Ukraine offensive: Putin ‘readying 700,000 troops’
Russia is allegedly preparing for a shock new offensive that could see 700,000 soldiers pour into Ukraine. Warning: Graphic
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Russia is allegedly preparing for a shock new offensive that could see 700,000 soldiers pour into Ukraine.
Ukraine has been warning that Vladimir Putin’s forces will be gearing up for renewed attack in 2023, The Sun reports.
Despite major losses, the Russian army is understood to be more than one million strong and another two million reservists could be called up.
Russian outlet Volya Media has reported that Russia could be gearing up for a new offensive involving up to 700,000 soldiers.
The outlet — which cites sources within the Russian military — claims that the new attack would focus on Lutsk and Lviv in western Ukraine.
UKRAINE MINISTER KILLED IN CRASH
Ukraine’s interior minister was among more than a dozen people killed in a helicopter crash at a kindergarten outside Kyiv, as an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskyy resigned after saying air defences cause the earlier Dnipro apartment tragedy.
Officials initially said that 18 people had died in the latest disaster but later revised the toll down to 16, including one of the minister’s deputies and three children.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the crash of the helicopter, which was en route to the frontline in eastern Ukraine, as a “terrible tragedy.”
There was no immediate claim from Kyiv that Russian forces were involved in downing the aircraft and an investigation has been launched into the cause.
It comes as high profile presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, stepped down following backlash to his claims a Russian missile that killed dozens in Dnipro was deflected into the civilian apartment by Ukraine air defences, killing 44 people.
Mr Arestovych said he had been voicing a preliminary theory, but admitted he had made a “serious mistake” and would step down from his post.
In the latest disaster, the helicopter carrying Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky slammed down next to a kindergarten and a residential building in Brovary, a commuter town for the capital Kyiv that was the scene of fierce fighting with Russian forces last year.
AFP journalists at the crash site saw the charred remains of the aircraft mixed with debris from nearby buildings and a car crushed by the blades of the helicopter.
Amateur footage circulating on social media in the immediate aftermath captured cries and a large blaze.
“A helicopter of the state emergency service crashed in Brovary. As a result of the crash, the leadership of the interior ministry died,” the head of Ukraine’s police service, Igor Klymenko, said in a statement.
He said that both Monastyrsky and his first deputy, Yevgeniy Yenin, were killed. According to the latest death toll cited by presidential advisor Kyrylo Tymoshenko, 16 people died.
Thirty people including 12 children were hospitalised, he added.
‘WE’RE CANNON FODDER’
A man who claims to have been a member of Russian mercenary group Wagner is seeking asylum in Norway after a harrowing escape across the border.
Andrei Medvedev, 26, was arrested for illegally crossing the border to Norway near the Pasvikdalen valley last week.
Mr Medvedev said he was afraid of being executed like defector, Yevgeny Nuzhin, who was killed with a sledgehammer.
Claiming to have witnessed numerous executions in his time with the Wagner Group, Mr Medvedev added: “We were just thrown to fight like cannon fodder.”
Rights group Gulagu.net has published interviews with Medvedev, including one after his crossing into Norway, where he detailed his dramatic escape.
“When I was on the ice (at the border), I heard dogs barking, I turned around, I saw people with torches, about 150 metres (500 feet) away, running in my direction,” he said.
“I heard two shots, the bullets whizzed by,” he added.
His lawyer Brynjulf Risnes said that after crossing the border Mr Medvedev had sought out locals and asked that they call the police.
Mr Risnes said his client was no longer in custody, but at a “safe place” while his case was being analysed, and that he was currently suspected of “illegal entry” into Norway.
“If he gets asylum in Norway that accusation will be dropped automatically,” Mr Risnes said.
“He has declared that he is willing to speak about his experiences in the Wagner Group to people who are investigating war crimes,” the lawyer said, adding that Mr Medvedev alleged he had served as a unit commander for between five and ten soldiers.
According to Gulagu.net, he originally signed a four-month contract in early July 2022 and claims to have witnessed executions and reprisals against those who refused to fight and wanted to leave.
According to Mr Risnes, Mr Medvedev said “he experienced something completely different from what he was expecting” after joining the private mercenary group, which has been at the forefront of key battles in Ukraine.
Wanting to leave, he said that his contract was extended without his consent. “He understood that there was no easy way out, so that’s when he decided to just run,” Mr Risnes said.
Upon returning to Russia, Mr Medvedev made contact with rights groups, including Gulagu.net which advocates for prisoners in Russian detention.
PUTIN BLAMES UKRAINE FOR CONFLICT
Russia president Vladimir Putin blamed Kyiv’s “destructive” policies and growing Western arms supplies as the death toll from a strike on a civilian apartment building reached at least 40.
In a phone call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Kremlin said that “Putin drew attention to the destructive line of the Kyiv regime, which has bet on the intensification of hostilities with the support of Western sponsors, who are ramping up the supplies of weapons and military equipment”.
It came as more bodies were pulled from the Dnipro rubble, where cranes removed collapsing sections of the Soviet-style residential building.
The emergency services gave the new toll specifying that three children were among those dead and that 34 people were still unaccounted for.
The Kremlin claimed to reporters its forces were not responsible and pointed to an unsubstantiated theory circulating on social media that Ukrainian air defence systems had caused the damage.
“The Russian armed forces do not strike residential buildings or social infrastructure. They strike military targets,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that search operations would go on as long as necessary and condemned Russia’s “cowardly silence” over the attack.
