the ranks of the so-called "army of the LPR."

It is impossible to restore the city's infrastructure now, there are no regular food supplies to Severodonetsk. People can leave the city in the direction of the occupied settlements, and then get to the free territory of Ukraine.

11:09 The first point for issuing Russian passports has been opened in Luhansk - now you do not need to travel to Russia to obtain Russian citizenship. The "Ministry of Internal Affairs of the LPR" stated that this is the first point for issuing Russian passports in the "republic", but others will appear in the near future.

10:58 For Ukraine to join the EU, it is necessary to adopt a law on the media, reduce the influence of oligarchs and appoint top officials to fight corruption, said the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, speaking via video link to the Rada. She stressed that these important reforms are needed as soon as possible, reports Reuters.

Also, the head of the European Commission said that Kyiv now has a “very clear European perspective”, but the path to EU membership will take time and hard work: “Ukraine is a candidate country for joining the European Union, which seemed almost unimaginable five months ago. .. The next steps are within your reach, but they will require hard work."

10:53 The Russians fired at the Sloboda district of Kharkov, also at night the RF Armed Forces launched a missile attack from Belgorod on the Industrial District, said the head of the OVA Oleg Sinegubov. Currently, active hostilities are going on in the Kharkiv region. As a result of the shelling of the RF Armed Forces, four people were killed.

10:48 The flag of the European Union has appeared in the Verkhovna Rada, Stefanchuk said. Zelensky and Ursula von der Leyen spoke in parliament.

10:40 In Rivne, a member of the "DPR" was sentenced to 13 years in prison, the Office of the Prosecutor General said. The man, having pro-Russian views, at the end of 2015 joined the so-called Legion "Ministry of Emergency Situations of the DPR" Legion for carrying out special rescue operations of special risk. Acting as a detachment commander, he provided armed resistance and illegal opposition to the performance of official duties by law enforcement officers of Ukraine and military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine involved in the ATO / JFO.

10:21 Head of the State Border Service Serhiy Deineko recalled that a visa regime with citizens of the Russian Federation began to operate on July 1: "The visa regime will also enhance the security of our state. Now every Russian will have to justify the purpose of his trip to Ukraine in advance."

10:19 Hungary must radically increase its defense capability, Orban said. According to him, the front line is still far from Hungary, but the situation may change: "We must start the engines and accelerate our defense development program. <...> What will be required is not sanctions, but an immediate ceasefire and peace negotiations."

10:16 British intelligence reports that the Russian army left Zmeinoye because of the isolation of the military garrison and its vulnerability to Ukrainian strikes, and not as a "goodwill gesture." The Armed Forces of Ukraine have been hitting the Russian garrison with missiles and drones over the past weeks. Ukraine has also used anti-ship missiles to stop Russian warships.

10:13 The United States has blocked a trust worth more than a billion dollars associated with Suleiman Kerimov, a Russian oligarch close to Putin. According to the US Treasury Department, Kerimov secretly ran the Heritage Trust and transferred money to the United States through shell companies and foundations in Europe.

10:11 In Mariupol, a new mass grave was found with more than 100 bodies under the rubble along the street. Kievskoy, 53. The occupiers are sorting out the rubble nearby, there is no talk of reburial, said the mayor's adviser Petr Andryushchenko. According to him, the exhumation has actually been stopped, temporary street graves are being turned into permanent ones.

10:07 Russia is the "sponsor" of the split and disinformation, anti-European political movements and problems for the entire continent, Zelensky said, speaking via video link at the 4GamesChangers Festival in Vienna: "One power cannot break the life of everyone in Europe or in the world. This game must How many years have they been saying that Europe should not be dependent on Russian energy resources? and problems for the entire continent."

In his opinion, "the war in Ukraine is a continuation of Russia's long-standing anti-European policy, and every Russian occupier understands this. But do they understand this in Europe?" Zelensky called for "strengthening European unity as much as possible, ridding Europe of dependence on Russian energy resources, supporting free media as much as possible, which work according to journalistic standards. To have something to protect the truth from propaganda. Create effective tools to protect against cyber threats. Strengthen international law with maximum punishment for its violation ".

09:48 In Kremenchuk, as of 09:00 on July 1, six fragments of bodies were additionally found at the site of emergency rescue operations on the territory of the Amstor shopping center. Since the beginning of the work, 28 fragments of bodies have been found, the State Emergency Service said. In total, 19 people died as a result of the missile attack, 62 people were injured, of which 26 people were hospitalized.

09:25 In Sergeevka, Belgorod-Dnestrovsky district, as of 9:00, the bodies of 18 dead were found, including two children, 31 people were hospitalized , including four children and a pregnant woman. Eight more people sought medical attention. Eight people were rescued from the rubble, including three children. Rescue work continues, said the head of the OVA Maxim Marchenko.

09:23 This morning, 17 mortar attacks were recorded in the Esman community of the Sumy region, there were no victims or injured, said the head of the OVA Dmitry Zhivitsky.

09:21 In the Nikolaev area Russians fired at the regional center and the Shirokovsky community today, the head of OVA Vitaly Kim reported. In the city, the blow fell on the enterprise, according to preliminary information, there were no victims.

09:16 The General Staff announced the approximate losses of the enemy on the morning of July 1. The enemy suffered the greatest losses in the Bakhmut direction.

  • personnel - about 35,750 (+150) people liquidated,

  • tanks - 1577 (+4),

  • armored combat vehicles - 3736 (+10),

  • artillery systems - 796 (+6),

  • MLRS - 246 (+0),

  • air defense systems - 105 (+1),

  • aircraft - 217 (+0),

  • helicopters - 186 (+1),

  • UAV operational-tactical level - 645 (+4),

  • cruise missiles - 143 (+0),

  • ships/boats - 15 (+1),

  • automotive equipment and tankers - 2610 (+8),

  • special equipment - 61 (+0).

08:54 In the village of Sergeevka, Odessa region, which Russia fired at with rockets at night, there are already 18 dead, including two children. Wounded and injured 30 people , said the deputy head of the OP Kirill Timoshenko. The rockets destroyed the outer wall of a residential building and the ceiling from the 1st to the 9th floors. At the recreation center, two floors of a residential building were damaged.

08:52 In the controlled territory of the Donetsk region over the past day, four civilians were killed as a result of hostilities, 18 more were injured, said the head of the OVA Pavel Kirilenko.

08:50 Ukraine needs modern missile defense systems to withstand attacks on Ukrainian cities. So far, the Ukrainian defense is more anti-aircraft - that is, it is aimed against aircraft, said Yuriy Ignat, spokesman for the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

He explained that the high-speed X-22 missiles that Russia used to hit the shopping center in Kremenchug are fired far from Ukraine, so enemy aircraft do not enter the range of air defense systems. Once launched, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have a few minutes to process information, but, as a rule, air defense systems cannot shoot down the Kh-22.

08:48 In June, for the first time in history, the United States delivered more gas to the EU than Russia through pipelines. The International Energy Agency reported that EU countries are already preparing for winter and are reducing demand for gas.

08:46 Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Kirill Timoshenko said that Russian missiles hit the village of Sergeevka in the Belgorod-Dnestrovsky district of the Odessa region, which is located right on the Black Sea coast, tonight.

08:44 In the Pervomaisky district of the Nikolaev region, air defense shot down a rocket, it fell on the border with the Kirovograd region, the head of the district administration, Sergei Sakovsky, said.

08:42 The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) notes that the liberation of Snake Island will reduce pressure on the Ukrainian coast, but will not unblock the Black Sea for cargo traffic. Analysts confirm that the enemy's flight would ease Russian pressure on the Ukrainian coast somewhat by withdrawing Russian air defense systems and anti-ship missiles from the island, but the retreat itself would not end the naval blockade.

08:39 In Nikolaev under blockages of the house destroyed by the Russian rocket found one more victim, the total number of the dead increased thus up to eight, mayor Alexander Senkevich reported.

08:36 The Pentagon is considering 1,300 proposals from 800 companies to manufacture innovative weapons for Ukraine. According to CNN, citing a source, the US Department of Defense intends to come up with ideas for the possible production of weapons for Ukraine, as well as for the US military, in the coming weeks. At the same time, the agency is looking only for those manufacturers who can implement projects in 30 days or more complex projects in 180 days.

08:33 The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports that Russian troops have made limited progress in their offensives against the Lisichansk oil refinery and around Lisichansk. Also, the invaders continued offensive operations south and east of Bakhmut and north of Slavyansk, continued their attempts to regain control over settlements north of Kharkov.

Analysts suggest that the limited gains around Bakhmut indicate that Russian forces may soon attempt to set the stage for an offensive on Bakhmut itself, although they are likely to be more focused in the short term on cutting off and controlling lines of communication leaving Bakhmut. ISW also assesses the shelling by Russians of territories near Slovyansk and the city itself as creating conditions for a further offensive on Slovyansk.

08:29 Reznikov announced "good news" from Canada: "Further deliveries of important assets for the Armed Forces of Ukraine - armored combat support vehicles and drone cameras have been announced. Such assistance is crucial for our ability to resist the aggressor."

08:27 The Russians have resumed fighting in the Kramatorsk direction, in the Donetsk direction they are attacking the logistics support areas of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and are also trying to take control of the Lugansk region, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports in the morning report .

08:24 The invaders are storming the Lisichansk Oil Refinery, holding the northwestern and southeastern parts of the plant, said the head of the Luhansk OVA Serhiy Gaidai. In addition, the military of the Russian Federation carried out assault operations in the areas of Topolevka and the northern part of Volcheyarovka and Maloryazantsevo, they are partially successful, they keep a section of the Topolevka-Lysichansk road under fire control. At the same time, the enemy offensive in the direction of Loskutovka - Lisichansk gelatin plant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was stopped and forced to withdraw.

07:55 At night, Russia launched a missile attack on the Odessa region, the missile hit a residential building in the Belgorod-Dnestrovsky district. It is already known about 17 dead (among them one child) and 31 wounded. According to OK Pivden, the strike was carried out by Tu-22 strategic aircraft from the direction of the Black Sea with three Kh-22 missiles (each weighing about five tons). The rockets hit an apartment building and two recreation centers.

04:03 At the entrances to Kiev, checkpoints have been strengthened due to the threat from the DRG from Belarus, said press officer of the National Guard Vladimir Chernyak. In the capital itself, the number of checkpoints has now been reduced, but increased at the entrances and exits to control the situation, combined with a curfew.

03:47 Australia has imposed sanctions against 16 people, including Russian ministers, businessmen and relatives of Putin. Thus, sanctions were imposed against Maria Lvova-Belova, Alina Kabaeva, head of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Dmitry Patrushev, as well as Mikhail, Roman and Igor Putin, Minister of Construction Irek Fayzullin, Minister of Transport Vitaly Savelyev, General Director of Rosgeology Sergey Gorkov, Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Russia Mikhail Klishin and others.

03:31 The Russians, retreating from Zmeinoye, could mine the territory of the island and the surrounding waters, OK Pivden reported. According to the command, completing the emergency evacuation of personnel, the invaders destroyed military equipment, documentation and property. According to updated data, as a result of missile and artillery strikes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, an enemy Tor air defense system, one of the small boats, a trailer with a diesel generator, a radar station and a field ammunition depot were destroyed. And the Russians themselves, during the retreat, blew up the transport-charging vehicle to the Tor air defense system, the Tornado-G multiple launch rocket system and lost a helicopter over the sea.

The OK stressed that the operation continues, ensuring control over the island requires a thorough check and the exclusion of provocations.

00:22 Britain is training several hundred Ukrainian soldiers to handle the new weapons that it supplies to Kiev to fight Russian aggression. About how the training goes - in the material the West teaches Ukrainian soldiers.

Link


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: May 24th, 2022
2022-05-25
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] 23:14 Zelensky said that the situation in Donbas is extremely difficult: "In fact, all the power of the Russian army, which they still have, has been thrown there for the offensive. Liman, Popasnaya, Severodonetsk, Slavyansk - the invaders want to destroy everything there."

