Status: 04/20/2022 04:51 a.m
Russia is making little progress on its offensive in eastern Ukraine. According to information from Washington and London, however, the push is again not going according to plan. Another ceasefire is scheduled to take place in Mariupol today.
According to their own statements, groups from the self-proclaimed “Luhansk People’s Republic” have seized a small town in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine. The city of Kreminna is “completely” under the control of the units of the “People’s Republic,” the Luhansk “People’s Militia” announced on Telegram in the evening. An attached video shows a Russian flag hanging on the front door of the city administration.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, many Ukrainian targets have been attacked
Tagesschau 02:51 a.m., 20.4.2022
The Ukrainian governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hajday, reported on Monday that control of the small town north of the city of Sievjerodonetsk had been lost. In Kreminna about 4,000 of the 18,000 inhabitants before the war are said to be still holding out. According to the latest analysis by the US war research institute ISW, the advance to Kreminna was the only Russian ground offensive within 24 hours that made “significant progress”.
London: Russia’s advances in Ukraine hampered
According to the British opinion, Russian shelling and attacks along the demarcation line to the Donbass in eastern Ukraine continue to increase. However, Ukraine is fending off numerous advances by Russian troops, the Ministry of Defense said in London, citing intelligence information.
Russian advances, meanwhile, continued to be hampered by terrain, logistical and technical difficulties. Added to this is the resilience of the highly motivated Ukrainian army. The failure of Russia to crush resistance in the southeastern Ukrainian port of Mariupol and the indiscriminate Russian attacks that hit civilians are further indications that Moscow is not achieving its goals as quickly as hoped.
Zelenskyj: The situation in Mariupol remains extremely serious
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sees the situation in the port city of Mariupol as “as difficult as possible”. The Russian military is blocking all attempts to organize humanitarian corridors and rescue Ukrainian citizens, Zelenskyy said in his nightly video message published on Telegram that night.
City residents who are in the hands of Russian units are being tried to be “deported” or mobilized into Russian troops. Unfortunately, Zelenskyy said, no replies were received to the proposal for an exchange that would allow saving civilians and the city’s defenders. He did not provide any further information about the exchange. The information could not be independently verified.
conflicting parties as a source
In the current situation, 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.
Russia announces further evacuation corridors
The situation in the badly damaged Mariupol is considered dramatic. Russia wants to take complete control of the strategically important port city and once again called on hundreds of Ukrainian fighters in a steel mill to surrender on Tuesday. However, they refused. Moscow announced in the evening that no one had used the corridor until 10:00 p.m. Moscow time (9:00 p.m. CET).
This was followed by another announcement of a unilateral ceasefire including a “humanitarian corridor” from the steelworks for Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. Moscow time (1:00 p.m. CET). In the course of this ceasefire, Ukrainian fighters could surrender and civilians could be evacuated, according to a statement by Russian Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev in the evening. In recent weeks, both sides have repeatedly accused each other of sabotaging the escape of civilians.