As of: 04/30/2022 5:05 p.m
The Russian army is currently attacking Kharkiv, but has military problems in eastern Ukraine according to Western assessments. Meanwhile, government units blew up a railway bridge. A Russian freight train was hitn.
The Russian army apparently shelled Kharkiv during its attacks on eastern and southern Ukraine. One person was killed and five injured, the military administration said on Telegram. “The situation in the Kharkiv region is difficult,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier.
However, the Ukrainian army made some gains north of the city and recaptured the “strategically important” village of Ruska Lozova and the town of Slatyne. “It was two months of terrible fear,” a resident of Ruska Lozova told AFP. “We were in the cellars for two months without food,” said another resident.
According to a villager, 15 people were killed in Slatyne. This information cannot be independently verified.
Refugees from Ruska Lozova arrive at a checkpoint in Kharkiv. Their village had been recaptured by the Ukrainian army.
Image: dpa
Railway bridge blown up
According to media reports, the Ukrainian army blew up a railway bridge in the Donetsk region. A Russian freight train was hit, as the online newspaper Ukrajinska Pravda wrote.
The destroyed bridge was a connection over the river Severskyj Donets between the places Lyman and Rajhorodok. The railway connection to Lyman, which lies at the center of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, has thus been destroyed. Russian attacks on important places in the area have failed, the Ukrainian general staff said. But the fighting continued.
conflicting parties as a source
Information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian conflict parties cannot be directly checked by an independent body in the current situation.
Meanwhile, according to Ukrainian sources, three more civilian bodies were found not far from the Kiev suburb of Bucha. Russian soldiers tortured the men before they died, Kiev region police chief Andriy Nebytov wrote on Facebook. The corpses had gunshot wounds to the ears and some were tied and gagged. They were buried in a forest near the village of Myrozke and were only discovered on Friday.
President Zelenskyy accused Russia of wanting to destroy the Donbass and all the people living there. The constant brutal bombing, attacks on infrastructure and residential areas showed that Russia wants to completely evacuate the area, he said in his nightly video message. “Therefore, defending our country, defending our people, is literally a fight for life.”
Shaded in white: advance of the Russian army. Shaded in green: Russian-backed separatist areas. Crimea: annexed by Russia.
Image: ISW/04/29/2022
Western military: Russia still with problems
British and US military officials currently assume that the Russian armed forces are behind schedule. They are still a long way from uniting their troops in the northern and southern Donbass.
The British Ministry of Defense reported that the Russian army had to reassemble its forces in north-eastern Ukraine after several failed advances. They continue to have problems with tactical coordination, air support doesn’t always work and the units are exhausted – all in all, the Russian troops are therefore unable to fully exploit their combat effectiveness.
In Mariupol, an announced evacuation of the Azov steelworks, where Ukrainian fighters and hundreds of civilians are holding out, did not materialize.
Russia continues attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine unabated
Arnd Henze, WDR, daily news 5:00 p.m., April 30, 2022
Russia wants to talk about ending sanctions
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the “special operation” was proceeding “strictly according to plan”. He blamed the West for the ongoing fighting. “If the US and NATO are really interested in a solution to the Ukraine crisis, then first of all they should wake up and stop supplying arms and ammunition to the Kiev regime,” he told the Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
According to Lavrov, Russia also wants to talk about lifting Western sanctions in the ongoing negotiations with Ukraine. “Among other items on the agenda of the talks are denazification, recognition of the new geopolitical realities, lifting of sanctions and the status of the Russian language,” Lavrov said. Russia is in favor of continuing the negotiations, even if they are difficult. Kyiv had recently warned that the talks threatened to fail.
Lavrov: Weapons routes known
The Russian foreign minister also said that Russia knows the routes through which the West intends to deliver arms to Ukraine. According to him, the delivered weapons should become the target of what the officials call a “special operation” “as soon as they reach the territory of Ukraine”.
Russian offensive falters – Lavrov accuses NATO of prolonging war
Stephan Laack, WDR, April 30, 2022 11:27 a.m