23:11 Zelensky summed up the results of 90 days of the war: "15,227 Ukrainians and Ukrainian women were awarded state awards. Of these, 12,550 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 1,801 soldiers of the National Guard. 205 border guards. 182 police officers. situations.99 soldiers of the Main Intelligence Directorate.38 employees of the State Special Communications Service.And also employees of the State Security Department, the Foreign Intelligence Service, NABU, the SBI and the Judicial Security Service, who also contributed to our defense.155 Ukrainians were awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine, of which 75 - posthumously. 1016 settlements of Ukraine have already been de-occupied."

"About 30,000 killed Russian soldiers. More than 200 downed aircraft. Thousands of lost Russian tanks, armored vehicles and their other equipment. The Russian missile ammunition is almost completely used up. And they want to cover this up with a lie that they are allegedly fighting not at full strength? pitiful. And the time will come when they themselves will admit it."

22:59 The United States will not renew a key license for the Russian Federation, which expires on May 25 and which allowed Russia to make payments to American bondholders. This could bring Moscow closer to the brink of default, writes Reuters.

22:56 Zelensky, in an evening video message, announced the need to supply weapons: "The longer this war lasts, the greater will be the cost of protecting freedom not only for Ukraine, but for the entire free world. Therefore, the supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine - multiple launch rocket systems, tanks , anti-ship and other weapons - this is the best investment in maintaining stability in the world and preventing many of the severe crises that Russia is still planning or has already provoked."

22:38 In Liman, Donetsk region, Russian troops either entered the outskirts of the city or captured half of it, Arestovich said on Feygin.Live. Also, according to him, the enemy is advancing in the Dronovka area, east of Liman, and plans to organize a crossing towards Seversk.

22:21 Military analyst, Professor Michael Clark said on Sky News that he expects the complete encirclement of Severodonetsk in the next 1-2 days. According to him, the Russian Federation "puts all its efforts into this particular part of the front."

"The Russians have effectively surrounded Severodonetsk, although not completely. Their northern and southern pincers to the west of the city are 10-12 miles [16-19 kilometers] apart. <...> But I expect they will close their ticks, their surroundings, in the next 24-48 hours," Clark said.

22:09 Zelensky said that on the eve of a special meeting of the European Council on May 30-31, he spoke with its head Charles Michel: "Aid to Ukraine will be a cross-cutting issue of the meeting. We coordinated steps to strengthen sanctions, food security, restore Ukraine and move towards EU membership" .

22:02 The invaders continue to shell Kharkiv and the region, said the head of the OVA Oleg Sinegubov. So, this night, the Russians attacked the city of Merefa with three missiles, one of which was shot down by air defense forces. As a result of the rocket hit, the administrative building of the substation of the Southern Railway was partially destroyed, there were no victims or injured.

Also in the morning, the invaders fired at the Dergachev community, as a result of a shell hit, a trading establishment flared up, a 69-year-old woman died, and another person was injured. In with. Savintsy Izyumsky district as a result of the shelling wounded two people.

21:54 The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that the mine danger in the water area of ​​the port of Mariupol has been eliminated, "the port infrastructure is being restored." For the safe exit of foreign ships from the port of Mariupol from 8:00 on Wednesday, May 25, a humanitarian corridor is allegedly organized in the direction of the Black Sea.

21:51 In Berdyansk, Zaporozhye region, the invaders are introducing a "ruble zone", said the "acting mayor", collaborator Alexander Saulenko. According to him, as early as May 25, the payment of pensions in rubles will begin. The official exchange rate of the hryvnia against the ruble is set at 1:2.

21:49 The Russian occupiers in the last week have significantly stepped up their offensive in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Slowly, but the invader is advancing, creating a threat of encirclement of Ukrainian units in the area of ​​Severodonetsk and Lysichansk. For more details, see What to Expect .

21:26 George Soros said in Davos that Russia's invasion of Ukraine may have been the beginning of the Third World War, so it is important for the West to defeat Putin: "The invasion could be the beginning of the Third World War, and our civilization may not survive it. Best and "perhaps the only way to save our civilization is to defeat Putin as quickly as possible. That's the point."

According to Soros, Putin, declaring that the "special operation" in Ukraine is going according to plan, is already aware that the invasion was a mistake, and is preparing to negotiate a ceasefire. "But a truce is unattainable because it cannot be trusted. The weaker Putin becomes, the more unpredictable he becomes," the billionaire added.

21:22 The situation in the Lugansk region is on the verge of critical , it can be compared with Mariupol, said the head of the OVA Serhiy Gaidai on the air of the telethon. According to him, the Russians are advancing in the Luhansk region in all directions at the same time: they are attacking the Severodonetsk direction, the Gorskaya community from the side of Zolote and Yekaterinovka, near Popasnaya from the side of Kamyshevakhi, Belogorovka. Severodonetsk is “barely alive”, the regional center was bombarded with air bombs, Gaidai added. And the Lysichansk-Bakhmut highway is completely shot through, there are already enemy DRGs there.

21:15 The Russians this afternoon launched a missile attack on the Sinelnikovsky district of the Dnipropetrovsk region. There were no dead or injured, said the chairman of the regional council Nikolai Lukashuk. In the Krivoy Rog region, the occupiers from Gradov and mortars fired at the borders of the region.

20:57 Canada has purchased 20,000 155 mm NATO artillery shells for Ukraine, Defense Minister Anita Anand said. According to her, Canadians purchased ammunition from the United States for $77 million, now they will be delivered to Ukraine as aid. The 155mm shells fit the M777 howitzers that the US, UK and Canada have handed over to Ukraine.

20:51 Ukraine plans to join the EU roaming space and the single payment area in the European currency SEPA, Shmyhal said. The first will allow you to make calls between the EU and Ukraine at no additional cost, as well as use mobile Internet at home rates, the second will allow you to make transfers in euros without commissions.

20:36 Since the beginning of the war against Ukraine in Russia, there has not been a single high-profile diplomatic resignation. Boris Bondarev, an employee of the Russian diplomatic mission to the UN, was the first diplomat to decide on a demarche. More about this story - in the material Shame for the country .

20:22 Podolyak called former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger a "Davos alarmist" who said in Davos that Ukraine would have to make territorial concessions. Kissinger also said that Ukraine must become a bridge between Russia and Europe, and the war must be completed within two months, otherwise its consequences will not be easily overcome.

Podolyak wrote on his Twitter: “Just as easily as Mr. Kissinger proposes to give part of Ukraine to Russia, he would allow Poland or Lithuania to be taken away. It’s good that Ukrainians in the trenches do not have time to listen to the advice of “Davos alarmists.” A little busy, defending freedom and democracy."

20:09 In Europe, there is growing support for a naval operation to export Ukrainian grain, which provides for the escort of bulk carriers by warships, including minesweepers, Estonian President Alar Karis said in an interview with Bloomberg during a forum in Davos. Such an operation, he said, involves sending warships to the Black Sea to escort cargoes carrying Ukrainian grain.

20:06 The Sumy region was again shelled by the invaders, about 15 shots were recorded from the territory of Russia, OK Pivnich reported.

20:04 Russia is preparing for a long war, Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said: “Now their task is to encircle our troops near Severodonetsk, Lysichansk, block the highway. This will allow them to reach the administrative borders of the Lugansk region. risks to prevent this. In general, the actions of the Russian army indicate that they are preparing for a long-term military operation."

According to Motuzyanyk, the situation at the front is extremely difficult: “The hottest thing is in the Donetsk operational area and in the Slavyansk direction. The occupiers are actually hitting with artillery, aircraft around the clock, shelling residential areas. Also, Russia is now looking for new frontiers - from where and where it can launch missile strikes , including from the territory of Belarus".

Motuzyanyk said that the most active phase of Russia's full-scale military aggression is now underway.

20:02 About 10,000 civilians remain in Svetlodarsk captured by the Russians, Pavel Kirilenko, head of the Donetsk OVA, said. He confirmed that the Ukrainian troops left the city, as they regrouped in order to take up more advantageous positions for defense and further actions.

20:01 The war in Ukraine should accelerate EU enlargement, Italian and Croatian foreign ministers Luigi Di Maio and Gordan Radman said at a joint press conference. They clarified that they are talking about the Balkans - North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Albania.

19:58 Polish President Andrzej Duda accused the German government of breaking a promise on an agreed exchange of tanks. "You didn't keep that promise. We are very disappointed," Duda said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

The Polish president recalled that Warsaw had transferred a large number of tanks to Ukraine. According to him, this weakened the military potential, and the country hoped for the support of NATO, the United States and Germany. He added that most of the tanks are German Leopards.

"If Germany supported us, if we received a replacement, then we would be very happy," Duda said, adding that the German government is doing too little to support Ukraine.

19:56 Putin made the final decision on the invasion on February 23 around 15:00, said the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kirill Budanov. Until that time, according to him, "there were still certain hesitations, preparations, and so on." According to Budanov, Putin made the decision personally: "I want to emphasize this. No one had much influence on the adoption of this decision."

The head of the GUR MO said that intelligence knew the exact date, and this information was brought to the top leadership: "Society was being prepared for war, and the main thing was not to sow panic in society. This is exactly what was achieved."

19:53 In Ukraine, on September 1, it is planned to open schools only with bomb shelters, but everything will depend on the situation in the country, Deputy Minister of Education Andriy Vitrenko said. According to him, schools are now being audited to see if they have bomb shelters to ensure the safety of children and teachers. In addition, the school curriculum will be revised, the changes will affect the courses of literature and history.

19:42 In the Zaporozhye region, the occupiers re-captured the head of the Kirillov community Ivan Maleev, as well as his deputy Igor Korobko and the director of the local house of culture Svetlana Shiyan, the OVA reported.

19:39 The Armed Forces of Ukraine are retreating from settlements, in particular from Svetlodarsk, Donetsk region, in order to avoid a cordon or a large number of losses, Viktor Andrusiv, adviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, explained: "Our army implements mobile defense. This means that we do not hold on to specific settlements, but we strive to inflict maximum losses on the enemy while preserving our forces.

19:38 Ukraine is already exporting its electricity to Europe after joining ENTSO-E in mid-March. Thus, in April, electricity exports to Poland increased by 35% compared to pre-war January, Shmyhal said. According to him, by the end of the year, Ukraine plans to expand the capabilities of energy companies and will be able to export about 800 MW of electricity per day to the EU.

19:36 The head of the Kherson OVA, Gennady Laguta, said that 50% of the population left the territory of the region, because people do not want to live in occupation. At the same time, the occupiers and collaborators do not let people out so that they have someone to "work" with.

19:34 Venediktova does not rule out that Russian military Vadim Shishimarin, sentenced to life imprisonment, could be exchanged: "Our scenarios for the development of events can be completely different. I said then that he could be exchanged after the verdicts of the courts. Yes, technically this is possible."

19:27 Orban announced a state of emergency in Hungary, which will allow "immediate response" to the consequences of the situation in Ukraine, writes Bloomberg.

19:25 EU leaders at the May 30-31 summit will not be able to agree on the adoption of an embargo on Russian oil imports, Ursula von der Leyen said in an interview with Politico: "I think this is not an appropriate topic for a decision in the European Council, because what we very technical we are talking about landlocked countries that need alternative pipeline supply so you have to talk about investment in pipelines to increase supply and we are talking about refineries that need to be upgraded as well about investments and renewable energy sources".

19:21 Germany will lose the confidence of its allies if it does not support Ukraine's application for granting it the status of an EU candidate, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said at a meeting with his German counterpart Annalena Berbock in Berlin. According to him, Germany should take a leading role in building a system of security and peace protection in Europe, including Ukraine, but directed against Russia.

