Officials appointed by the government in Moscow said that Ukrainian shelling caused the deaths of at least 27 people and injured 25 at a market near Donetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine that is controlled by Russia.
Two children were hurt in the neighborhood called Tekstilshchik, according to Denis Pushilin, who is in charge there.
Officials in Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv, did not give a response to the situation, and The Associated Press could not confirm the claims on their own. Both sides have been using longer-range attacks more often this winter. The front line in the war has not changed much in the past two years, and it covers a distance of 1,500 kilometres (930 miles).
The bombs were shot from Kurakhove and Krasnohorivka towards the west. Pushilin said that the emergency services went to help.
The United Nations The U. N’s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly disapproves of all attacks on innocent people and buildings, including the recent shelling of Donetsk in Ukraine. The spokesperson said that these types of attacks are not allowed by the rules of international humanitarian law.
Donetsk is a place in Ukraine that Russia took over without permission in 2022. This happened after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the Ukraine was responsible for the attack and called it a terrorist attack.
Also on Sunday, there was a fire at a chemical transport terminal in Russia’s Ust-Luga port after two explosions, according to local officials. The local news reported that the Baltic Sea port is 165 kilometers (about 100 miles) southwest of St. Petersburg was attacked by drones from Ukraine and it caused a gas tank to explode.
The fire was at a place owned by the second biggest company in Russia that gets natural gas, called Novatek.
The company told a Russian news outlet that the fire was caused by something outside of their control, and that work at the port had stopped.
Yuri Zapalatsky, the leader of the Kingisepp district by the Gulf of Finland where the port is, said no one got hurt but everyone is being extra careful.
The Fontanka news outlet said that they spotted two drones flying towards St. On Sunday morning, the group was supposed to go to Petersburg but had to go to the Kingisepp district instead. AP could not check the reports by itself.
Russia’s military did not say there were any drones flying in the Kingisepp area in its daily report. It was reported that four Ukrainian drones were taken down in Russia’s Smolensk region, and two more were shot down in the Oryol and Tula regions.
Russian officials said that they shot down a Ukrainian drone near St. On Thursday in Petersburg.
In a battle in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry said their forces have captured a village called Krokhmalne in the Kharkiv region. Ukrainian soldiers said the town had been taken over, but they think it won’t last long.
Volodymyr Fityo, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Ground Forces Command, said that the troops from Kyiv were moved to backup positions from the village, which used to have about 45 people before the war started.
Ukrainian news outlet Hromadske reported that he said there are five houses. “We want to protect the soldiers in Ukraine and keep them safe. ”
Lately, Russia has been launching a lot of missiles and drones at Ukraine to try and find weak spots in their defense. They are using so many that it seems like they are trying to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defense systems.
A lot of drones and missiles were launched in December. On January 29th. According to officials in Kyiv, the fighters are also using up Ukraine’s weapons.
Tag: Donetsk
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At least 27 people dead in attack on Donetsk in Russian-occupied Ukraine
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Russia: 2 dead, 12 injured after shelling in Donetsk
Officials in the eastern Ukraine province of Donetsk, which is seized by Russia, report that two people have died and 12 have been injured as a result of shelling.
“Twelve civilians were wounded to varying degrees of severity in the Petrovsky and Leninsky districts of Donetsk, Yasinovataya,” the Donetsk People’s Republic said in a statement.
Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian territories that Moscow unlawfully annexed last year and has been held by separatists with Russian support for eight years.
Destroyed #Russian tank
— Cloooud |🇺🇦 (@GloOouD) April 30, 2023
Location: East of Ukraine (#Donetsk region)
100 Territory Defence of Volyn🥰❤️ pic.twitter.com/AaEgiNQRMyThis past weekend, there were a flurry of purported Ukrainian strikes. The local governor reported that two civilians were murdered in a village in the Bryansk area of Russia as a result of Ukrainian shelling.
Meanwhile, two civilians have died in a village in Russia’s Bryansk region following Ukrainian shelling, the local governor Alexander Bogomaz said.
One residential building had been completely destroyed and another two houses were partially damaged, he said.
