WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Russia declares battlefield gains as NATO ramps up military equipment for Ukraine
Russia said it had broken through two of Ukraine's fortified defence lines in the east of the country, while Western countries announced more military spending on Ukraine, including artillery rounds, as Kyiv warned of continued Russian attacks.
Bolstered by tens of thousands of reservists drafted in December, Russia has intensified attacks across southern and eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, and a major new offensive is widely anticipated as the first anniversary of its invasionnears.
The Russian Defence Ministry on Wednesday said Ukrainian forces had retreated in the face of Russian operations in the Luhansk region, although it gave no details and Reuters was not able to independently verify this and other battlefield reports.
"During the offensive ... the Ukrainian troops randomly retreated to a distance of up to 3 km (2 miles) from the previously occupied lines," the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.
"Even the more fortified second line of defence of the enemy could not hold the breakthrough of the Russian military."
The ministry did not specify in which part of the Luhansk region the offensive took place.
Later on Wednesday, Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar said Russian forces were mounting "round-the-clock" assaults on government positions, without specifying where.
"The situation is tense. Yes, it is difficult for us. But our fighters are not allowing the enemy to achieve their goals and are inflicting very serious losses," Malyar wrote on Telegram.
In Kyiv, the capital's military administration said six Russian balloons that may have contained reconnaissance equipment were shot down over the city on Wednesday after air raid sirens blared.
"The purpose of launching the balloons was possibly to detect and exhaust our air defences," it said on the Telegram messaging app. Russia did not immediately comment.
RUSSIAN ONSLAUGHT ON BAKHMUT
Russia is also waging an artillery and ground onslaught on the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk province adjacent to Luhansk.
Near Bakhmut, Russian forces fired on more than 15 towns and villages, including the city itself, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its evening report.
They also trained tank, mortar and artillery fire on communities straddling the borders of Kharkiv and Luhansk region, it added.
Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko posted pictures and video of an apartment building littered with rubble that he said was destroyed in the city of Pokrovsk, southwest of Bakhmut, leaving three dead, 11 injured and one still in hospital in a serious condition.
Bakhmut's capture would give Russia a stepping stone to advance on two bigger cities, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk further west in Donetsk, which would revive Moscow's momentum ahead of the Feb. 24 first anniversary of the invasion.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said alliance members were continuing to produce 155mm artillery rounds.
"So yes, things are happening but we need to continue, we need to step up even more," he told reporters after a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels.
Ukraine has received billions of dollars in military spending from Western countries. The United States has committed more than $27.4 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the conflict began in February last year.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged countries to join Germany in sending tanks.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said after the Brussels talks that Ukraine had a very good chance of taking and "exploiting" the initiative on the battlefield this year.
Austin said that for every new system NATO provides Kyiv, it will train troops on it.
Britain said it and other European nations would provide military equipment including spare parts for tanks and artillery ammunition to Ukraine via an international fund, with an initial package worth more than $241 million.
Russia calls the invasion a "special military operation" against security threats, saying NATO shows hostility to Russia daily and is growing more involved in the conflict. Kyiv and its allies call Russia's actions a land grab.
On Jan. 20, a senior U.S. administration official said Washington was advising Ukraine to hold off with a major offensive until the latest supply of U.S. weaponry is in place and training has been provided.
"We have to ensure that this spring it is truly felt that Ukraine is moving towards victory," Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote in a Wednesday address.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Russia makes claim over West’s ‘hybrid war’
The West is attempting to use the Ukraine conflict to portray Russia as a “rogue state” in the eyes of the world, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday. He stressed that the strategy has not been successful.
“The US and its satellite states are waging an all-encompassing hybrid war that they have long been preparing for, and are using Ukrainian radical nationalists as a battering ram against us,” Lavrov outlined in a speech to the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma.
They are not even trying to hide the goal of this war: it is not only to defeat our country on the battlefield and destroy our economy, but also to surround us with a ‘sanitary cordon’ and turn us into a type of a rogue state.
The statement came the same day that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled proposals for a new sanctions package against Russia, including additional export bans and measures to prevent the bypassing of restrictions.
Lavrov said that the West’s efforts to isolate Russia have failed because Moscow continues to develop relations with partners in other areas of the globe. He added that nations that have refused to back the “unprecedented” sanctions make up the majority of the world’s population.