19:16 Ukravtodor put up a road sign for the occupiers for a charity auction. According to the highway agency, this road sign is from the Sumy region, so there are bullet marks on it. The starting price per lot is UAH 50,000 or $1,500. The pointer will be sold on June 2 at a charity online auction in the Prozorro.Sales system.

19:14 According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in the Donetsk direction, the enemy today launched air strikes on Kramatorsk, Liman and Slavyansk, and in the Seversky direction - also on military infrastructure in the Sumy region. In the Liman direction, the enemy, supported by artillery and aviation, is conducting an offensive in the direction of Liman. The enemy is also advancing in the direction of Severodonetsk, the fighting continues.

In the Bakhmut direction, the enemy is advancing in the areas of the settlement. Lipovoe and Belogorovka. In the Avdiivka, Kurakhovsky, Novopavlovsky and Zaporozhye directions, the occupiers attacked with assault and army aircraft. In the Yuzhnobuzhsky direction, the enemy launched an air strike in the area of ​​the settlement. Nikolaevka.

19:09 Five people have already died in the Lugansk region today, said the head of the OVA Serhiy Gaidai. Only two people were saved, from Belogorovka.

19:06 Ukrainian defenders destroyed the 58th army of the enemy in the south of the country, which the Russians themselves called one of the foremost in the Russian Federation, the SBU reports, citing the interception of conversations between the invaders. In 2018, this army was re-equipped with the latest weapons and equipment.

19:02 In Melitopol, the Russians captured the acting. director of the Melitopol multidisciplinary center for vocational education Oles Dorokhova, said the Ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova. Dorohova from the beginning of the war, on the basis of the educational institution, organized a center for assistance, which was the only Ukrainian humanitarian headquarters in the city to help the residents of Melitopol and immigrants from Mariupol.

18:56 In the near future, Ukraine plans to sign a "customs visa-free" and an agreement on the liberalization of road freight transport with the EU. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal spoke about plans for European integration at a government meeting.

18:53 The army of Belarus is buying 20,000 tokens for the army. The corresponding tender appeared on the public procurement website. The media note that such tokens are issued only to those who serve under the contract and reserve officers. They are designed to identify the body of a dead soldier.

18:51 Yermak announced during his speech in Davos the creation of an international advisory group that will develop proposals for security guarantees for Ukraine. He will lead this group together with former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Leading figures in the field of security, politics and diplomacy, as well as scientists will be invited to the group.

"Our goal is to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, preparing the future for a sovereign and free Ukraine," the head of the President's Office said.

18:46 Kuleba said that "there are four letters" that can help Ukraine:

  • repel the Russian offensive in the Donbass;

  • frustrate Russia's plans to occupy the Kherson region;

  • stop Russian war crimes in the occupied territories;

  • unlock Ukrainian exports and prevent global famine.

  • These are the letters P, C, Z, O - multiple launch rocket systems (or in English - MLRS - Multiple Launch Rocket System).

18:44 The number of burials in Mariupol is constantly increasing, new locations are being added, Mayor of Mariupol Vadim Boychenko said in an interview with Babel: "The statistics are very sad. During the two years of occupation - from 1941 to 1943 - Nazi troops killed 10 thousand people in Mariupol, and Rashists over 20,000 Mariupol residents were killed during two months of occupation in 2022. And these are very cautious numbers, because we believe that this figure is higher.” According to him, there may be six mass graves in Mariupol.

18:40 Thousands of Mariupol residents who were detained either by the Russian FSB or by the DPR MGB are in prison - in Olenovka or Dokuchaevsk, Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boychenko told Babel in an interview: "The Russians are holding back our civil servants, municipal workers, military. <...> I saw people who passed this camp, these are destroyed people. "

He also spoke about torture and bullying: “There are witnesses who give information about how they were bullied. How they shot guys in the knees and tried to get some information. <…> One of the local leaders sat on a chair for 32 hours - his 32 interrogated for hours, continuously. No toilet, no food, no water."

18:38 The mayor of Mariupol, Vadim Boychenko, spoke in an interview with Babel about the evacuation from Mariupol. According to him, on March 1, the city was already in the ring. The authorities made announcements while communications were working, then it became difficult to inform the population. “Thousands of people began to die. We managed to agree that Mariupol residents would be released without a regime of silence on their own vehicles. The first evacuation was on March 13, and Mariupol residents left without filtering, without lists, without these humiliations. And almost 100 thousand Mariupol residents left for the controlled territories of our states," he said.

As for the evacuation from Azovstal, then, according to Boychenko, "Zelensky and the negotiating group are directly involved in this mission." The mayor is yet to give details.

18:29 Ukraine will begin the phased construction of a narrow European gauge to connect its railway with the European one, said Prime Minister Denys Shmygal. According to him, at first it will be a connection of large hubs and large cities, and then a gradual expansion throughout the country.

18:27 The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced the completion of the "demilitarization" of the port of Mariupol and the release "of sunken ships and other obstacles" of its approach channels and inland waters. According to Moscow, a previously flooded Ukrainian border patrol ship was removed from the port fairway and two floating cranes were lifted.

18:22 The erotic content subscription service OnlyFans transferred funds to the state budget of Ukraine for the first time. The amount amounted to 305 thousand dollars, said the head of the tax committee of the Rada Daniil Getmantsev. According to him, these are the first revenues to the budget from the tax on Google.

18:17 Ukraine will sit down at the negotiating table with Russia after it returns its territories lost since February 24, Zelensky said.

18:14 Stoltenberg is confident that Turkey's concerns about Finland's and Sweden's applications to join the alliance will be resolved.

17:58 The speaker of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Oleg Nikolenko considers it unfair to tie the granting of the status of a candidate member of the EU to Kiev to the progress in the integration of the Western Balkans. "We fully support the European integration of the countries of the Western Balkans, but each country deserves an individual approach based on its own virtues. Granting candidate status for Ukraine and the countries of the Western Balkans does not contradict each other. On the contrary, it should be a complementary process," he said in a statement. comments on European truth.

17:49 Russia held the first joint military exercises with China after the invasion of Ukraine. According to The Guardian, citing a US official, the US government recorded military exercises in northeast Asia when Biden met with the leaders of Australia, India and Japan in Tokyo. Later, South Korea confirmed that two Chinese military aircraft and four Russian combat aircraft entered the air defense identification zone.

17:31 Not a single batch of Western weapons was damaged as a result of shelling of the railway infrastructure of Ukraine, Arestovich said. He added that if it is not necessary to teach the Ukrainian military to use one or another weapon, then it immediately falls into specific units. Otherwise - first to the landfill.

17:22 The Basmanny Court of Moscow has arrested in absentia the head of the Odessa Regional Administration Maxim Marchenko. The investigation accuses him of using prohibited means and methods of warfare. In addition to him, Sergey Baranov, commander of the 44th Ukrainian artillery brigade, was on the list.

17:17 Reznikov told what weapons Ukraine will receive: 155-mm artillery; anti-aircraft self-propelled artillery mounts Gepard; Harpoon anti-ship missiles and launchers for them. At the same time, the minister hinted that this is not all, but "more on that later."

16:50 Orban refused to discuss the ban on Russian oil imports at the summit of EU leaders next week, writes the Financial Times.

16:21 Czech President Milos Zeman did not allow 11 citizens of the country to join the Armed Forces of Ukraine to fight on the side of Ukraine, the press secretary of the head of state Jiri Ovchacek said.

16:13 The Armed Forces of Ukraine have the strength to liberate Kherson, Major General Dmitry Marchenko, who at the beginning of the full-scale military aggression of the Russian Federation commanded the defense of Nikolaev, is convinced. According to him, the disadvantage is that during the occupation, the Russians were able to equip defensive positions in the city and its environs. Therefore, in order for the operation to liberate Kherson to be successful, it is necessary to put forward a whole battalion of Ukrainian forces against a company of Russian military.

16:10 Retired Russian Air Force Major General Kanamat Botashev was shot down and killed in the sky over Ukraine. Information about the death of the pilot was confirmed to the BBC by three former subordinates of Botashev, who kept in touch with him after the end of the service. The publication notes that from open sources it is known about the death in Ukraine of at least 31 Russian military pilots.

16:04 The Russian military fired at the Nikolaev area therefore for the past day 15 people got wounds, the head of a regional council Anna Zamazeeva reported. According to her information, Nikolaev itself and settlements on the border with the Kherson region were shelled.

16:02 UK has no plans to send Royal Navy warships to the Black Sea to help export food from Ukraine, government spokesman says: "Putin's vile blockade of Odessa is hindering access to food for the needy. We will continue to work intensively with international partners to find ways to reopen grain exports from Ukraine. However, there are no plans yet to deploy British warships in the Black Sea."

16:00 The Office of the Prosecutor General revealed the murder of headman Motyzhin near Kiev, Olga Sukhenko, and her family. Eight Russian occupiers are involved in it: five soldiers of the Russian army and three mercenaries from the PMC Wagner, Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova said. According to her, they committed at least 14 crimes, and only three people survived after their torture.

15:54 The authorities of Svetlodarsk, Donetsk region, have confirmed that invaders have entered the city.

15:50 Cyber ​​police detained a pro-Kremlin blogger with an audience of 10,000 in Kiev. According to the police, the 33-year-old resident of the capital regularly conducted streaming broadcasts on social networks, where he strongly supported the actions of the Russian Federation, and also posted propaganda content. He was charged under Part 2 of Art. 436-2 of the Criminal Code (justifying or denying the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine), which provides for up to five years in prison.

15:42 In Mariupol, the occupiers have launched mobile TVs that broadcast Russian propaganda, according to Petr Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of the city.

15:25 The Ministry of Defense presented a training project on the rules of warfare by the Ukrainian army. This is a cycle of programs with the rules of international humanitarian law for military personnel. Compliance with these rules makes the Ukrainian army not only strong, but also civilized, the department explained.

15:22 Promissory notes will be issued under the guarantee of the arrested Russian assets, the proceeds from the sale of which will immediately be directed to the restoration of Ukraine, said presidential adviser Oleg Ustenko.

15:14 The representative of the "People's Militia of the DPR" Eduard Basurin said that the militants of the "DPR" did not enter and do not plan to enter Avdiivka - they intend to block the logistical routes of the Ukrainian forces there and start negotiations. According to Basurin, the problem of Avdiivka is that Koksokhim, one of the largest chemical production facilities in Europe, is located there - the Ukrainian military is firing from there "in the hope that we will destroy their crews with return fire and Koksokhim will suffer at the same time."

“We are going the other way, we have the experience of Mariupol, the Luhansk residents have the experience of Rubizhne, so we will bypass, close logistics, and only after that we will talk with them,” he explained.

15:06 The EU Council has completely abolished all duties on Ukrainian goods - during the year, Ukrainian companies can supply their products to the EU without duties.

15:03 In Odessa and the region, from May 25, a curfew will be in effect from 23:00 to 5:00, said the head of the OVA Maxim Marchenko.

15:01 In Severodonetsk, the Azot enterprise was shelled in the morning, four people were killed, said the head of the Luhansk OVA Serhiy Gaidai. According to him, bomb shelters are located on the territory of the plant. A man in the center of the city was also seriously injured, they tried to help him, but they could not be saved.

14:58 Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who previously openly called Putin his idol and friend, now sharply criticized the head of the Kremlin: "Many say that Putin and I are both murderers. I really kill. But I kill criminals, not children and the elderly. We are in two different worlds." He stressed that Russia is not waging a "special military operation" in Ukraine, but in fact a full-scale war against a sovereign nation.

Rodrigo Duterte is resigning on June 30. During his presidency, he led a brutal drug crackdown that resulted in the deaths of more than 6,000 people, mostly petty suspects.

14:54 The damage to Ukraine from Russian aggression has already amounted to about a trillion dollars. According to Oleg Ustenko, presidential adviser on economic issues, since the beginning of a full-scale war, the aggressor has been destroying Ukrainian assets quite quickly: in the first week alone, damage to assets amounted to about $100 billion. In total, losses for Ukrainian assets reach $650 billion.

