LAST UPDATE: 11.05
Russia is likely to use thousands of Chechen fighters in the Mariupol and Luhansk regions, proving “significant human resource problems”, according to the UK Department of Defense.
“Despite the fact that Russian forces had been besieging Mariupol for more than 10 weeks, the strongest Ukrainian resistance delayed the full control of the city by Russian forces. This element thwarted Moscow’s plans to quickly occupy a key city and “It has brought significant costs to men in the Russian forces,” said British officials.
The situation has forced Russia to “make extensive use of auxiliary personnel”, the British military intelligence service said in a statement.
“These auxiliary forces consist of both individual volunteers and National Guard units, which in normal times have the main role of protecting the power of the Chechen leader, Ramadan Kadyrov.”
The British note that Kadyrov, who rules the Chechen republic with the blessings of the Kremlin within the Russian Federation, is closely monitoring the development of these forces, while one of his cousins ​​is probably the commander of these forces in Mauritius.
This personnel panspermia has led to phenomena of administrative confusion in the ranks of the Russian forces, making their operations difficult, the British emphasize.
The future of the Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol is unclear
Russia’s Defense Ministry also announced that in the last 24 hours 694 Ukrainian fighters who remained fortified for weeks in the Azovstal steel building have been handed over to Russian forces, RIA reports.
As of Monday, 959 fighters had surrendered, 80 of whom were wounded, the Russian ministry said.
Ukraine says Azofstal steel fighters will be exchanged for Russian prisoners of war, but Moscow is sending other “messages”, with the speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, talking about “Nazi criminals”. who should not be part of an exchange.
Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko told the BBC he hoped the Russians would abide by the agreement to end hostilities in Azofstal:
“For us, the key issue is to save the lives of these heroes, as they are real heroes for the whole free world. We are very worried, because we know that the Russians are not interested in their soldiers. We are ready for an exchange, but they “They do not even collect the bodies of dead soldiers and their officers from the field. So I hope the exchange takes place and we see the heroes back in their homes, alive,” he said.
“We are entering a phase of prolonged war”
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Tuesday that Russia’s war against his country in February was entering a “prolonged phase”, with Moscow seeking to take over the entire Donbass – the eastern part of the country. to impose occupation on the south.
“Russia is preparing for a long-term military operation,” Jens Stoltenberg told EU defense ministers and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. “The war is entering a prolonged phase,” he added, according to the text of his speech, which he uploaded to his account on the social networking site Facebook.
According to Mr. Reznikov, the Russian forces are fortifying their positions in the areas they occupy in Zaporizhia and Kherson to “pass to the defense if necessary”.
“Currently, the Kremlin’s efforts are focused on encircling and destroying Ukrainian armed forces in the Dotsk and Luhansk regions, in the eastern part of the country, which is partly in the hands of pro-Russian separatists,” he said.
Moscow also aims to “create a land corridor connecting Russia with Crimea”, the peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014, and impose occupation “on the whole of southern Ukraine”.
He called on Kiev’s western allies to coordinate their arms deliveries “in order to liberate our territories as soon as possible.”
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said last night that Russian forces were launching attacks “along the entire line of contact” in the Donetsk region and partly in neighboring Luhansk.
Source: Capital
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