Ukrainian counterattack on Izium – Russia prepares annexation of territories

LAST UPDATE: 22:50

Particularly fierce fighting is raging in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, where Moscow has focused its efforts without making significant progress, while “very difficult” negotiations are under way over the fate of the last defenders of Mariupol.

Late today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the situation in the Donbas region remains very difficult, adding that Russian forces are still trying to show some kind of victory.

“On the 80th day of a full-scale invasion, this now seems completely insane, but they are not stopping their efforts,” he said in a video speech late Saturday night.

“Heavy fighting is taking place on the border with the Donetsk region, near Popasna,” Sergei Gaidai, the Ukrainian governor of Luhansk, said on Facebook last Friday night, announcing numerous material and personnel losses on the Russian side.

“It is terrible, but they are still trying to achieve their goals. However, based on interceptions (telephone communications) we understand that an entire battalion refused to attack because they see what is happening,” he revealed.

A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed that the most important activity of the Russian forces at the moment was in Donbas. “And, basically, we continue to see that the Russians are not making significant progress,” he added.

“Ukrainian artillery repulses Russian attempts to gain ground, including their efforts to cross the Donetsk River (…), which affects their ability to send significant reinforcements to the northern part of Donbass,” the source said. .

The British Ministry of Defense clarified yesterday that the Ukrainian forces “successfully” repulsed the attempt of the Russian forces to cross this river near Sheverodonetsk, causing heavy losses to the Russian troops.

The operation shows “the pressure on Russian commanders to advance into eastern Ukraine,” the Pentagon said, noting that the Russian military “has not been able to make significant progress despite concentrating forces after “abandoned the attempt to impose itself in Kyiv.

In late March, a few weeks after its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Russia withdrew from the Ukrainian capital, changing its “priority target” to try to take control of eastern Ukraine.

A spokesman for the Ukrainian army said in a statement that the Russians “have not stopped attacking the eastern part of the country.

The general staff said in a daily news release that in the Donetsk and Tavriya regions, the Russian military had used “shells, artillery, rocket launchers and aircraft to inflict maximum damage on the Ukrainian army”, targeting personnel. fortifications and buildings “.

Ten Russian attacks were repulsed in a 24-hour period around Donetsk and Luhansk, he noted.

At the same time, Ukrainian government officials estimate that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is entering its “third phase”, which will be characterized by prolonged fighting, according to its officials.

The “first phase” of the Russian offensive was the attempt to occupy Ukraine “within a few days”, said the adviser of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Viktor Andrushev, late on Friday night.

The “second phase” was marked by attempts to encircle Ukrainian forces and defeat them in various besieged areas, he added.

In this new “third phase” we will see Russian troops defending the territories in which they have gained control so far, he said.

“This shows that they are planning a protracted war,” said an adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry. “Moscow seems to believe that a protracted war could push the West to the negotiating table and force Ukraine to back down,” he said.

Meanwhile, Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said the fighting so far had shown that Moscow’s image of the Russian army – “the undefeated, second largest army in the world” as it stands – is “fake”, reported the Ukrainian agency UNIAN.

Arestovich also said he expected the impending collapse of the Russian economy in the summer.

Russia intends to annex the occupied territories

According to the US Institute for War Studies (ISW), Russian President Vladimir Putin “probably intends to annex southern and eastern Ukraine to the Russian Federation in the coming months.”

“Ukraine and its Western partners probably have a small window of opportunity to support a counterattack on the occupied territories before their annexation,” the institute said.

The situation seems to have already been reversed in the Kharkiv region, although it is one of the priorities of the Russians.

The British Ministry of Defense estimates that the pro-Russian administration in Kherson, Ukraine will ask Russia to join it

If Russia goes ahead with a referendum on Kherson, it is almost certain that it will manipulate the results to show a clear majority in favor of leaving Ukraine, he said in a regular Twitter post.