“If you look at this figure more comprehensively, then we also have indirect losses - we also lose from lost GDP and underfunded funds. We planned growth at the level of 4-4.5%, which is about $10 billion to GDP. As a result, we have fall. The total cost of damage to Ukraine is about one trillion dollars," he explained.

14:32 Finland and NATO signed a technical agreement on mutual support. The Finnish Ministry of Defense said that the goal is to ensure the effective receipt of military assistance.

14:28 Shoigu said that the Russian offensive in Ukraine is allegedly slowing down “deliberately”: “In order for residents to leave the surrounded settlements, silence regimes are announced and humanitarian corridors are created. Of course, this slows down the pace of the offensive, but this is done deliberately in order to avoid casualties among peaceful population".

14:26 The EU approved the fourth tranche of military assistance to Ukraine in the amount of 500 million euros, Yermak said.

The funds will go to military equipment designed to deliver lethal strikes for defense purposes, according to the press service of the EU Council. This is the fourth tranche of this amount that Ukraine will receive from the EU as part of military assistance.

14:18 Refugees from Ukraine spent at least $2 billion in April, Forbes Ukraine writes, citing data from the National Bank. According to the NBU, 80% of the funds are payment for goods in pos-terminals of the trading network and cashing out.

14:07 Kuleba said that he spoke with Blinken and thanked the United States for its support: "More and more weapons, including heavy ones, are being sent to Ukraine, while Russia continues its devastating attacks in the Donbas. We also discussed ways to unblock Ukrainian exports and ensure global food security".

The head of the Foreign Ministry also spoke about the theft of Ukrainian grain by Russians: “Russian thieves steal Ukrainian grain, load it on ships, pass through the Bosphorus and try to sell it abroad. I call on all states to remain vigilant and refuse any such offers. Do not buy stolen goods. become accomplices in Russian crimes. Theft has never brought good luck to anyone."

13:53 The special services of the Russian Federation use games on smartphones to recruit Ukrainian children in order to lure photos of strategic facilities, the SBU reported. In particular, the Russians used a popular game in which participants must search for virtual prizes. During the route, children take pictures of the area, including critical infrastructure. The application was found in teenagers who photographed objects in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

13:48 The representative of the "People's Militia of the DPR" Eduard Basurin said that the port and water area in Mariupol have been cleared of mines, and in the near future the port will allegedly be able to receive cargo. In turn, the director of the Mariupol Commercial Sea Port, Igor Barsky, told the EP that Russia cannot yet operate the port - to launch it, the water area still needs to be cleared of sunken vehicles.

13:36 Ursula von der Leyen admitted that the seized Russian assets could be used to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war: "We need the participation of everyone. This has already been called the Marshall Plan for Ukraine. And we must attract all opportunities - including, if possible , Russian assets".

13:15 In the Kharkiv region, the railway substation of the city of Merefa is damaged due to a missile attack. According to People's Deputy Dmitry Makisha, the strike was carried out by Iskander missiles fired from the territory of the Belgorod region. There were no casualties, the victims refused hospitalization.

13:09 According to a new KIIS poll, 82% of Ukrainians consider territorial concessions for the sake of peace unacceptable. Of the remaining 18% - 10% of those polled are ready for territorial concessions, and 8% are not ready to answer. Most of all those who disagree with territorial concessions are in the center (85%), the least in the east - 68% of the respondents.

12:57 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a forum in Davos that Ukraine must win the war, and Putin's aggression must be a strategic defeat for him. According to her, Russia launched aggression against Ukraine "according to the manuals of the last century - to treat millions of people not as people, but as a faceless population that can be moved or controlled, or used as a buffer between warring parties, trying to stifle the aspirations of an entire nation tanks."

"Now the question is not only about the survival of Ukraine, and not only about European security - this calls into question the entire world order. And therefore counteracting Russian aggression is a task for the entire international community," said Ursula von der Leyen.

12:45 Head of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev said that Moscow "is not chasing deadlines" in the war against Ukraine - hostilities will continue until the goals set by Putin are met: "We are not chasing deadlines. Nazism must either be eradicated 100%, or he will raise his head in a few years, and in an even uglier form.

12:22 The chances that Ukraine will become a candidate for EU membership in the near future are small. The European Union may limit itself to calling the country a potential candidate, said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. According to him, too many EU members do not like the idea of ​​granting candidate status for Ukraine. In addition, in his opinion, such a quick process would be unfair to the countries of the Western Balkans, which waited much longer for a similar status.

12:11 An audio recording of the conversations between the crew of the still whole Russian cruiser Moskva and the defenders of Snake Island has appeared on the network. The defenders of Ukraine were offered to surrender, and in return they were promised "normal salaries and pensions, apartments and an honest life without participating in another fratricidal war."

12:10 Blinken visited the Ukrainian Institute in New York, after which he said: "Part of Putin's war is an attempt to erase Ukrainian identity. I visited the Ukrainian Institute, an organization that preserves and promotes the vibrant and vibrant culture of Ukraine, to emphasize - the Kremlin's war against Ukraine cannot erase what makes the country and its people so unique."

12:08 During the three months of the war, Russia lost $13 billion worth of equipment in Ukraine. The most expensive destroyed Russian military facility was the missile cruiser Moskva ($750 million), writes Forbes. Also among the expensive losses are the Il-76 transport aircraft (86 million) and the large landing ship Saratov (75 million). Over the past seven days, about $400 million worth of equipment has been destroyed.

12:06 Special operations forces for the first time showed the impact of a kamikaze drone on a Russian tank. At this time, the invaders were drinking alcoholic beverages on the armor of the car. The drone destroyed two crews. The MTR fighters noted that this is the first time they publish such a video in the public domain, but they specified that they use such drones all the time.

12:02 In the port of Mariupol, there is metal left for $170 million, which the invaders are going to take out. To do this, they are trying to partially restore the port, on the territory of which Ukrainian metal and grain are located, director of the Mariupol Commercial Sea Port Igor Barsky told the EP.

12:01 Anonymous hackers declared cyber war on the Russian hacker group Killnet, which on May 16 declared cyber war on the governments of the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Ukraine. And already on May 20, Killnet carried out cyber attacks on the websites of Italian departments, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture.

"The Anonymous Collective is officially waging a cyber war against the Russian hacker group Killnet," the group said in a statement. Anonymous added that it had already hacked and released a list of emails and passwords used by pro-Kremlin Killnet hackers.

11:58 After Finland joins NATO, Russia will talk about the need to strengthen a new section of the border with the alliance, but due to lack of resources it will not be able to do this, says Colonel Esapekki Vehkaoja, head of the intelligence center of the Finnish Defense Forces. In his opinion, in the coming years, the Russian Federation will not be able to take practical steps in this direction, since its army will be weakened by the war in Ukraine.

Vehkaoja also claims that Finnish military intelligence is well aware of what is happening and planned in Russia.

11:54 Until the end of the year, the Ukrainian military should enter the territory of Crimea, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, said in an interview with the UP. According to him, for Russia there are two options for ending the war: a change in political leadership while formally maintaining the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation - then everyone will personally blame Putin for the war, they will withdraw troops from all occupied territories around the world; or the division of Russia into three or more parts, these will be new independent states.

11:52 The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in an interview with MSNBC that it is not profitable for the European Union to abandon Russian oil right now. Since, in her opinion, if Russia cannot sell its oil to the EU, it will redirect it to the world market and bail out large sums there thanks to rising prices. In this case, the complete and immediate refusal of the EU to purchase Russian oil could play into Moscow's hands and bring in big money.

11:49 Since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, the area of ​​the occupied territories of Ukraine has almost tripled. According to Forbes Ukraine, Russia has occupied 20.9% of Ukraine's territory. In general, about 125 thousand square meters are under occupation. km against 43 thousand before the invasion on February 24.

11:42 The war will reach a turning point in August, and the active phase will be completed by the end of the year, Kirill Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said in an interview with the UP. According to him, until August, there will be no weapons in the quantity that the Ukrainian troops need. But from August, the weapons will already be in military units and will be actively used in hostilities.

At the same time, according to his forecasts, the active conduct of hostilities, when entire settlements change hands, should be significantly reduced by the end of the year and be reduced to almost zero.

11:36 The "DPR" said that Svetlodarsk came under the operational control of their forces, "the cleansing continues." It is also reported that the Ukrainian flag was removed from the city hall building and the Russian one was raised.

10:55 Zelensky said during an online communication at the Ukrainian House in Davos that the most pressing humanitarian issues for Ukraine today are the exchange of prisoners, the unblocking of Ukrainian ports and the export of grain, as well as the search and establishment of the whereabouts of Ukrainians illegally deported by Russia.

10:54 Turkey proposes to organize a medical corridor in Ukraine for the evacuation of the sick and wounded from the combat zones. Ankara is ready to take on the relevant obligations for the organization, said the head of the Turkish Ministry of Health Fahrettin Koci at the 75th session of the World Health Assembly.

10:50 In Kropyvnytskyi, a judge ordered a 19-year-old guy who campaigned for the "Russian world" to study the anthem of Ukraine, a section of the Constitution, a song about Bandera and a poem Love Ukraine , said the head of the Kirovograd Regional Council Serhiy Shulga. Also, according to him, "to consolidate the material" the court ordered the defendant to read the story of Nikolai Gogol Taras Bulba and the novel by Anatoly Dimarov And there will be people.

10:38 By unleashing a war against Ukraine, Putin set all the Russian elites against him, the Kremlin is already thinking about replacing him , writes Meduza. The Russian elite and top officials are discussing possible candidates for Putin's successors, but they understand that he will leave only because of a serious illness.

10:35 In Kharkiv, three months after the start of the war, the subway started working again. According to the mayor of the city, Igor Terekhov, at first the trains will run at intervals of half an hour. With an increase in the number of passengers, this interval will decrease. The first week will be free.

10:32 Russian sailors refuse to carry out combat missions due to the emergency state of the ships. According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, due to sanctions, spare parts from Chinese-made household appliances were installed on some ships instead of the original blocks. Now the command of the Caspian flotilla, fearing inspections and prison, hides the facts of the incompetence of the ship's composition and threatens to accuse of treason and sentence to 15 years in prison those who surrender them.

In turn, the sailors of the 106th brigade, participating in the war against Ukraine, refuse to carry out combat missions due to the emergency state of the ships and decided to secretly write letters to Putin and Shoigu, in which they complained about the machinations of the command.

10:25 Due to the lack of people willing to buy Russian oil, about 62 million barrels of Urals are in the sea, Reuters writes.

10:22 Podolyak reports that on the sidelines of the Davos Forum, participants are discussing a ceasefire in Ukraine: "They say there is enough talk on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, isn't it time to cease fire, negotiate with the Kremlin and return to business with Russia. Is this a new virus of blindness? Ukraine does not trade sovereignty so that someone can fill their wallet. The shortest way to end the war is weapons, money, an embargo."

10:01 In Mariupol, during the analysis of the rubble of a high-rise building in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe suburban gas station-2 on Mira Ave., about 200 bodies of the dead with a high degree of decomposition were found in the basement. Due to the refusal of the locals to collect and pack the bodies of the dead, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation left the place of work. The bodies of the dead remained in place, because of the partially dismantled rubble, the smell is heard almost in the entire quarter, according to the adviser to the mayor of the city, Petr Andryushchenko.

He also said that the process of reburial from the yards of high-rise buildings has actually been stopped. The so-called "state corporation" Ritual from Donetsk should deal with the burial. For the “official” free reburial, you need to wait in line, bring the body of the deceased to the “morgue” yourself, saying that the body has just been found, or agree to record a video where the applicant says that the deceased was killed by the Ukrainian army. Due to such conditions, a large number of corpses are stacked in bags in the street in an impromptu "morgue" near the Metro, the city has turned into a solid cemetery.

