Dhe Ukrainian army met the Russian military at the Chernobayevka airport near the occupied city Kherson inflicted heavy casualties in southern Ukraine. “We met them there again,” wrote Oleksiy Arestovich, adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office chief, on Facebook early Saturday morning, referring to the Russian troops.
The Ukrainian armed forces attacked the Russian military at this airport for the sixth time and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy there.
In a series of local counterattacks and attacks with combat drones, several dozen Russian combat helicopters and, most recently, a command post with high-ranking officers have been destroyed since the end of February. This information could not be independently verified.
Destroyed Russian helicopters on a runway at Kherson Airfield in a satellite image from Maxar Technologies
Source: dpa/Maxar Technologies
On the other hand, according to the Ukrainian general staff on Friday evening, Ukraine has access to the Sea of Azov during the Russian siege of the port city Mariupol lost. Russian troops continued to attempt to storm the city itself and fighting continued, sources said.
According to the Russian government, the military has also used hypersonic missiles for attacks in western Ukraine. An underground weapons depot was destroyed there on Friday with the Kinschal missile system, the Ministry of Defense said in Moscow on Saturday. The warehouse with rockets and ammunition was in the village Delyatyn found. According to Russian information, the Kinzhal missiles, which are very easy to control, can bypass all air defense systems. According to the state agency Ria Novosti, their use was a novelty in the Ukraine conflict.
all around Kyiv on the other hand, the Russian army is apparently not making any progress. North and northwest of the Ukrainian capital, Russian soldiers would continue to make no “significant advances” on the city, a senior US defense official said. No movement was observed east of Kyiv either.
Source: Infographic WORLD
Satellite images from the US company Maxar Technologies also show that the Russian military is literally digging in north-west of Kyiv and piling up mounds of earth around its military equipment. The new satellite images show the protective walls around Russian military equipment near Osera and the Antonov air base.
Additional Russian military equipment and some similar embankments are also in the villages Zdvyshivka and Berestyanka seen further northwest. This could indicate that the Russian army is preparing for a trench warfare.
The satellite image from Maxar Technologies shows Russian positions northwest of Kyiv, entrenched behind earthen walls
Source: AFP/-
According to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the Russian military made tactical mistakes in Ukraine. There have been a “series of missteps,” Austin said in an interview with US broadcaster CNN on Friday during his trip to Bulgaria. The Russian soldiers have not progressed as quickly in Ukraine as they had imagined.
“They had imagined that they would move fast and take the capital very quickly, but they weren’t able to do that,” Austin said. He also assumed that the Russians would not use tactical information well. The cooperation between the air and ground forces is also not good.
Struggle to rescue civilians from hotspots near Kyiv
After successfully rescuing at least 50,000 civilians from combat zones north and northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the authorities are now trying to evacuate the most vulnerable hotspots.
“The occupying forces do not allow us to continue the evacuation from the hotspots,” said Oleksiy Kuleba, head of the Kyiv region’s humanitarian staff, on Saturday night on Facebook. “But despite the enemy’s cynicism, we continue to do everything we can to protect the lives of our people.”
Kyiv: A man removes a destroyed curtain at a school that was damaged next to other apartment buildings.
Source: dpa/Rodrigo Abd
Everything will continue to be tried to save people who are threatened by hostilities. “After all, we have already evacuated 50,000 people from the area,” added Kuleba.
In consultation with the Russian side, so-called escape corridors have repeatedly been opened in recent days, allowing civilians to leave embattled cities and towns. The agreements were not always kept, and civilians came under fire again and again.
Red lines in the peace negotiations
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Russia to engage in serious and honest talks on a peace settlement. “Meaningful negotiations on peace and security for Ukraine, honest negotiations and without delays are the only chance for Russia to lessen the damage caused by its own mistakes,” Zelenskyy said in a video address late Friday evening. If Ukraine’s territorial integrity is not restored, Russia will suffer “serious losses”.
In these negotiations, the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine as well as its state independence are and will remain the red lines for Kyiv. These are “unchangeable”, stressed the Ukrainian parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk on Friday in an article on the website of the Supreme Rada. Therefore, there can only be one result: “This is our victory.” Stefantschuk is involved in the current negotiations with the enemy and the associated decision-making process.
On the way to this “victory” one approaches the important points “step by step”. “We are moving in the right direction,” wrote Stefantschuk. But the Ukrainian people have already paid for their independence with the lives of many citizens. “And Russia is to blame for that.”
Source: Infographic WELT/Beate Nowak
“It is important for us to restore security and receive guarantees for the safe functioning of our state,” continued Stefanchuk. Referring to Moscow’s demand for recognition of the breakaway areas, the self-proclaimed “People’s Republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk, he stressed that these were still within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders.
Delegations from Moscow and Kiev have been negotiating a possible peace solution since February 28. According to the Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinski, the “key issue” of Ukraine’s possible neutrality or NATO membership has come closer. However, there are still some outstanding issues, such as security guarantees for Ukraine. On the question of the “demilitarization” of Ukraine demanded by Moscow, they are “somewhere in the middle.”
Kyiv, on the other hand, sees no major progress. In addition to an immediate ceasefire, Ukraine is demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops and subsequent concrete security guarantees.
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