WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's Zelenskiy denounces Russian strikes on Orthodox Palm Sunday

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denounced Russian air strikes coinciding with the observance of Orthodox Palm Sunday, including an attack that killed a father and daughter at home in the city of Zaporizhzhia.

Ukraine's military reported Russian attacks and shelling throughout the front, with the heaviest fighting still focused on two cities in eastern Donetsk region -- Bakhmut and Avdiivka. Russian forces have been besieging Bakhmut for months in the longest battle in more than a year of war.

Ukraine's State Emergencies Service said a 50-year-old man and his daughter, 11, were killed after Russian forces struck a residential building in Zaporizhzhia, in the southeast.

A woman identified as the wife and mother of the victims was pulled from under the rubble.

"This is how the terrorist state marks Palm Sunday," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. "This is how Russia places itself in even greater isolation from the world."

The president praised several units defending positions in the east and said he hoped Palm Sunday next year "will take place with peace and freedom for all our people".

The majority of Ukraine's 41 million people are Orthodox Christians who celebrate Easter a week from now.

Pope Francis, who has been critical of Russia's war, prayed for peace during Easter events in the Vatican: "Help the beloved Ukrainian people on their journey towards peace, and shed the light of Easter upon the people of Russia."

Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces had destroyed a depot containing 70,000 tonnes of fuel near Zaporizhzhia. It also said Russian forces had destroyed Ukrainian army warehouses storing missiles, ammunition and artillery in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.

RUSSIAN ATTACKS REPELLED

The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said more than 40 enemy attacks had been repelled over the past 24 hours.

It said Russian forces had launched unsuccessful advances on areas west of Bakhmut, now largely destroyed but with a pre-war population of 70,000. At least 10 towns and villages had come under Russian shelling.

The report said Russian forces also made no headway in attacks on Avdiivka, a second focus of fighting in the east, and reported widespread Russian shelling in northern regions. Officials in the south said Russian aircraft had used guided bombs against towns in Kherson region.

The military have said Ukrainian forces will keep defending Bakhmut against repeated Russian attacks, though Zelenskiy last week acknowledged that if troops risked being encircled they could be pulled back.

Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern military command, said on national television: "The enemy is trying to take our city-fortress at any cost.

"Although it is extremely difficult, we are still in control of the situation. Our units are holding back the enemy and inflicting a maximum of damage."

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said Russian forces controlled the centre of Bakhmut, with much of their actions now focusing on the city's railway station.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Moscow set to deploy ‘tank hunters’ to battlefield – official

Russia is putting together tank-killer groups that will fight modern armor provided to Kiev by its Western backers, a senior defense official said in an interview released on Sunday.

Speaking to Zvezda TV channel, Evgeny Arifulin, who heads a military training center located not far from Nizhny Novgorod in central Russia, said the order to create the units had been issued by Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov. The Russian military then developed “instructional guidelines” to achieve that goal, which are being implemented on the training ground, he added.

“This is large-scale, systemic work which is being carried out at state level,” the military official said.

Apart from ‘tank hunters’, the facility is also training service members in several fields, teaching them how to fire from artillery or operate various missile systems, Arifulin added. The facility could instruct as many as 700 soldiers at a time, the official stated.

With the focus being put on tackling Western armor, Arifulin noted that the Russian military had studied all these tanks, including American M1 Abrams, German Leopards, British Challengers and French Leclercs. “We know all their strengths and weaknesses and train the personnel [to fight them],” he said.

The members of ‘tank-hunter’ groups are being trained by veteran instructors, who have seen action in several conflicts in recent decades, including the ongoing military campaign in Ukraine, Zvezda reported. It added that these groups comprise only a small number of soldiers, who are mostly armed with anti-tank guided missile launchers and predominantly use reconnaissance drones.

In late March, Russian President Vladimir Putin estimated that Ukraine would receive over 400 Western-made tanks. The armor has already started to arrive in the country, with the German Ministry of Defense stating last month that 18 Leopard 2 A6 tanks as well as ammunition and spare parts had reached their destination.

Earlier this year, some Russian businesses and officials offered cash bounties for the destruction of Western military equipment in Ukraine. In January, for instance, Aleksandr Osipov, the governor of Russia’s Zabaikalsky Region, signed an order promising local soldiers three million rubles ($37,000) for capturing an operational Leopard 2 tank, or one million rubles ($12,000) for destroying one.

Moscow has repeatedly warned the West that arms shipments to Kiev make it a direct participant in the conflict. Commenting on tank deliveries to Ukraine, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said this armor “would burn as the rest of it,” and would not change the eventual outcome of the hostilities.

** Large group of Ukrainian troops destroyed in LPR, Chechnya leader reports

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov reported the elimination of a large group of Ukrainian troops between the localities of Kremennaya and Belogorovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), with a number of Ukrainians captured.

"The Akhmat special forces unit and fighters from the 4th brigade of the 2nd Army Corps commanded by dear brother Apty Alaudinov carried out a brilliant special operation between the localities of Kremennaya and Belogorovka. As a result, our fighters eliminated a large enemy group, taking some more [Ukrainian soldiers] prisoners," Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday.

According to Kadyrov, one of the POWs, a Ukrainian National Guard soldier, Maxim Nikhayenko, had his feet frostbitten and was given high-quality medical assistance by Russian medics who "put him on his feet."

"So far, fighters from the Akhmat special forces unit jointly with the 2nd Army Corps and the Russia Aerospace Forces have been very effective at conducting targeted special operations, making it possible to expand the pool of POWs and eliminate the fascist-NATO threat," the Chechen leader underscored.

Reuters/RT/TASS