09:55 The head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, said that planning for the return of US troops to Ukraine in any capacity - including guarding the embassy in Kiev - is still only "at a relatively low level." According to him, these plans have not even reached the defense minister yet, and the final decision will be made by the president. "We're far from something like that, we're still developing courses of action and none of that has been presented to the secretary yet," Milley added.

09:50 The enemy fired at the Zelenodolsk community in the Dnipropetrovsk region from Hurricanes in the morning, the head of the OVA, Valentin Reznichenko, said. They hit Velikaya Kostroma, there is destruction, but people were not injured. In the Shirokovskaya community, the enemy hit the fields.

09:46 Kuleba said that Kiev is not yet receiving all the necessary weapons: “It is too early to conclude that Ukraine already has all the necessary weapons. The Russian offensive in the Donbass is a merciless battle, the largest on European soil since World War II. I urge our partners to expedite the supply of weapons and ammunition, especially MLRS, long-range artillery, and armored personnel carriers."

09:40 During the demining of Azovstal, four Russian sappers were blown up by a mine: one in serious condition, two in moderate condition, and one was slightly injured, Mariupol Mayor's adviser Petr Andryushchenko said.

09:09 The Orthodox Church of Ukraine wants to receive part of the premises of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. The Synod asked the primate to apply to the Cabinet of Ministers with a request to transfer one of the temples of the Upper Lavra and its individual premises for use for worship and monastic activities of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk UOC.

09:03 Estonia transferred a third of its military budget to Ukraine, Podolyak said: “Instead of a thousand promises: in three months, Estonia transferred 1/3 of the military budget to Ukraine - the most in the world. This proves once again: you can be a small country, but have a big heart , but to be second in size, but not to have it at all. A victory for Ukraine will be a victory for the Estonian people as well."

09:01 The American Institute for the Study of War reports that the Russians could capture the northeastern suburb of Severodonetsk - Shchedrishchevo. Russian troops stormed Zolote and took control of the entrances to the city, which allowed them to move north and complete the encirclement of Severodonetsk from the south.

Ukrainian forces have withdrawn westward from Vladimirovka towards Soledar, indicating that Russian forces are advancing westward from Popasna rather than northward towards Severodonetsk. Also, Russian forces took control of Mironovsky, southeast of Bakhmut. This will allow the enemy to advance towards Bakhmut both from the south and from the west. However, it is unlikely that the Russians will be able to quickly capture Bakhmut - "if at all," analysts say.

08:59 The head of the Lugansk OVA, Serhiy Gaidai, announced another hit in the Lisichansk oil refinery.

08:57 British intelligence reports that Russia has increased the intensity of operations in the Donbass, seeking to surround Severodonetsk, Lisichansk and Rubizhne. Currently, the northern and southern directions of this operation are separated by approximately 25 km of Ukrainian-held territory.

Ukrainian forces offered strong resistance, taking up well-fortified defensive positions. The long-established OOS probably retains effective command and control over this front. However, the Russian Federation has achieved some local successes, thanks in part to the concentration of artillery units, intelligence reports.

The capture by Russia of the Severodonetsk pocket will lead to the fact that the entire Luhansk region will be under Russian occupation. Although it is now the main effort of the Russian Federation, this operation is only part of its campaign to seize the Donbass. If the front line in Donbas shifts west, it will lengthen Russia's lines of communication and likely lead to its forces having difficulty resupplying, analysts say.

08:55 The head of the Dnepropetrovsk OVA, Valentin Reznichenko, said that a rocket in the Pavlograd region hit the field.

08:54 The General Staff announced the approximate losses of the enemy on the morning of May 24th. The enemy suffered the greatest losses over the past day in the Severodonetsk direction.

  • personnel - about 29,350 (+150) people liquidated,

  • tanks - 1302 (+9),

  • armored combat vehicles - 3194 (+28),

  • artillery systems - 606 (+2),

  • MLRS - 201 (+0),

  • air defense systems - 93 (+0),

  • aircraft - 205 (+1),

  • helicopters - 170 (+0),

  • UAV operational-tactical level - 480 (+4),

  • cruise missiles - 112 (+2),

  • ships/boats - 13 (+0),

  • automotive equipment and tankers - 2213 (+7),

  • special equipment - 43 (+0).

08:46 Severodonetsk was subjected to powerful attacks by the enemy, four people were killed, said the head of the Luhansk OVA Serhiy Gaidai. According to him, the Russians are chaotically and almost continuously shelling the regional center. Gaidai noted that Russian troops intend to encircle Lisichansk and Severodonetsk. With the support of artillery, they conduct assault operations in the directions of Toshkovka and Ustinovka.

08:36 The French Foreign Ministry said that Macron's initiative to create a European political community is not a substitute for EU membership: "On the contrary, it will help accelerate the establishment of relations with all neighboring European countries, and with those who are candidates, strengthen our support in all spheres with a view to their accession".

The French Foreign Ministry also assured that they welcome Ukraine's application for EU membership and see Ukraine as part of the European family.

08:33 The occupiers launched a missile strike in the Pavlograd region at night, the head of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Council, Nikolai Lukashuk, said.

08:31 The former head of British intelligence Mi-6, Richard Dirlav, said in an interview with Frankfurter Rundschau that Putin could soon leave his post, and Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council, would replace him. According to the expert, the environment will remove Putin and "probably send him to a sanatorium, from which he will no longer emerge as the leader of Russia."

08:29 Britain is negotiating with allies to send warships to the Black Sea to protect cargo ships carrying Ukrainian grain, writes the Times. The coalition will seek to break the Russian blockade in a few weeks by providing a protective corridor from Odessa through the Bosphorus.

08:27 The speaker of the Odesa OVA, Sergei Bratchuk, said that Russia is deploying S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems in the north-west of Crimea in order to strengthen the naval blockade of the Odessa ports. Also in the Black Sea, the maneuvering of ships of the Russian fleet, including those with missile weapons, continues.

08:16 In the occupied territories of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, the Russians opened the first branches of the IRB - the International Settlement Bank, Russian media write. Now communal enterprises and legal entities directively transfer to settlements in this bank. ATMs have also been installed. Later, they will start issuing cards of the Russian payment system MIR, to which salaries and social benefits will be transferred.

At the same time, the MRB began work in the "LDNR", where residents can now issue cards and use ATMs.

07:41 The threat of missile and air strikes against Ukraine from the territory of Belarus is growing, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports in the morning report . In particular, the enemy moved the Iskander-M OTRK division to the Brest region at a distance of up to 50 km from the state border of Ukraine.

In the Slavic direction, enemy units are preparing to resume the offensive. In the southern part of Izyum, Russian forces have deployed additional cannon artillery units. In the Donetsk direction, the enemy is concentrated on the encirclement of Lisichansk and Severodonetsk.

In the Limansky direction, it is not excluded that the Russian troops will force the Seversky Donets River in the Dronovka-Belogorovka section. In the Bakhmut direction, the enemy improved the tactical position in the Vasilievka area. On Severodonetsky - conducts assault operations in the direction of Toshkovka and Ustinovka. In the Zaporozhye direction, the invaders are reinforcing the grouping of troops to resume the offensive in the Vasilyevka-Kamianske area.

07:38 Colombia will send specialists to train the Ukrainian military in demining, said Minister of National Defense of the Republic Diego Molano. 11 military engineers of the army of the Latin American Republic will train Ukrainian servicemen.

07:36 On Sunday, May 22, nine fighters of the Vinnitsa special forces KORD were killed. The regional department of the National Police does not provide details, but there is information that the detachment died while on a mission in the Zaporozhye region.

07:31 In the Nikolaev region, the invaders sent people who tried to evacuate through the mined area, and then shot the survivors after the explosion. Two children were among the dead, OK Pivden reported.

06:25 Satellites recorded Russian ships in the port of Sevastopol, which are likely to be transporting grain stolen in Ukraine. Images from Maxar Technologies dated May 19 and 21 show the Russian ships Matros Pozinich and Matros Koshka, which are moored next to a grain silo. Grain is poured from the belt into the open hold. According to the ship tracking website MarineTraffic.com, both ships have left the port: Matros Pozinich is sailing in the Aegean Sea, while Matros Koshka is still in the Black Sea.

04:33 "Authorities" of the Kherson region will ask to place a Russian military base in the region, this will guarantee its security, said "deputy head of the military-civilian administration" Kirill Stremousov. He also stressed that the Kherson region does not plan to be a separate independent republic, "the goal is to become a subject of the Russian Federation."

03:16 The Russian language, along with the Ukrainian language, will receive the status of "state" in the Kherson region, said the "deputy head of the military-civil administration" Kirill Stremousov.

"The Russian language, along with Ukrainian, will become the state language in the Kherson region. The Russian language will become the main language for office work, communication and all issues of national importance. We do not prohibit the Ukrainian language and will not somehow play some kind of language stories," he specified he added that "the expediency of giving the status of the state language to the Crimean Tatar language, as it was done in Crimea, we will discuss in detail at a meeting with the community."

Link


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: May 13th, 2022
2022-05-14
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] 23:47 The command of the Russian Black Sea Fleet has decided to appoint a new flagship - the frigate Admiral Makarov, journalist Roman Tsymbalyuk said. According to him, a task force of the Black Sea Fleet has now been deployed on Admiral Makarov.

23:41 Ukraine expects to receive 350-360 thousand tons of fuel by the end of May thanks to the opening of new logistics routes, said First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko. According to her, Ukraine has agreed on a reverse pipeline from Hungary.

23:38 From Mariupol and its environs, the Russians deported to Russia and to the occupied territories of the Donetsk region more than 47 thousand civilians, said the mayor of Mariupol Vadim Boychenko. At the same time, he emphasized that we are talking only about confirmed data.

23:35 The head of the Lugansk OVA, Sergei Gaidai, said that Russian troops had practically taken control of Rubizhne, but in Belogorivka they were suffering more and more losses, which is why a whole battalion of Russians had already refused to go on the offensive.

23:29 Zelensky on Azovstal: "We do not stop trying to save all our people from Mariupol and Azovstal. Now very difficult negotiations are underway on the next stage of the evacuation mission - the removal of the seriously wounded and doctors. We are talking about a large number of people. Of course, we are doing everything to evacuate and everyone else, every one of our advocates. Everyone in the world, who can be the most influential mediator, has already been involved in the relevant negotiations."

23:25 Zelensky said that as of May 13, 1015 settlements have already been de-occupied, which is six plus over the past day. "We are returning electricity, water supply, communications, transport, social services there. Of course, we remember every city and every community that is still under occupation. Kherson and Melitopol, Berdyansk and Energodar, Mariupol and all the cities and towns of Donbass ... Gradual The liberation of the Kharkiv region proves that we will not leave anyone to the enemy," the President stressed.

22:46 If the US Senate does not vote for a package of assistance to Ukraine by May 19, the supply of weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine may be interrupted, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said: "May 19 is the day from which, without additional powers, we really will not be able to send materials. By May 19, this will begin to affect our ability to provide uninterrupted assistance." According to Kirby, at the moment the White House has about $100 million left to help Ukraine.

22:41 While Russia continues its invasion of the territory of Ukraine, Western countries continue to impose sanctions against the Russian Federation. And now even representatives of the closest circle of the president of the aggressor country fall under their action. More details - in the material We got to Kabaeva .

22:35 Former NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen believes that Russia's nuclear threat is an attempt to intimidate NATO: "I don't consider these warnings real, so I'm not concerned about threats. This is an attempt to intimidate NATO allies in order to reduce the supply of weapons to Ukraine. Putin knows that if he uses a weapon of mass destruction - be it tactical nuclear, biological or chemical weapons - he will get a decisive response. And Putin will lose. If we allow these threats from Moscow to affect us, then this brutal tyrant will have a decisive argument in conflicts that he initiates.

