Summary of the Events of the Day
For all practical purposes, Russia has taken Mariupol. But the rest of Ukrainian defenders have held their ground inflicting heavy losses of lives and equipment on Russian forces.
Battle for the Skies
In the last 24 hours, Russia has launched 73 airstrikes across Ukraine. Unless Ukraine receives help in closing the skies, thousands more will die. If a No-Fly Zone were imposed on Ukraine, like the U.S. did in other war zones around the world, then Ukraine would easily push Russia out of Ukraine. We are winning on the ground but being massacred from the sky.
Thanks to spare parts provided by an unspecified country, Ukraine was able to repair twenty of their planes.
Ukraine shot down a Russian SU-34 fighter/bomber over Izyum and a Ka-52 helicopter over Zaporizhia. A Russian Mi-8 plane, and its accompanying attack helicopter were shot down. Another helicopter sent to rescue survivors was also shot down.
The Tver Research Institute in Russia burned down. It is from here that Russia researches and develops the components that run their air and space forces.
Battle for the Donbas (Donetsk, Luhansk, Mariupol)
Although the 400 defenders of the Azov National Guard remained holed up in the Azovstal steel mill with around 2000 civilians, what is left of the city of Mariupol is under control of Russian forces. Those underground the steel mill are without drinking water, food, and fresh air. Russia allowed four busloads of civilians to evacuate and hopefully more will be able to leave over the next few days. Putin made the decision not to attack the remaining forces underground in the steel mill since their positions are bomb proof, even nuclear, and would cost the lives of many Russian soldiers to flush them out. Instead, they will just starve them out.
Satellite images have revealed Russia is building mass graves to hide the dead they have killed in Mariupol. In the image below, there was no trench on March 23 and six days later there was a trench. It is estimated that 9000 dead will be mass buried there as Hitler did to the Jews he had killed in Ukraine.
But don’t count the mighty defenders of Mariupol out yet. They still manage to sneak out of their holes and do damage to Russian forces and equipment. They destroyed three tanks and two armored personnel carriers in attacks on Wednesday and Thursday.
Over the night Wednesday, Russia conducted nine concerted assaults along the Donbas Contact Line, all of them repulsed with heavy losses to Russian forces and equipment. All food warehouses have been destroyed in Severodonetsk whose citizens now depend on humanitarian aid deliveries. Five homes were destroyed by shelling in Rubizhne and Novodruzhesk. WAR CRIMES. To the south, Popasna continues to be shelled constantly and a major attempt was made against Novotoshkivske but was repulsed. A unit of 25 Libyan mercenaries were killed in one assault against Popasna. Ukraine reported that Russian equipment destroyed in these attacks included one tank, an anti-aircraft missile system, an artillery system, 10 armored personnel carriers, and three drones. One cruise missile was shot down as well, and an enemy weapons depot destroyed.
On Thursday morning Russia launched an unsuccessful attack to retake Marinka with a side operation against Novomykhailivka.
In the evening Russia struck two train stations to prevent the evacuation of civilians from the Donbas region. The train stations in Zaporizhia and Novomoskovsk were hit. There were no casualties or injuries in Novomoskovsk. In Zaporizhia eight people were injured and the windows of four wagons waiting to depart with IDPs for Lviv were blown out, but no passengers were injured.
Ukraine now has more tanks on the Donbas Contact Line than Russia. The downsize of this is that Russia may be forced to up their game to nuclear attacks if they are to achieve victory.
Battle for Kherson (Kherson, Mykolaiv, Kryvyi Rih, and Zaporizhia)
Russian forces continued to shell residential communities of Mykolaiv. They also made an unsuccessful attempt to capture the coastal village of Oleksandrivka to cut off the inhabitants of Mykolaiv from the Dniprovska Gulf and thus access to be resupplied from the Black Sea.
Two observation posts in the Kherson region were discovered and destroyed along with the 34 Russian soldiers that inhabited them and seven vehicles.