“The main activity of the enemy in the Kharkiv region was the withdrawal of his units from the city of Kharkiv,” said a spokesman for the Ukrainian army.

“The gradual liberation of the Kharkiv region proves that we are not leaving anyone to the enemy,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a daily message on Friday night, announcing that the recapture of territories that had fallen to the Russians was continuing.

“To date, 1,015 sites have been released, or 6 more in the last 24 hours,” he said.

Water, electricity, communications, transportation and public services have been restored there, the Ukrainian president said, noting that he was thinking about cities and territories still under Russian occupation.

Especially the one thousand Ukrainian warriors who are fortified in the vast arcades of the Azofstal steel plant in Mariupol, for whom “very difficult negotiations are underway for the next phase of removal, in terms of those who have been seriously injured and the medical staff”.

The women, children and the elderly who had taken refuge in the galleries of this factory were all evacuated at the end of April thanks to an operation coordinated by the UN and the Red Cross after difficult consultations.

The same statement was made by Zelensky by the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Irina Verestsuk, referring to “negotiations with the enemy (which) are very difficult.” “We are now negotiating (the exit) of 38 fighters who have been seriously injured. We are moving forward step by step. (…) At the moment there are no talks for the release of 500 to 600 people,” he added.

The general staff of the Ukrainian army clarified today in its daily morning announcement that the Russian army continued “the blockade of our units near the Azovstal plant. It proceeded with artillery and large-scale air strikes”.

In Hersonissos, the vice-president of the Duma

The Russian news agency RIA reported today that the deputy speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament (Duma) Anna Kuznetsova visited the Russian-occupied Kherson in Ukraine to discuss the social and health needs of the local population.

Sporadically, there have been confirmed reports of high-ranking Russian officials visiting areas where clashes have been raging since February 24, when Russia invaded its neighboring country.

Kuznetsova, deputy speaker of the Duma, discussed the provision of food as well as medical or other products needed by children, the RIA added.

“We are here ready to provide all kinds of assistance,” Kuznetsova said.

The news agency did not specify when the visit took place and Reuters was unable to confirm the news from an independent source.

Kherson is the first area in Ukraine that is likely to be annexed, following Moscow’s announcement in April that its forces had taken full control of it. Sporadic anti-Russian protests are taking place in this area.

Kherson, home to the port city of the same name, offers part of the land connection between the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and areas controlled by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The Kremlin has announced that it is up to the people living in the region to decide whether they want to join Russia.

Appeal for the rescue of the defenders of Mariupol

Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov Battalion, one of the Ukrainian forces fighting in the Azofstal steel industry, called on the United States to “help evacuate our wounded and (to) make every effort to help us “from this circle.

“There are almost 600 wounded in Azovstal, the Russians continue to bomb the military hospital,” the factory said in a statement. “We will resist as long as we can (…) if we did not do this horde would go further,” he added.

However, “the power of world leaders should not be overestimated” in the face of Moscow’s determination, Verestsuk reacted.

International efforts have so far proved fruitless to rescue these Ukrainian soldiers defending the strategically important port city, which has been destroyed in 90% of Russian bombing raids.

In this context, the EU pledged yesterday to provide additional aid of half a billion euros to support Ukraine’s struggle, which amounts to “a total of 2 billion euros”.

The recipe is “clear,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on the sidelines of a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Wangels, northern Germany. in Kyiv and also “to continue working to isolate Russia.”

The meeting of the G7 foreign ministers (Germany, France, Italy, Canada, USA, Japan and Britain), which is also attended by their Ukrainian counterparts Dmitro Kuleba and Moldova Nikos Popescu, continues today.

An informal meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers on Ukraine is also scheduled for today in Berlin.

An official Swedish report paved the way for Sweden’s accession to the Atlantic Alliance yesterday, multiplying the positive conclusions that such a possibility would have, before a decision is made in the coming days by the Nordic country and its neighbor, Finland – two EU member states that remained outside military alliances for decades – much to Moscow’s disappointment.