Russian air activity “remains high” over eastern Ukraine and has contributed to Russia’s “recent tactical successes”, but “has failed to have a significant impact on the conflict”, the UK Ministry of Defense’s latest intelligence assessment said. United this Saturday (4).
“Russia has managed to increase its air activity to support its creeping advance, combining attacks and mass artillery fire to use its overwhelming power,” the ministry said in a report on the situation in Ukraine.
Russian aircraft are “conducting attacks using guided and unguided munitions,” he added.
Experts have pointed to concerns that Russia could increase its use of combat weapons, including air strikes, as it ramps up its operation to take Donbass completely. Guns tend to cause a higher number of deaths.
“The increased use of unguided munitions has led to widespread destruction of built-up areas in the Donbass and has almost certainly caused substantial collateral damage and civilian casualties,” the update said.
Russia has been carrying out deep strikes using air- and surface-launched cruise missiles to “stop the movement of Ukrainian reinforcements and supplies,” the statement said, adding that Russia’s quantity of precision-guided missiles “has likely been exhausted.”
Zelensky
The ministry’s intelligence update comes a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a fifth of the country’s territory is under Russian control, with Donbass “almost totally destroyed”.
“To date, about 20% of our territory is under the control of the occupiers. [russos], almost 125 thousand square kilometers. This is much larger than the area of all the Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) combined,” Zelensky told the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies via a video link on Thursday.
He added that Ukraine’s Donbass region is “simply devastated”, calling it “once one of the most powerful industrial centers in Europe”.
On Saturday (4), the head of the military administration of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hayday, said that Ukraine is regaining ground in Severodonetsk, claiming to now control half of the key city.
Source: CNN Brasil
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