Russian forces have embarked on terrorizing the Ukrainian population in regions they have occupied. They are forcing Ukrainian men to fight alongside of them with guns at the heads of their women and children by threatening to kill all civilians in any community under their control before they are liberated by Ukrainian forces.
And to show they mean it, Russian forces on Wednesday night fired Hurricane long-range missiles on two communities that have been liberated by Ukrainian forces – Zelenodolsk and Velyka Kostromka south of Kryvyi Rih marked on the map above.
Battle for Kharkiv
The shelling of Kharkiv has significantly decreased as Russia is concentrating more and more on the Battle for the Donbas and holding on to the Kherson region. 50 attacks were made against Ukraine’s second city yesterday.
Other News
Ukraine intelligence released an alleged audio interception of Russian military personnel fighting near Popasna receiving an order to kill Ukrainian servicemen taken prisoner. If this recording can be verified, then it is another piece of evidence of war crimes.
Five million Ukrainians are now refugees around the world, the vast majority of them in Eastern Europe. Another 7.7 million are IDPs (internally displaced people). That is nearly 30% of Ukraine’s population. Imagine if 30% of Americans were displaced from their homes. That would come to nearly 96 million Americans. This is the problem Ukraine is facing now. The fact that they are staying in Ukraine, or close to Ukraine, means that they do hope to return home someday.
Russia lost 200 soldiers in battles yesterday. Equipment lost included five tanks, two infantry fighting vehicles, one armored personnel carrier, one artillery system, one plane, nine motor vehicles, and three unmanned drones.
The German opposition party will offer a resolution that may cause German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to resign after he had announced that Germany would no longer supply Ukraine with heavy weapons.
More and more war crimes are being discovered in the Kyiv suburb of Borodyanka. Two mass graves were discovered containing nine bodies, including one of a 16-year-old girl. Most of them had signs of torture. I have seen the horrors done to that city with my own eyes. The grass-stuffed clothes of innocent civilians lie on the ground where their bodies were found in hopes that relatives will identify their loved ones killed by the clothes they were wearing. Crashed and burned-out cars litter the roads with windshields full of machine gun bullet holes like out of an Al Capone film. Inside are the toys and schoolbooks of children who had lost their lives as they tried to flee their homes as Russian soldiers converged on their village. I will never be able to forget what I saw. I am just grateful to have provided food to some of the survivors and hear their stories of horrors committed against them.
(This is a picture that I took while visiting the region.)
International Support
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen traveled to Kyiv together in a show of support for Ukraine. PM Sanchez also announced that Spain would be reopening their embassy in Kyiv in a few days.
The U.S. has expanded their Russian sanctions by adding to the list 40 legal entities and 29 individuals. Most are associated with the banking sector, but some are also cultural.
The UK expanded their Russian sanctions by adding Russian army chiefs to the list. They also banned the importation of wood and several luxury goods from Russia. They also increased their tariffs on other Russian goods imported into the UK.
Lithuania delivered more heavy mortars to Ukraine bringing their total military assistance to Ukraine into the tens of millions of euros.
Slovenia announced they will provide Ukraine with a large number of their older Soviet-made TU-72 tanks, which Ukrainian troops already know how to operate, in exchange for more modern tanks provided by Germany.
Spain has delivered 200 tons of ammunition and 20 armored vehicles to Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden announced a third $800 million military aid package to Ukraine which will include more heavy weapons including heavy artillery and dozens of howitzers with 144,000 rounds of ammunition. Also included will be more tactical Ghost drones specifically made for the needs of Ukraine. The U.S. also banned all Russian ships from U.S. ports.
The G7 finance ministers pledged additional support to Ukraine exceeding $24 billion. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz put the figure even higher at €50 billion. EU President Charles Michel later confirmed that the support will include heavy weapons.
Denmark pledged another $90 million in military aid to Ukraine.
Even Israel has finally entered the game finally agreeing to supply helmets and bullet-proof vests to Ukrainian forces. Israel has worked hard to build a friendship with Russia and has hesitated to get involved in this conflict.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen led a multi-nation walkout of the G20 finance meeting during an address by Russian officials.