The Bryansk region shares a border to its south with Ukraine and to its west with Belarus.
⚡️The Armed Forces of Ukraine shelled the village of Suzemka in the Bryansk region, Russia. pic.twitter.com/xQkqvuevHl
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) April 29, 2023On Saturday, officials in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine reported attacks. A suspected drone triggered a fire in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol while the southern Ukrainian town of Nova Kakhovka came under “severe artillery fire.”
The news comes amid warnings from Ukraine that its preparations are almost complete for a spring counter-offensive that many experts believe could mark a pivotal moment in the conflict.
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Ukraine: Two Britons gone missing in Donetsk – Ukrainian police have said
The men, aged 28 to 48, were doing volunteer work and were last seen on Friday on their way to Soledar, where fighting has been fierce in recent days.
There has been no contact with them since then.
A Foreign Office spokesman said it was “supporting the families of two British men who have gone missing in Ukraine”.
The police department in the city of Bakhmut said they received a missing person’s report at 17:15 local time on Saturday, while appealing for any information that could help locate the two men.
Source: BBC.com -
‘Intense combat’ in Donetsk: UK defence ministry
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has said heavy fighting is taking place in Pavlivka and Vuhledar, two towns in eastern Donetsk province. There has been intense combat in the area over the last two weeks, it said.
“This area remains heavily contested, likely partially because Russia assesses the area has potential as a launch point for a future major advance north to capture the remainder of Ukrainian-held Donetsk Oblast,” the ministry said.
“However, Russia is unlikely to be able to concentrate sufficient quality forces to achieve an operational breakthrough.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 27 November 2022
Find out more about the UK government’s response: https://t.co/wQFhk7Fvrq
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/ZWsADrjj3l
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) November 27, 2022
Source: Aljazeera.com
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Tracking the war with Russia : Ukraine in maps
Two days after the only bridge connecting Russia with the annexed Crimea was broken in an explosion, Russia fired missiles at various Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv.
Here are the latest developments:
- Missile strikes have been reported in cities including Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, and Zaporizhzhia, in what appears to be the most widespread set of Russian attacks since the early weeks of the war
- Russia has partially reopened the bridge linking it to Crimea, which is an important supply route for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine
- Ukrainian troops have continued to progress after breaking through Russian defences in the southern Kherson region
- In Donetsk, Ukrainian forces are pushing east, having taken the town of Lyman
Ukrainian cities hit in missile strikes
At least 12 Ukrainian cities have been hit in missile strikes two days after a strategically important bridge linking Russia with Crimea was damaged in a blast.
Kyiv has been targeted for the first time in months, but explosions have also been reported in Ternopil and Lviv in the west, which has so far escaped the worst of the war.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia has targeted energy infrastructure across the country and that energy facilities in Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv are among the places hit.
Ukraine’s military commander says Russia launched 83 missiles in total.
It comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine’s security services of attacking the Kerch bridge – although Ukrainian officials have not indicated whether their forces were behind the attack.
The 19km (12-mile) bridge, the longest in Europe, is an important supply route for Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.
Russia has used the bridge to move military equipment, ammunition, and personnel from Russia to battlefields in southern Ukraine.
Mr Putin described the blast as an “an act of terrorism aimed at destroying Russia’s critical civilian infrastructure”.
Russian authorities partially reopened the roadway part of the bridge hours after the attack but for light traffic only.
The railway part of the bridge – where oil tankers caught fire – has also reopened.
Ukrainian breakthrough in the south
Ukrainian troops have continued to advance after breaking through Russia’s defences on the west bank of the Dnieper River in Kherson.
They have retaken the village of Dudchany and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says Ukrainian sources report that Russian occupation authorities are moving their families from the Kherson region to Crimea.
Ukrainian troops have been attacking bridges, ferries and pontoons in recent weeks, attempting to make Russian positions on the west side of the river unsustainable, and thereby force a withdrawal.
Also in the south, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has called for the demilitarisation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Russian and Ukrainian sources have accused each other of shelling close to the plant, which is Europe’s biggest nuclear facility.