‘DEFENSIVE’ BELARUS DRILLS
The rising cost of the strike came as Russia and its close ally Belarus announced the beginning of new joint military drills.
Belarus, which has been a key ally to Russia throughout the conflict, allowed Moscow’s forces to launch their invasion from Belarusian territory last February.
Its defence ministry said the air force exercises would involve joint “tactical” flights and that every airfield in Belarus would be involved.
“The exercise is purely defensive in nature,” Pavel Muraveyko, first deputy state secretary of Belarus’s Security Council, said in remarks carried Sunday by the defence ministry.
The Institute for the Study of War, based in the United States, said in an analytical note Monday that the risk of a new offensive from Belarus was “low” and “the risk of Belarusian direct involvement was very low”.
RUSSIAN MISSILE SLAMS APARTMENT
Ukraine has announced that the death toll has risen to at least 21 after a Russian missile slammed into a residential tower block in the city of Dnipro during a massive wave of strikes that caused power outages and blackouts across the war-torn country.
Officials said more than 40 people were still missing after the Dnipro strike, which came as Ukraine celebrated the Old New Year holiday and as Britain became the first Western country to offer Kyiv the heavy tanks it has long sought.
Associated Press estimated 23 people were killed and 73 others wounded in the attack on the Dnipro apartment block, Ukraine’s regional council head Mykola Lukashuk said.
A 15-year-old girl was among the dead, officials said, after dozens of people were pulled from the rubble, including a woman brought out by rescuers on Sunday.
“Rescue operations continue. The fate of more than 40 people remain unknown,” regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said.
The strike destroyed dozens of flats in the apartment block leaving hundreds of people homeless, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior official at the presidency.
The Ukrainian army said the block was hit by an X-22 Russian missile that it lacked the capacity to shoot down.
“Only anti-aircraft missile systems, which in the future may be provided to Ukraine by Western partners … are capable of intercepting these air targets,” it said.
Mr Zelenskyy on Saturday pleaded for more Western military weapons, saying that Russian “terror” could be stopped only on the battlefield.
“What is needed for this? Those weapons that are in the warehouses of our partners,” Mr Zelenskyy said.
On Saturday, local time, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to provide Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, the first Western country to supply the heavy tanks Kyiv has been demanding.
The tanks would arrive in Ukraine in the coming weeks, Downing Street said, adding that Britain would also train the Ukrainian Armed Forces on how to use them.
Russia’s embassy in Britain warned that “bringing tanks to the conflict zone … will only serve to intensify combat operations, generating more casualties, including among the civilian population”.
Ukraine’s energy facilities were still reeling Sunday from what was a 12th wave of large-scale Russian attacks on energy infrastructure in recent months.
RUSSIA CLAIMS FIRST VICTORY IN MONTHS
It comes as Russia says its forces have taken control of the war-scarred salt-mining town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, its first claim of victory in months of battlefield setbacks.
However, Ukraine says fierce fighting is still underway.
Both sides have conceded heavy losses in the battle, with Moscow desperate to sell any win back home after repeated humiliations and Ukraine determined to reclaim ground.
The Russian defence ministry announced it had “completed the liberation” of Soledar late the previous day and that the victory would pave the way for more “successful offensive operations” in the Donetsk region.
‘Serious’ battlefield problems
Moscow’s last major gains were in June and July with the capture of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk in the eastern Lugansk region.
Russia has suffered several key defeats since, including its retreat from Kherson city in the south last year.
The battle for Soledar comes after a major reshuffle in Moscow, with Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov now in charge of its operations in Ukraine.
A Moscow-based analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the move to AFP as “unprecedented” and said it indicated “very serious problems” on the battlefield.
After Soledar’s reported fall, the head of the Ukrainian presidential office called on the country’s allies to give it more weapons.
“To win this war, we need more military equipment, heavy equipment,” the official, Andriy Yermak, said.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had spoken with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and “emphasised the need” for Ukraine to receive Western-type tanks.
Russia’s mercenary army
In a separate statement, Russian official said various troops had taken part in the battle for Soledar and praised the “courageous and selfless” forces of mercenary group Wagner.
The nod was an unusual recognition of the controversial force, which has recruited male prisoners, following talk of infighting and rivalry on the ground in Ukraine.
The founder of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, insists that his force spearheaded the offensive for Soledar.
Moscow has made the complete capture of Donetsk its primary military objective after it claimed late last year to have annexed the region into Russia.
Kyiv dismissed Russia’s announcement and said “severe fighting” was ongoing in Soledar, where buildings have been reduced to rubble since becoming the war’s epicentre.
“Ukraine’s armed forces have the situation under control in difficult conditions,” Sergiy Cherevaty, a military spokesman said on television.
A ‘small-scale victory’
Observers are divided over the strategic significance of Soledar, an industrial town with a pre-war population of about 10,000 people.
It could act as a bridge for Russia to develop its offensive for Bakhmut, a larger hub that its forces have been attacking for months.
The defence ministry said Friday that Soledar’s capture “makes it possible to cut off supply routes of Ukrainian troops” there and surround them.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War said that Russian forces had likely already captured Soledar on Wednesday.
“But this small-scale victory is unlikely to presage an imminent encirclement of Bakhmut,” it cautioned.
The think tank added that Russian information operations have “overexaggerated” the importance of Soledar.
It’s expected that Siversk, a town north of Soledar, could be next in line for the Russian advance.
— with AFP
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