22:01 Olena Zelenskaya said that more than 200 thousand Ukrainian students are already studying in Polish schools.

21:43 Vereshchuk urged not to exaggerate the influence of world leaders on the situation in Mariupol and prepare for the fact that the result of the negotiations on Azovstal "may not satisfy everyone."

21:19 Russia has put into the sea all six active submarines of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, reports Krym.Realii. According to the publication, the berths in the South Bay of Sevastopol, near which submarines usually stand, are now empty. In addition to mine-torpedo armament, these ships carry Caliber-type cruise missiles - each can be armed with four such missiles.

21:15 The Finnish company Fingrid announced that on Saturday, May 14, Russia will stop exporting electricity "due to problems with receiving payments." Since the beginning of the year, the Russian Federation has accounted for about 10% of electricity consumption in Finland. This volume is compensated without any problems by increasing supplies from Sweden and domestic generation.

21:09 The head of the Luhansk OVA, Serhiy Gaidai, said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are clearing Belogorovka "already on the other side of the river, our defenses are in Kamyshevakh near Popasnaya." According to him, Lisichansk and Severodonetsk are completely under the control of Ukraine, the enemy cannot pass the outskirts of Rubizhne. “The voivodeship, about which they said that it was theirs, is not ours there, but it is not theirs either. And today ours cleared Shchedrishchevo and occupied a normal defense there,” Gaidai added.

He also said that one of the main tasks of the Russian troops in the Luhansk region is to "cut" the Liman-Bakhmut highway: "They are trying to cut it in two places - from the side of Popasna and from the side of Belogorovka."

21:05 "Authorities" of the Kherson region are going to conduct a population census, said "deputy chairman of the military-civil administration" Kirill Stremousov: "If a referendum or some other form of plebiscite is held, then the first thing is necessary: ​​a census of the population of the Kherson region at the moment, then what we are going to do now."

21:02 South Ossetia has scheduled a "referendum" on unification with Russia for July 17.

21:00 The most tense in the Donetsk region is the Liman direction, where the Russian troops are trying to force the Seversky Donets, building pontoon crossings, said the head of the Donetsk OVA Pavel Kirilenko. According to him, the attempts of the Russians to cross led to the fact that today they did not advance, but continued to expose the region to heavy fire: "Maryinka, Krasnogorovka, Ugledar, Avdeevka. The Toretsk community suffered very badly today, and the shelling continues right now."

20:41 Ukrainian artillery disrupts Russia's efforts to advance in the Donbass, a senior US Department of Defense official said, CNN reports. In particular, the official was referring to Russia's attempts to transfer forces across the Seversky Donets River in order to strengthen positions in the north of Donbass.

Also, the Pentagon noted that there is a lot of fighting between Izyum and Slavyansk, but the Russians have not been able to make much progress. However, Russian forces have made some progress west of Popasna.

20:30 As a result of night attacks of Nikolaev five infrastructure objects and more than ten high-rise buildings are damaged, five people were injured, the mayor of the city Alexander Senkevich reported.

20:27 Kuleba, after meeting with colleagues from the G7 countries, said that Hungary undermines the unity of the EU and thus gives Putin a reason to celebrate: "We are all waiting for the end of the drama with the introduction of the sixth package of sanctions by the EU. If this package is introduced without embargo on Russian oil, then I think President Putin will be able to celebrate. Because this will be the first time that the unity of the European Union will be undermined because of the decision of one state - Hungary."

20:24 Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, following his Swedish counterpart, also expressed bewilderment over Ankara's statements about its unwillingness to see Scandinavian countries in NATO, as he had heard completely different words from the Turkish Foreign Minister. At the same time, Haavisto said that he was ready to solve the problem through negotiations: "This process requires patience. These things are always connected with politics. Most problems can always be solved."

20:19 Washington is working to clarify Turkey's position on the potential membership of Sweden and Finland in NATO, said Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried.

20:14 The turning point in the war will come at the end of summer, Kirill Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said in an interview with Sky News: "The turning point will be in the second half of August. By the end of this year, most of the active hostilities will be completed. As a result, we will restore Ukrainian power on all our territories that we have lost, including Donbass and Crimea."

Budanov also said that a coup was already underway in Russia to overthrow Putin, who is seriously ill with cancer.

20:10 Germany will not agree to peace in Ukraine if Russia dictates its terms, Scholz said after a telephone conversation with Putin at an SPD election event: "Russia has not yet understood that peace is impossible if Moscow seizes a piece of Ukraine by military force. Peace is possible only with an agreement, consent, a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia, which is not dictated by the world."

19:38 The Cabinet of Ministers decided to transfer 172 filling stations to Glusco to the management of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine, Shmyhal said. According to him, this will help, among other things, to overcome the shortage of fuel in the country. The prime minister said that there is already a corresponding court decision.

The Glusco network was created on the basis of the former Rosneft gas stations operating under the trademarks Formula, TNK, Golden Gepard, Smile. In 2016, Rosneft decided to sell them to the Swiss Proton Energy group of businessman Nisan Moiseev, who is informally associated with Viktor Medvedchuk.

19:33 Kuleba condemned US Senator Rand Paul, who single-handedly blocked the approval of military assistance to Ukraine: "We could already start using a new US aid package to more effectively save the lives of Ukrainians defending a democratic world. President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, Senate Republicans and Democrats strongly supported, and Rand Paul delayed much-needed support."

19:21 Russia wants to sit down at the negotiating table not only with Ukraine, but also with the West, and conclude a new major agreement, Erdogan's chief adviser Ibrahim Kalin told Türkiye: "The issue is both in Ukraine and not in Ukraine. There is a deeper strategic calculation , which includes Ukraine. It is impossible to end the hostilities and, finally, the war without restoring the right balance here."

According to him, in order for the terms of negotiations to develop, "all parties, including Europe and the United States, must have a constructive position."

19:17 The head of Ukrzaliznytsia Alexander Kamyshin said that most trains from the western regions of Ukraine to Kiev are more than 95% full. According to him, at least 11,000 people return to Kyiv every day by rail alone. At least 10,000 passengers returned from Europe by rail to Ukraine from May 1 to May 11.

In May, Ukrzaliznytsia transported 250,000 passengers, of which only 10,000 were carried by evacuation trains, which is no more than 4%. "As of yesterday, we had 177 people from Pokrovsk to Lviv and 30,000 regular passengers," Kamyshin said.

19:09 Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto hinted at a price of 700-750 million euros, which Budapest would like to receive for agreeing to impose an embargo on Russian oil: "Our oil refining capacities are designed for Russian oil. To process other types of oil, we would have to invest 500 to 550 million euros - it will take about four years To replace the oil pipeline from Russia, we will have to expand the capacity of the Adriatic Sea pipeline, which would mean 200 million euros, and we do not know how long it will take Gas prices in Hungary will increase by 55%."

18:44 Ukrainian military intelligence has data on the deployment by Russia on Zmeiny Island of the Pantsir anti-aircraft missile and gun system and the Tor-M2 air defense system, which should provide Russian short-range air defense, Vadim Skibitsky, a spokesman for the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, said.

18:30 US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with Shoigu for the first time since February 18, the Pentagon said: "Austin called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and noted the importance of maintaining communication lines."

18:27 In Kiev, due to savings, they will not turn on large fountains in the city center and on the Rusanovsky Canal until the end of May. The KSCA explained that ensuring their work is energy-intensive and expensive. At the same time, small local fountains have already been turned on, the maintenance of which is not so expensive.

18:19 In Mariupol, the invaders are interrogating children. According to the mayor's adviser Petr Andryushchenko, during the filtration measures, after the interrogation of the parents in their presence, they begin clarifying the interrogation of the children - they try to catch the parents in a lie.

18:17 Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde was surprised at Erdogan's negative attitude towards Sweden and Finland's membership in NATO: "We have good and constructive relations, and they have not told us anything like that. Neither NATO ambassadors, nor any of the 30 countries presented anything like that. I hope that we can discuss everything, and if we decide to apply for NATO membership, we will receive positive notifications from all countries."

18:11 The Russians are forcibly taking the residents of Popasnaya to the ORLO, said the head of the Popasnyansky district military administration, Nikolai Khanatov. According to him, as of May 8, when the invaders entered the city, 1.5 thousand people remained in Popasna. Everyone who wanted to leave on time had such an opportunity. "Now the invader is coming to the shelter, pointing the muzzle of his machine gun and taking our priests to Pervomaisk and Stakhanov, which have been occupied for eight years," Khanatov said.

18:05 Yermak, in an interview with CNN, said about a test for NATO: "Finland's desire to join NATO is a test for the alliance. We are very happy for our friends in Finland - indeed, this is an absolutely logical step. At the same time, this demonstrates the double standards of NATO "because the whole world has seen that Ukraine has long decided to move towards the alliance, but we do not yet have any concrete answer. Now our courageous and heroic nation has shown that Ukraine's participation and membership in NATO would strengthen the alliance."

17:44 Journalists of the Scheme project (Radio Liberty) noticed on satellite images of the Serpent Island marks in the form of the letter Z and a floating crane that could be transported from Sevastopol to raise the sunken landing craft of the Serna type. These images were taken on May 12 by a Maxar satellite.

17:37 Since the beginning of the war, 1,214 children have been reported missing, said Daria Gerasimchuk, Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children's Rights and Children's Rehabilitation. Another 90 children remain on the wanted list today, and among those who were found, two were dead. In addition, 2389 children were taken to Russia.

16:42 The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine spoke about the intimidation and filtering of the population of the occupied territories. Thus, in the village of Bezymennoye, Donetsk region, during filtration measures, the occupiers offer people monetary compensation for destroyed housing in exchange for agreeing to "testify" against Ukrainian defenders in Mariupol.

In Berdyansk, the occupiers sound an alarm and order everyone to close windows, doors and not leave their homes - this is how the Russians convince the local population that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are going to use chemical weapons in the city.

A group of recruiters arrived in Kherson, which includes FSB officers, officers of the “Ministry of State Security of the DPR” and representatives of the PMC Liga (formerly Wagner) to find people who would agree to work in the special services of the “DPR”. In parallel, demonstrative filtration measures are being taken against the patriots. During the stay of this group, up to 50 civilians were tortured and killed. About 120 residents of Kherson were abducted, their whereabouts are unknown. On May 12, this group arrived at the local pre-trial detention center, where they carried out the so-called "mobilization", firing from machine guns was heard from the premises.

16:29 Ukrainian air defense forces shot down a Russian attack helicopter Mi-28 Night hunter in the Lugansk region, said the speaker of the Odesa OVA Serhiy Bratchuk. Its cost is about 18 million dollars.

16:24 Kuleba at the G7 meeting noted the recent improvements in the supply of weapons to Ukraine, but said that there are two big problems that still need to be solved. The first is the supply of MLRS multiple launch rocket systems, the second is aviation.

16:21 In the Black Sea, the battles for Serpent's Island have intensified recently. The occupiers are trying to reinforce the weakly defended garrison that is located there in order to block the sea, but the Armed Forces of Ukraine regularly deliver pinpoint strikes, destroying enemy equipment and personnel. About the meaning of the island - in the material Battle for the Serpent .

16:03 In Bulgarian Sofia, opposite the memorial in honor of the Soviet army, a sculpture called The Cry of the Ukrainian Mother was installed . As conceived by the author Nedelcho Kostadinov, the monument denounces the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

15:59 The G7 countries at the meeting of finance ministers next week are going to initiate budget support for Ukraine in the amount of almost 30 billion euros on the basis that the war will end within a year, writes Der Spiegel. The amount is related to Ukraine's previously announced need of 5 billion monthly for the functioning of the economy. Assistance will be provided in the form of loans and grants, so that Kyiv will not have to return everything.

15:42 Scholz said that in a telephone conversation he called on Putin for an early ceasefire in Ukraine: "There must be a ceasefire in Ukraine as soon as possible. The claim that the Nazis rule there is false. And I pointed out Russia's responsibility for the global food situation" .