Russia’s military took over the power station in early March, but it is still being operated by Ukrainian staff.
Intense fighting in the east
Ukrainian troops took control of the key logistical hub of Lyman in Donetsk more than a week ago and have continued to push further east towards the region of Luhansk.
The ISW says they have “made substantial gains” in the area.
Russian reports suggests their next target may be the city of Kreminna.
Analysts say the loss of Lyman is a major set-back for Russia.
Russian forces have been trying to push forward in Bakhmut, but reports suggest they have been repelled by Ukrainian troops.
The latest fighting follows a major Russian defeat in the east.
Ukraine says it recaptured 6,000 sq km (2,317 sq miles) of territory from Russia in early September, when it forced back Russian units in the Kharkiv region.
Russian troops withdrew from the key towns of Izyum and Kupiansk, saying that the retreat would allow its troops to “regroup”.
Both towns were major logistical hubs for Russian forces in Donbas.
Annexation of four regions
Four regions of Ukraine, that are partially or almost completely occupied by Russia are being annexed by the Russian Federation.
It follows self-styled referendums in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, held between 23 and 27 September.
President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia will use “all the forces and resources” it has to “liberate” the four regions.
In an address to the Russian people, Mr Putin said his country had “various weapons of destruction”, adding: “I’m not bluffing.”
The annexations follow a “partial mobilisation” of about 300,000 Russian reservists.
Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, but Ukrainian forces retook large areas around Kyiv in early April after Russia abandoned its push towards the capital.
Areas in the west of the country, including Lviv, have seen missile attacks but no attempt by Russian forces to take and occupy ground.
The Russians have suffered heavy losses since the invasion began and significant quantities of Russian weaponry have also been destroyed or captured.
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Ukraine war: Liberating towns is a shot in the arm for Ukrainian troops
Oleksii tells me: “I feel safe here because we are on our land and even the ground will bring me help.” That’s despite the nearby sound of small-arms fire, exploding artillery shells landing within sight, and the roar of Russian jets overhead.
The ground he and the small team of Ukrainian troops now occupy is on the border of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The same ground that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently declared as being Russian forever.
Over the past week, the men of Ukraine’s D1 National Guard Unit have advanced more than 20km (12 miles) east of the recently liberated city of Lyman in the Donetsk region. They now occupy a former Russian position in a wood – still within range of the retreating Russian army. Part of “forever Russia” is already back in Ukrainian hands. Russia’s now the defending army.
The reversal in fortunes has been a shot in the arm for Ukrainian troops. There’s a palpable sense of confidence among them, even though they’re still within range. Ilya, another member of the unit, tells me: “We can retake territory, but the Russians cannot.” I ask why? “Because they are weak now, they’re scared of us, they’re running from us.”
This position also tells a story about the difference between Ukrainian and Russian discipline and morale. Strewn across the ground and hanging in trees are remnants of the retreating Russian forces – empty cans, ration packs, boots, bottles, and clothes.
Ilya picks up a discarded Russian helmet and compares it with his own. “Army of the future,” jokes Ilya as he taps the Russian helmet. “A very bad future,” adds a comrade, laughing.
It’s not that dissimilar to what Russian troops would have worn in World War Two. They hold up a Russian winter glove and read the label. It says it was made in 2005. “New for Russians,” they joke. Another soldier called Duke says Russia treats its soldiers like meat.
Oleksii says discarded Russian trash often gives away their positions when they fly their small drone. They rely on one of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite kits for communication. They say it’s been working all week.
As you drive around the Donbas there are more signs of Russia’s depleted army. We witnessed Ukrainian forces towing away a troop carrier and a large self-propelled gun – both still marked with the Russian “Z”.
Image caption, Some of the collected, discarded materiel the Russian leave behind Ukraine’s now captured more Russian armour than it’s been supplied by the West. Dozens more burnt-out military vehicles, too damaged to salvage, have been left rusting on the sides of roads. Boxes of unused ammunition are collected to be used against their former owners. The Donbas is also still littered with lethal mines – which will take years to clear.
Any sense of euphoria among Ukrainian troops is not always shared among the people they’ve freed from Russian control. Liberation comes with a costly legacy.