The countries of the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and South America “don’t want to live in accordance with the West-centric order,” the Russian minister stated. “So it makes perfect sense why three-quarters of the world’s countries have not joined the anti-Russian sanctions and have a reasonable view regarding the situation in Ukraine.”
China and India are among the major economies that have refused to impose restrictions on Moscow. Denis Alipov, Russia’s ambassador to New Delhi, said on Tuesday that sanctions “had an opposite effect” and facilitated more trade and closer cooperation between Russia and India.
Beijing, meanwhile, has accused the US of fueling the Ukraine conflict and trying to weaponize the world economy for its own benefit.
** Russian air defenses intercept eight US-made HIMARS rockets in Ukraine operation
Russian air defense forces destroyed 11 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles and eight rockets of US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems over the past day during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Wednesday.
"In the past 24 hours, air defense capabilities shot down eight rockets of the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system and also destroyed 11 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in areas near the settlements of Sofiyevka, Popovka, Golikovo, Novokrasnyanka, Kremennaya, Zhitlovka and Chervonopopovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.
Russian troops eliminated eight Ukrainian subversive groups in the Kupyansk area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the Kupyansk direction, eight subversive/reconnaissance groups of the Ukrainian army were eliminated in areas near the settlements of Krakhmalnoye, Masyutovka, Pershotravnevoye and Timkovka in the Kharkov Region and Novosyolovskoye in the Lugansk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.
The Ukrainian military suffered about 100 casualties in the Kupyansk area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"The enemy’s losses in that [Kupyansk] direction in the past 24 hours totaled as many as 100 Ukrainian personnel killed and wounded, two armored combat vehicles, four motor vehicles and a D-30 howitzer," the spokesman said.
In the area of the settlement of Veterinarnoye in the Kharkov Region, Russian forces wiped out an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army’s 113th territorial defense brigade, the general added.
"In the Kupyansk direction, army aviation and artillery of the western battlegroup inflicted damage on amassed manpower and equipment of the Ukrainian army’s 14th mechanized brigade and 103rd territorial defense brigade in areas near the settlements of Dvurechnaya and Kotlyarovka in the Kharkov Region," he said.
Russian forces eliminated roughly 65 Ukrainian troops in the Krasny Liman area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the Krasny Liman direction, army aviation and artillery of the battlegroup Center inflicted damage on units of the Ukrainian army’s 67th and 92nd mechanized brigades and 25th airborne brigade in areas near the settlements of Chervona Dibrova and Stelmakhovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic and Yampolovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.
"As many as 65 Ukrainian personnel, an infantry fighting vehicle, two armored combat vehicles, three motor vehicles, two Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers and a Grad multiple rocket launcher were destroyed in that area in the past 24 hours," the general specified.
Russian forces destroyed roughly 190 Ukrainian troops in their advance in the Donetsk area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the Donetsk direction, as many as 190 Ukrainian personnel, two infantry fighting vehicles, an armored personnel carrier, three motor vehicles, a Msta-B howitzer and a US-made M777 artillery system were destroyed in the past 24 hours during the continued offensive and artillery fire of the southern battlegroup," the spokesman said.
Russian forces supported by artillery and heavy flamethrower systems struck Ukrainian army units near Ugledar and Novosyolka in the Donetsk People’s Republic over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the southern Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions, artillery and heavy flamethrower systems of the battlegroup East inflicted damage on the Ukrainian army units in areas near the settlements of Ugledar and Novosyolka in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.
The enemy’s losses in those areas in the past 24 hours amounted to over 60 Ukrainian personnel, two tanks, four infantry fighting vehicles, two armored combat vehicles, D-20 and D-30 howitzers, and also a Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer, the general specified.
Russian forces destroyed two Ukrainian howitzers in the Kherson area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the Kherson direction, a Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer and a D-30 howitzer were destroyed in counter-battery fire," the spokesman said.
Russian forces struck 87 Ukrainian artillery units at firing positions in the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"Army aviation, missile troops and artillery of the Russian group of forces struck 87 Ukrainian artillery units at firing positions, manpower and military equipment in 112 areas," the spokesman said.
In all, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 385 Ukrainian combat aircraft, 208 helicopters, 3,132 unmanned aerial vehicles, 404 surface-to-air missile systems, 7,875 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,020 multiple rocket launchers, 4,101 field artillery guns and mortars and 8,388 special military motor vehicles since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, the general specified.
Reuters/RT/TASS