15:30 Kuleba called on the G7 countries to transfer to Ukraine the frozen assets of the Russian Federation for hundreds of billions of dollars. He stated this during a meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Germany: "I urge the authorities of the G7 countries to adopt legislation and carry out all necessary procedures to confiscate Russia's sovereign assets and transfer them to Ukraine so that Ukraine can use this money to restore the country."

15:19 The occupiers are using blackmail and threats to force Ukrainian providers to connect to Russian networks. According to the State Service for Special Communications, this morning, servicemen of the Russian Guard of the Russian Federation seized the premises of the Kherson Status company and turned off all communication equipment. Now they are blackmailing the company's management by taking away all the equipment if they refuse to connect to the Crimean network.

15:11 Zaluzhny showed in action 155 mm howitzers of the M777 type, which the Biden administration provided to the Ukrainian military.

15:07 Erdogan said that Turkey, which is itself a member of NATO, cannot "positively evaluate" the plans of Sweden and Finland to join the alliance: "We do not have a positive opinion on this matter. The Scandinavian countries are like a guest house for terrorist organizations ". The Turkish president was referring to members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party who have taken refuge in the Scandinavian countries.

Erdogan also said that Turkey could use its status as a member of the alliance to veto the admission of new members. Turkey's former rulers "made a mistake" by giving the green light to Greece's NATO membership in 1952, he said.

14:41 Polish President Andrzej Duda said that Russia would be forced to pay indemnity to Ukraine: "We deeply believe that the international community ... will force Russia to pay indemnity simply to restore what was destroyed in Ukraine."

14:39 The head of the European Council, Charles Michel, supported the proposal of the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, to further increase the funding of the European Peace Fund to 2 billion euros for military equipment for Ukraine.

14:14 The Russian Foreign Ministry recommended that Russians refrain from traveling to the UK and from issuing British visas.

14:07 Russian propagandists are forcing unit commanders to withdraw from the front lines and allocate personnel and military equipment at their disposal to participate in the filming of campaign videos and fake "reports from the front line." As Ukrainian intelligence found out, the invaders are forced to dig trenches in the rear areas and imitate the arrangement of advanced positions, fire mortars, tanks and artillery, imitate assault actions and demining the territory.

To create stories, propagandists demand several times to mine and clear the territory already cleared of ammunition. During one of these "demining" at the Arabat Spit, several Russian soldiers received shrapnel wounds and shell shock, which, according to propagandists, only "made the picture more realistic."

13:55 The Japanese company Eneos Holdings, the owner of the country's largest refinery, said it was refusing to purchase Russian oil: "At the moment, we intend to get an alternative from existing trading partners such as Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait."

13:49 Scholz called Putin, discussed Ukraine "with an emphasis on humanitarian aspects," the Kremlin said. Putin also told Scholz that the talks were "essentially blocked by Kyiv."

13:44 Peskov said that Russia does not refuse a meeting between Putin and Zelensky, but "it is impossible to hold it without preparation." According to him, "there is still no movement in the elaboration of a joint document by Russia and Ukraine, there is no response from the Ukrainian side to the proposals of the Russian Federation."

13:41 Great Britain imposed sanctions against Kabaeva, as well as the cousin of Russian President Igor Putin and his son Roman.

13:38 Adviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Viktor Andrusiv said that when the Ukrainian troops reach the border of the Kharkiv region, our multiple launch rocket systems will be able to fire at Belgorod from the Ukrainian border. "Belgorod - get ready," he said and added that "they will soon find out what it's like to run into the basement."

13:35 In addition to 500,000 tons of grain, Russian invaders illegally removed tens of thousands of tons of sunflower oil, hundreds of kilograms of vegetables and agricultural equipment from the occupied territories of Ukraine, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Taras Vysotsky said in an interview with Channel 5.

13:19 Russia has suffered two strategic defeats since the start of a full-scale war against Ukraine - both on the battlefield and at the diplomatic level, Reznikov said.

13:10 Zelensky said that Israel, Turkey and Switzerland are working on the release of the defenders of Mariupol from the besieged Azovstal plant.

13:02 Ukraine does not consider Pridnestrovie as a serious threat, Zelensky said in an interview with Rai 1: "There may be an attack in Pridnestrovie, Russia controls 100% of the people there. <...> There may be up to 15 thousand groups, but it is not very ready. <...> This part of the group, if they go, we are not very afraid of them, because out of these 15 thousand, up to three thousand people know how to fight. This may be a challenge, but we do not see too much threat there."

12:58 Poroshenko, Yushchenko and Kuchma appealed to world leaders with a request to organize the evacuation of the Ukrainian military from Azovstal.

12:57 Zelensky urged Italy to boycott Russian tourists: "Ordinary people who come to rest should feel it. They must be told that the rest in Europe is over, for the occupiers there can be no treatment like other people."

12:51 Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki said that "the Russian world is a cancer that poses a mortal threat to the whole of Europe, so we must completely destroy this terrible new ideology." In response, Peskov called the statement of the Polish prime minister "outrageous, unacceptable and rabid."

12:45 In Russian Omsk, unknown people threw Molotov cocktails at the military registration and enlistment office, local media report. Prior to this, military enlistment offices were on fire in Cherepovets, Nizhnevartovsk, Moscow, Voronezh, Mordovia, Sverdlovsk and Ivanovo regions.

12:40 The head of the Russian government, Mikhail Mishustin, said that due to a sharp increase in revenues from oil and gas exports, the budget revenues of the Russian Federation have grown significantly, which has allowed a quarter to increase spending in four months.

12:37 Podolyak called Russia a country of barbarians and marauders: "There was a" party of swindlers and thieves", it became a country of barbarians and marauders. First - stolen leasing aircraft, then - toilet bowls and underwear. Now the theft of Ukrainian grain for sale to Syria and Lebanon. How low will Moscow fall? Will they steal the medals of Ukrainian veterans?"

12:34 Zelensky on the air of the Italian TV channel Rai 1. said that Putin would not be able to save his face and there would be no future with him: "He needs to think about how to save the country."

He also commented on Macron’s proposals: “Macron wanted to find results in mediation between us. He didn’t find it. And not from our side. He didn’t find it from the Russian side. to save Putin's face... It seems to me that this is not very correct."

12:27 Zaluzhny said that the Russians daily fired from 10 to 14 cruise missiles at civilian infrastructure facilities: "Recently, Russia has resorted to the tactics of massive use of supersonic cruise anti-ship missiles of the X-22 type at these facilities. So, over the past day in Kremenchug oil refinery, the enemy used 12 cruise missiles, two of which were shot down from the Stinger MANPADS. One of the reasons for the enemy to switch to this tactic is the refusal to use aviation, which incurs heavy losses."

12:13 Zelensky, in an interview with the Italian TV channel Rai 1, said that he was ready to speak with Putin personally - "only with him, but without his intermediaries, and on the terms of dialogue, not ultimatums." According to the head of state, the Ukrainian-Russian talks now talk about the withdrawal of the Russian Federation to the borders of the territories occupied until February 24.

The President added that the time when it was possible to conduct a dialogue with the Russian Federation "with wine at the table" is in the past: "There is not wine in this glass, but the blood of our people." At the same time, he acknowledged the need for "pragmatic dialogue": "We understand that peace comes after every war, and if there is a chance to end the war with dialogue, we must use this chance."

11:58 Borrell expressed his conviction that the EU countries will agree on an oil embargo against Russia, despite the current opposition of Hungary.

11:56 The territory of the Lozova community of the Kharkiv region was subjected to a missile attack, Mayor of Lozova Serhiy Zelensky said.

11:51 CNN reports, citing satellite images, that in the Kharkiv region, all three bridges that are critically needed for the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian military have been blown up. We are talking about bridges near the settlements of Rubezhnoye, Stary Saltov and Pechenegy. The publication notes that this can significantly complicate the Ukrainian military crossing the Seversky Donets River.

11:32 The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced that a missile warehouse was destroyed near Kharkiv Shebelinka. Ukrainian rescuers previously reported that in the village of Shebelinka, Izyumsky district, an enemy shell hit a hangar building, causing a fire. Three people died and five were injured.

11:28 The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that on the northern outskirts of Kremenchug in the Poltava region, "high-precision weapons destroyed the production facilities of an oil refinery and tanks with fuel for Ukrainian troops."

11:25 Lavrov said that the European Union has become an "aggressive player", and against this background, "the harmlessness of Ukraine's desire to join the EU raises doubts."

11:22 Sanctions against Russia cannot be lifted until the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from all over Ukraine, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said at a meeting with G7 representatives in Germany: "We must ensure that Putin is defeated in Ukraine, which will not bring him any benefits and ultimately deter new aggression."

11:06 In the occupied Melitopol, license plates with the image of the coat of arms of Zaporozhye of the sample of 1811 and the inscription TVR have been distributed . As the Zaporozhye regional administration stated, this is a direct reference to the Tauride province, and this is "not idolatry, but a powerful information and psychological operation aimed at suppressing the resistance of the local population of the occupied territories."

11:00 Because of the war, almost 2.5 thousand Ukrainian babies were born in Poland, said Deputy Health Minister Waldemar Kraska. According to him, more than 200 Ukrainian mothers with newborns and Ukrainian women in the last stages of pregnancy are now in Polish hospitals.

10:53 If Gazprom does not fill the underground gas storage in Austria, the country will block its access there, said Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer. At present, the gas storage facility in Heidach (Salzburg) has a zero filling level. "If it is not filled, we will consider measures to have it filled," Nehammer said. According to him, this is not about nationalizing the repository, but about transferring access to it to another provider. The storage facility in Haidach is strategically important for Germany and the western lands of Austria, and its occupancy is a matter of their energy security.

10:50 Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia, the SBU has exposed 13 representatives of foreign media who prepared custom materials for Kremlin propagandists and published disinformation from the fronts. They are banned from entering Ukraine for a period of three years.

Since February 24, the SBU has also neutralized more than ten bot farms with a capacity of over 100,000 fake accounts, exposed hundreds of Internet agents, and blocked more than 5,500 accounts.

From the latest special operations - the exposure of an extensive intelligence network of the special services of the Russian Federation, which was led from the Crimea. It included pseudo-journalists and so-called "experts" who received money from Russian curators.

10:46 The General Staff announced the approximate combat losses of the enemy on the morning of May 13. The enemy suffered the greatest losses in the Kurakhov direction.

  • personnel - about 26,900 (+250) people liquidated,

  • tanks - 1205 (+10),

  • armored combat vehicles - 2900 (+27),

  • artillery systems - 542 (+8),

  • MLRS - 193 (+2),

  • air defense systems - 88 (+1),

  • aircraft - 200 (+1),

  • helicopters - 162 (+1),

  • UAV operational-tactical level - 405 (+7),

  • cruise missiles - 95 (+1),

  • ships/boats - 13 (+0),

  • automotive equipment and tankers - 2042 (+23),

  • special equipment - 41 (+0).

10:42 Kharkiv was bombed with cluster bombs on the orders of the general who commanded the assault on Aleppo. Behind the attack, as it turned out, is the 79th rocket and artillery brigade, subordinate to Colonel General Alexander Zhuravlev, CNN reports.

10:40 Ukraine will fight for Snake Island for as long as it takes, said Kirill Budanov, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense. He explained that the island is of strategic importance for both Ukraine and Russia, since it allows to control the surface and, to a certain extent, the air situation in southern Ukraine.

Also, Snake Island is strategically important from the point of view of the possibility of a tactical amphibious landing by Russia. According to the major general, theoretically this is the only region through which the Russians can try to land troops in Transnistria.

In addition, Snake Island is "a strategically important point to open trade sea routes, bring weapons to us and exclude any possible military actions of Russia on the territory of the "MRT", from which they can attack the western part of Ukraine." "Whoever controls the island can at any time block the movement of civilian ships in all directions to the south of Ukraine," Budanov explained.