Those who survived the shelling are wondering how they’ll make it through the winter. Tens of thousands of people are without power and running water.
In Lyman we come across Natalia and Vitali, searching in the rubble of a bombed-out house for the wood they can burn. Their fire is now the only way they can stay warm. An estimated 80% of their city has been destroyed or damaged. They narrowly survived a Russian rocket landing on their home – waking them up at 05:30.
Image caption, Natalia and Vitali speaking to the BBC’s Jonathan Beale Natalia describes life now as “hard and simply unbearable”.
“We are like ants. We were trampled on and those who survived now carry firewood. And those who did not are buried,” she says. Like many here, she tries to avoid blaming either side for her woes.
When we arrive at the centre of Lyman there’s already a long queue for bread. Many of them appear to be hedging their bets on the future.
Image caption, The queue for bread in Lyman Kataryna, a mum with two young children, tries to explain her dilemma: Russia, she says, still “has a lot of power, which is why it is scary that they might return. Because the city has already suffered very badly, and if the city will be passed back and forth from hand to hand, then nothing will remain including people”.
At the moment she says all she wants is electricity and peace. This winter she’s unlikely to get either.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
Source: bbc.com
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EU ambassadors impose new sanctions against Russia
EU member countries have agreed on another round of sanctions against Russia over its aggression against Ukraine, the Czech EU presidency said on Wednesday.
“Ambassadors reached a political agreement on new sanctions against Russia,” the presidency said on Twitter.
We have just reached a political agreement on new sanctions against Russia – a strong EU response to Putin’s illegal annexation of 🇺🇦 territories. Written procedure follows, sanctions enter into force on publication in the Off. Journal. #EU2022CZ #COREPERII
— Edita Hrda (@EditaHrdaEU) October 5, 2022
Edita Hrda, permanent representative of the Czech Republic to the EU, said the sanctions were in response to Russia’s annexation of four regions in Ukraine, which the West has deemed illegitimate.
This morning we reported that Vladimir Putin had signed laws absorbing four Ukrainian regions into Russia.
Earlier this week, both houses of the Russian parliament ratified treaties making the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions part of Russia.
The referendums have been described as a “sham” by the West.
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Ukraine defeats Russia in the south
More territory has been retaken by Ukrainian forces in regions that Russia illegally annexed, with Kyiv’s soldiers moving closer to Kherson in the south and consolidating gains in the east.
Officials from Russia who had been deployed in Kherson acknowledged the advance but claimed that Moscow’s men had dug in.
In the east, Ukrainian forces pushed into the Russian-held Luhansk region.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said “there are new liberated settlements in several regions”.
Speaking during his nightly address, President Zelensky said “fierce fighting continues in many areas”, but he did not give details. The progress of Ukraine’s counterattacks have been closely guarded and reporters have largely been kept away from the front lines.
But in the south, Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed leader in the Kherson region, admitted that Ukrainian forces had broken through near Dudchany, a town on the Dnipro river about 30km (20 miles) south of the previous front line. The river is called Dnieper by Russians.
“There are settlements that are occupied by Ukrainian forces,” Mr Saldo said. Some Russian reports say the Ukrainians have now taken Dudchany.
A Russian defence ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said “numerically superior” Ukrainian tanks had “driven a deep wedge” south of Zolota Balka, a village that marked the previous front line on the Dnipro. He claimed the Russians had killed about 130 Ukrainian troops in that fighting.
According to Mr Saldo, two Ukrainian battalions tried to reach the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station, about 70km (44 miles) east of Kherson. The power station is in the port city of Nova Kakhovka.
The Ukrainian advance is targeting supply lines for as many as 25,000 Russian troops on the west bank of the Dnipro, Reuters news agency reports.
Meanwhile, in the east Kyiv’s troops have continued an advance that has seen them slowly making inroads into Luhansk, a province annexed by Moscow last week and previously under almost complete Russian control.
On Saturday Ukrainian forces recaptured the important hub town of Lyman in the east, lying near the Luhansk regional border. Russia’s military had turned Lyman into a logistical base.
Russia’s proxy forces in Luhansk said Ukrainian troops had pushed a few kilometres into the Luhansk region. Reports suggest that the Ukrainians are moving towards the Russian-held towns of Kremenna and Svatove in Luhansk, with some pro-Kremlin bloggers suggesting that Russian forces have again been ordered to retreat.
Kherson and Luhansk are among four regions which Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared to be part of Russia, following so-called referendums denounced as fraudulent by Kyiv and its Western allies. Russia does not fully control any of the four regions.
On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov attracted ridicule online after he admitted that Russia was still deciding which areas it had “annexed”, suggesting that Moscow does not know where its self-declared borders are.
Mr Peskov claimed the entirety of Luhansk and Donetsk regions were part of Russia, but said the Kremlin will “continue consultations with the population regarding the borders of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions”.
Kyiv has vowed to retake all the territory annexed by Russia, including Crimea, seized by Russian troops in 2014.
The Russian defence ministry says reservists drafted into the army under Mr Putin’s mobilisation order last month are now undergoing intensive combat training in the Russian-controlled Luhansk and Donetsk regions. The Kremlin plans to call up about 300,000 reservists – though Mr Putin did not set an upper limit.
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Truss: UK will never accept the 4 Russia’s annexed regions as anything other than Ukrainian
Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia would never be accepted by the UK, according to Prime Minister Liz Truss.
In advance of President Vladimir Putin’s anticipated decision to recognise the territories once occupied by Ukraine as Russian following widely condemned referendums, she released a statement on Friday morning.
She said: “Vladimir Putin has, once again, acted in violation of international law with clear disregard for the lives of the Ukrainian people he claims to represent.
“The UK will never ignore the sovereign will of those people and we will never accept the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia as anything other than Ukrainian territory.
“Putin cannot be allowed to alter international borders using brute force. We will ensure he loses this illegal war.”
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Russia’s planned annexation of Ukrainian territories follows predictable script
In a move that follows a plodding and predictable script Russia will recognise the four territories it has occupied and captured in conquest.
Under the country’s 1993 constitution there needed to be a popular vote for this to happen – hence the hurried fake referenda.
Like other autocratic police states, pseudo- legalism is of the utmost importance in Russia – we’ll hear a lot more turgid legal language today as a way of giving this international outrage a veneer of legitimacy.
Moving to annex Russia has overturned centuries of convention – that you don’t steal land with force.
Putin is also returning Europe to a period pre-WW2.
For the Kremlin though there’s logic and need.
Domestically the annexation allows Putin more room to argue that Russia’s ‘Special Military Operation’ is not an offensive but a defensive manoeuvre.
There was no invasion.
Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson are now, according to Putin, part of the motherland.
Mobilisation is therefore not only justified but necessary to fight off a wider attack by the west.
The Kremlin is signalling it is now battling not a limited war but an unlimited existential war.
That’s the sale to the public.
What he’s hawking to the west is a bit more nuclear blackmail.
As part of Russia these four occupied regions will fall under Moscow’s nuclear umbrella – is it worth WW3 by continuing to support Ukraine?
And in the upside-down world of Putin’s Russia reality doesn’t matter.
The fact that Russian forces don’t even control all of the areas he’s about to annex – which is about the size of Portugal – can be glossed over.
The war of liberation continues and even if it means bombing his own new subjects.
This morning in what appears to be another egregious Russian war crime a convoy of civilians were killed in a missile attack.
At the time of writing 28 are wounded and 25 dead according to officials in Ukraine.
The bigger picture of all of this is that this crisis just got a bit worse.
Putin is signposting that – despite manpower shortages and major setbacks on the battlefield – he’s not giving up.
Any chance of a negotiated settlement is now non-existent.
Source: Alex Rossi, Sky News international correspondent
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Donetsk missile strike: About six civilians, including a teenager killed
A firefighter was consoling a mother whose teenage child had been murdered by shelling on a bus.
The strike, according to officials supported by Russia, struck Donetsk’s separatist-controlled city centre.