10:32 Borrell said that the EU intends to allocate an additional 500 million euros for military assistance to Ukraine, thus bringing it to 2 billion euros.

10:30 In Kiev, the court will begin hearings on the country's first war crimes case - Russian serviceman Vadim Shishimarin is accused of killing a civilian. The defendant, a 21-year-old commander of one of the units of the Kantemirovskaya tank division, fought in the Sumy region. He is accused of killing an unarmed 62-year-old resident in the village of Chupakhovka, who was riding a bicycle and talking on the phone. Shishimarin faces 10 to 15 years in prison or life imprisonment.

10:23 On the night of May 13, the Russian invaders launched a missile attack on the Dergachev House of Culture, where humanitarian aid was stored and issued to the civilian population, the Dergachev City Council of the Kharkiv Region reported. As a result, aid will not be issued today.

10:18 There are now four ships and two submarines of the Russian Federation with more than 30 Kalibr cruise missiles in the Black Sea, OK Pivden reports.

10:14 In Kiev, the curfew will be reduced by one hour: starting from Sunday, May 15, it will operate from 23:00 to 05:00, Klitschko said. Also, from May 16, public transport in the capital will work longer: the metro - from 06:00 to 22:00, ground transport - from 06:00 to 22:30.

09:47 In Pridnestrovie, unknown people tried to set fire to an oil depot and a military registration and enlistment office with the help of a Molotov cocktail, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported.

09:44 In the Luhansk region, the enemy gave up all efforts to break through the defense, two thousand units of enemy equipment were seen passing through the day, said the head of the OVA Serhiy Gaidai. According to him, the Russians are storming Rubezhnoye, Zolote, Nizhne, the outskirts of Severodonetsk. The invaders are again trying to throw a pontoon across the Seversky Donets. "It seems that today will be Belogorovka 5-0," Gaidai said.

According to him, in the region, most of the settlements are destroyed by 70%, and those under occupation - even more.

09:33 Zaluzhny spoke with the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, and assured him that strict accounting and control over the use of the provided material resources was being maintained: "We are ready to share all the materials with the United States Embassy as soon as it returns to Ukraine."

09:11 EU member states admit that the oil embargo against Russia will be postponed in order to adopt other sanctions, since Hungary is still blocking it, writes Bloomberg. The EU wants to reach a consensus by the end of the week, but opinions are already being heard about removing the oil embargo from the sixth round of sanctions. Some countries oppose this as it would be "a sign of weakness" and a fragile EU unity.

09:08 The Russians are actively using the air base in the occupied Melitopol. According to CNN, citing satellite imagery, there were at least seven helicopters at the airbase on May 12 in the afternoon, while on May 7 there was one helicopter.

09:04 In four days, the invaders lost or abandoned 73 units of military equipment as a result of an unsuccessful crossing of the Seversky Donets River in the Belogorovka area, a BlueSauron investigator reported, citing satellite images.

08:59 In Russia, covert mobilization goes in two ways, said the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Kirill Budanov: "The first is the actual mobilization, and the second is the use of reservists. They call it BARS - the country's combat army reserve, that is, according to in fact, reservists who are involved in combat operations on short-term contracts. These facts are absolutely confirmed, we have prisoners who were involved in this system. "

08:45 British intelligence reported that Russia is making significant efforts in the area of ​​​​Izyum and Severodonetsk, trying to achieve a breakthrough to Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. The primary task in this direction is to encircle the Ukrainian forces in the JFO zone in order to cut off reinforcements from the west.

Ukrainian forces prevented an attempt to cross the Seversky Donets west of Severodonetsk (we are talking about Belogorovka). During the crossing, Russia lost armored vehicles and a pontoon ferry. Russian troops failed to achieve any significant successes, despite the concentration of forces in the area.

08:41 In Mariupol, the invaders, under cover of shelling, are trying to break through the ground into the Azovstal plant, Petr Andryushchenko said. According to him, the situation is getting more complicated day by day.

08:36 Vereshchuk spoke about the evacuation from Azovstal: “We started a new round of negotiations around the special operation roadmap. We start with the seriously wounded. There is the Red Cross, they met with the Russians. We held negotiations with them, as well as with the UN, and gave them a mandate. We we want the document to be signed: how exactly the evacuation from Azovstal will take place, we are preparing for signing." The Deputy Prime Minister specified that Turkey agreed to act as a mediator in the current round of negotiations.

08:29 The American Institute for the Study of War reports that Russian troops have advanced slightly north of Severodonetsk and have probably captured Rubizhne and Voevodovka. They also fired heavily on Ukrainian positions north of Kharkiv to stop the ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Russian forces are fortifying their position on Serpent Island to block Ukrainian sea lanes and capabilities in the northwestern Black Sea on the outskirts of Odessa.

08:27 On the outskirts of Severodonetsk, a large automobile bridge across the Borovaya River was blown up, said the governor of the Lugansk region, Sergei Gaidai.

08:26 Ukroboronprom announced that it had repaired and restored captured Russian military equipment for a total of UAH 1.5 billion.

08:22 On the evening of May 12, the Russian military fired artillery at a convoy of refugees that was leaving the Kherson region, said Alexander Vilkul, head of the military administration of Krivoy Rog. Civilians who were moving from the side of Berislav suffered.

Vilkul said that the occupants gathered refugees in the morning, kept about a thousand cars under the scorching sun, and began to release only in the afternoon in batches of 200 cars to cover the movement of their own military equipment. At 16:00, they attacked the convoy, which was already in the controlled territory in the area of ​​Belaya Krinitsa.

08:21 In the Kharkiv region, an enemy shell hit a hangar building. Three people were killed and five others were injured, the State Emergency Service said.

08:12 Since the beginning of the invasion, Russia has fired more than 2,100 missiles at Ukraine, said Ukraine's envoy to the UN Serhiy Kislitsa.

07:39 In the border areas of the Bryansk region of the Russian Federation, the enemy is pulling additional artillery units to build up provocative attacks, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in the morning report .

In the Donetsk direction, the enemy is trying to establish full control over Rubizhne. In the Limansky direction - to gain a foothold in the Aleksandrovka area. In the Bakhmut direction, the invaders conducted unsuccessful assault operations in the direction of Orekhovo and in the Kamyshevakhi region. On Kurakhovsky - they advanced in the direction of Maryinka.

Artillery and air strikes on Mariupol continue. The main efforts of the enemy are focused on blocking Ukrainian troops in the area of ​​the Azovstal plant. "The enemy is using strategic aviation. Taking into account the measures to evacuate local residents, we should expect an increase in fire impact in the near future," the General Staff stressed.

04:45 Japan bans the export of high-tech goods to Russia, such as 3D printers, quantum computers and electron microscopes.

03:58 AFU shot down the newest Russian ship Vsevolod Bobrov, when the ship was trying to deliver an air defense system to Snake Island, Arestovich said. He clarified that Vsevolod Bobrov is a logistic support ship of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Federation. Previously, the ship was damaged, but not sunk.

01:13 US Republican Senator Rand Paul has blocked the provision of another $40 billion in aid to Ukraine - he wants an inspector general to control spending, writes The Washington Post. The fast track vote in the Senate required a unanimous decision (100 votes), and this one-man block means the House will not approve the measure this week. Biden wanted the bill on his desk by the end of this week.

00:47 Sberbank believes that a cyber war has been declared on Russia, the number of participants in cyber attacks exceeds 100 thousand people.

00:11 Ukraine has spent $8.3 billion on military needs since the beginning of the war, Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko said. According to him, the Ministry of Finance partially took these funds from the budget for development. Marchenko also said that in April Ukraine received 60% of the planned tax revenues, and in May and June these revenues are estimated at 45-50% of the previously planned.

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Economy
Russia duped Europe into energy dependence by funding 'rabid environmental groups': experts
2022-03-16
[Fox] Expert James Carafano: 'Russians actually fund some of the most rabid environmental groups in Europe'

For years, world leaders have accused Russia of funding environmental groups in Europe to steer nations away from energy independence and strengthen Russia’s iron grip over the continent. As nations across the globe begin shunning Russian oil in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. leaders are also questioning how deep Russia’s ties go in the environmental community.

"The Russians actually fund some of the most rabid environmental groups in Europe because they sic them on the energy projects that aren’t Russian," James Carafano, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital in a recent phone interview.

Back in June 2014, just months after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, European leaders sounded off that Russia was using disinformation operations with environmental groups to steer countries away from fracking in favor of Russian oil.

"I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called non-governmental organisations - environmental organisations working against shale gas - to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas," Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former prime minister of Denmark and then-secretary-general of NATO, said, according to the Guardian.

NATO’s press office passed the remarks off as Rasmussen’s personal views, but one NATO official sounded the alarm that Russia’s grip on Europe was tightening.

"We don't go into the details of discussions among allied leaders, but Russia has been using a mix of hard and soft power in its attempt to recreate a sphere of influence, including through a campaign of disinformation on many issues, including energy. In general, the potential for Russia using energy supplies as a means of putting pressure on European nations is a matter of concern. No country should use supply and pricing terms as tools of coercion," the NATO official told the Guardian in 2014.

Environmental groups have meanwhile feverishly denied any ties to Russia.

"The idea we’re puppets of Putin is so preposterous that you have to wonder what they’re smoking over at NATO HQ," Greenpeace told the Guardian in 2014.
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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Has Russia Been Financing Western Environmentalism?
2022-03-16
[Gatestone] Have Western environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), movements and parties been possible, even unwitting, collaborators with the Russian government for the last ten years?

This question arises from a recent report by the Foundation for Political Innovation (Fondapol) in Paris. Fondapol's director, Dominique Reynié, said in a recent interview:
"We have found Gazprom funding in particular environmental NGOs, which furnished certain European countries with ministers -- Belgium for example -- who then evidently embarked on a sort of return of favor by defending an exit from nuclear power."

These allegations are not new.

The Guardian, already in 2014, quoted NATO's then Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, making the following accusation:
"I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called non-governmental organisations - environmental organisations working against shale gas - to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas."

Below Europe's soil lie large reserves of shale gas, also known as bedrock gas. The exploitation of these natural gas reserves would have substantially reduced Europe's purchases of, and dependence on, Russia's gas -- in particular on its gas giant, Gazprom. The same is true of nuclear power, which offers Westerners an abundant, non-CO2-emitting energy source as an alternative to Russian gas.

Hence the interest, for the Russian government, in mounting a vast disinformation campaign against shale gas and nuclear power in the West, by massively financing the groups most likely "naturally" to oppose it: environmentalist organizations.

On June 29, 2017, two of America's leading federal lawmakers on energy issues, US Representatives Randy Weber and Lamar Smith , sent a letter to then-Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, demanding an investigation into the funding of US environmental organizations by the government of the Russian Federation. According to The Hill:
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Europe
Former NATO Chief: The United States Should Be the World's ‘Policeman'
2016-10-01
[Free Beacon] Anders Fogh Rasmussen was prime minister of Denmark from 2001 to 2009, and months later began serving as NATO secretary general until 2014. He is currently promoting his new book, The Will to Lead: America’s Indispensable Role in the Global Fight for Freedom. The Washington Free Beacon interviewed Mr. Rasmussen during a visit this week to Washington D.C.
An entire book devoted to how and why the U.S. should assist Europe? Perhaps I'll see it at a garage sale.
Washington Free Beacon: What motivated you to write The Will to Lead?

Anders Fogh Rasmussen: Two things. First of all, I realized during my terms as prime minister of Denmark, and not least as secretary general of NATO, that we need more determined American global leadership. And secondly, something that’s even more personal. Right from my childhood, I have been very much engaged in the transatlantic relationship. So I’ve always had a strong interest in what’s going on in America. For these two reasons, even before I left my post as secretary general, I decided that once I was released from my duties I would spend time writing this book.
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