They blamed Ukrainian forces for the strike on a covered market.
A Reuters journalist at the scene saw the body of a teenager and four others, as well as several wounded citizens.
There has been no immediate comment from Ukraine, and the reports of who was behind the shelling cannot be independently verified.
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Deadly Donetsk blasts hit separatist-run city in Ukraine
Thirteen people have been killed and others wounded in a series of explosions in the separatist-run city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, according to its Russian-backed mayor.
Alexei Kulemzin blamed “punitive” Ukrainian shellfire for the deaths. There is no comment from Ukrainian officials.
Donetsk has been controlled by Russia’s proxy authorities since 2014.
They have repeatedly accused Ukrainian forces of targeting the city.
Independent confirmation is hard to come by on the ground in separatist-held areas of the east. However, local authorities said nine 150mm shells were fired at the Kuibyshevsky district of Donetsk, from a village to the west of the city.
Local leader Denis Pushilin accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilians at a bus-stop, a shop and a bank.
Although Russian forces have seized areas of the Donetsk region further south since the invasion began in February, they have struggled to push the Ukrainian army back from the outskirts of the city itself.
Ukrainian forces have launched counter-offensives in the south as well as the north-east, and their most dramatic progress has come this month in the northern Kharkiv region.
The head of Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, shared video of a Ukrainian tank crossing a pontoon bridge, and said Ukraine now controlled the left bank of the Oskil river, seen as the front line in north-east Ukraine.
IMAGE SOURCE,TELEGRAM/A_SHTIRLITZ Image caption, Ukraine’s armed forces said they had pushed across the river at the weekend If Ukrainian forces are able to maintain a foothold on the eastern side of the Oskil, it will represent a breakthrough. Mr Haidai said the next target would be liberating the city of Lyman, which was seized by Russian forces in May.
“Luhansk region is right next door. De-occupation is not far away,” he claimed.
In his nightly address late on Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that recent days may have looked like a lull of sorts: “But there will be no lull. There is preparation for the next series… For Ukraine must be free. All of it.”
Russia was accused on Monday of targeting a nuclear plant in the south.
Ukrainian nuclear operator Enerhoatom said a rocket landed 300m (1,000ft) from nuclear reactors at the the country’s second largest plant in Mykolayiv region, damaging buildings and shutting down part of a hydro-electric power station at the complex.
The attack has not been independently confirmed, although footage was posted online by the Ukrainian military.
Ukraine’s – and Europe’s – biggest nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia has come under repeated fire since it was occupied by Russian forces at the start of the war and the UN has called for a safety zone to protect it.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin has denied allegations of war crimes after some 450 bodies were uncovered in burial sites in the liberated city of Izyum.
The discovery has prompted the European Union’s presidency, currently held by the Czech Republic, to call for an international tribunal into Russia’s invasion.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the revelations were “a lie, and of course we will defend the truth in this story”. He said the “scenario” was the same as in the town of Bucha near Kyiv, where local authorities say at least 458 civilians were murdered during Russia’s occupation.
President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Ukrainian counter-offensives would not change Russia’s military plans in the east of Ukraine.
The ministry of defence in Moscow posted video on Monday that it said showed attack helicopters destroying Ukrainian manpower and equipment.
However, according to the UK’s defence intelligence update, it was “highly likely” that Russia had lost four combat jets in Ukraine in the past 10 days as its air force took greater risks to support ground forces under pressure from the Ukrainian advances.
The Institute for the Study of War says Russia is relying increasingly on “irregular volunteer and proxy forces” instead of its conventional military units.
Russia says it is fighting neo-Nazis in Ukraine – a claim widely dismissed – and that it is threatened by the Nato alliance’s strong relations with Ukraine.
Since the invasion on 24 February, the UN has recorded at least 5,718 civilian deaths, with 8,199 injured, and more than seven million Ukrainians have been recorded as refugees across Europe.
The actual civilian death toll is believed to be thousands higher. Tens of thousands of combatants have been killed or injured.
Russia, a global energy supplier, is locked in an economic struggle with the West which imposed sweeping sanctions in response to the invasion.
Source: BBC
