Summary: Russian continues to crawl closer to Toretsk and Avdiivka. France and Ukraine sign a deal to create military drones together.
Human Cost Of The War
Ukraine conducted targeted strikes at 11 Russian positions hitting nine artillery systems, four air defense systems, an ammunition depot, and an electronic warfare system.
Russian sources claim that Ukraine launched two missiles on the port of occupied Berdyansk. Local residents reported hearing explosions.
Russia conducted a drone, missile, and air attack against Ukraine launching 37 missiles and three drones. Ukraine air defense shot down 8 of the missiles and made more than 20 others inoperable using electronic warfare. Electronic warfare is usually used against drones, but as Ukraine has a shortage of air defense systems since the US stopped supplying more, they innovated with electronic warfare systems. Russia has also begun equipping drones with illegal chemical weapons around Krynky.
Two Ukrainian civilians were injured by Russian attacks on civilian targets during the day.
- A 60-year-old man was injured in his home in Sadove, Kherson Oblast when it came under artillery fire. He suffered a concussion because of the attack.
- Russia launched 36 attacks on 12 border communities in Sumy Oblast. Over 300 apartments were damaged and one man in Shostka, Sumy Oblast, was injured.
700 Russian soldiers were killed or injured today in fighting according to the Ukrainian military General Staff.
Situation On The Ground
Serbian mercenary Dejan Beric has been fighting for Russia against Ukraine since 2014. He has become a friend of President Putin and is charged with actively recruiting more Serbian mercenaries and is working on Putin’s reelection campaign. He has released a video appeal accusing the military commanders of the Russian 119th Guards Airborne (VDV) Regiment of mistreating Serbian mercenaries fighting south of Bakhmut near Klishchiivka. These commanders have declared them deserters, pushed them out of their trenches, and forced them to admit that they were spies. This was all done in response to the Serbian mercenaries refusing orders to conduct an assault without sufficient weapons and asking to be transferred to a nearby division commanded by Chechen commanders. Such a public statement by video suggests that something deeper is going on here. This may be an attempt to discredit one faction of Putin’s advisors and raise another to position themselves closer to Putin once the elections are over.
Russian milbloggers are talking about Russian forces creating an air assault brigade from ground formations along the frontline. These air assault brigades will be dropped behind Ukraine’s lines of defense. As they are not trained for parachuting behind the lines, Russia may be modifying the tactic and plan on using helicopters to move the troops.
Sloboda Front – Initiative Russia – Current Target: Recapture Kupyansk
Positional fighting continues but there were no confirmed nor claimed advances in the sector.
Siversky Donets Front – Initiative Russia – Current Targets: Zherebets River, Siversk, & Chasiv Yar
Zherebets River– Russian forces advanced towards Torske (11.5 miles W of Kreminna).
Chasiv Yar (Around Bakhmut) – Positional fighting continues but there were no confirmed nor claimed advances.
Donetsk Front – Initiative Russia – Current Targets: Avdiivka, Pervomaiske, Novomykhailivka, and to advance from occupied Marinka
Avdiivka – Russian forces advanced in western Stepove (5 miles NW of Avdiivka) and east of Stepove. Russian sources also claim advanced northwest of Avdiivka near the Avdiivka Coke Plant, but this has not been confirmed.
Pervomaiske – Russian sources claim that Russian forces have advanced near Pervomaiske, but this has not been confirmed.
Around Marinka – Russian sources claim that Russian forces advanced north of Marinka, but this has not been confirmed.
Novomykhailivka – Russian sources claim that Russian forces advanced near Novomykhailivka.
Zaporizhia Front – Initiative Russia – Target: Recapture Robotyne
Positional fighting continues but there were no confirmed nor claimed advances in the sector.
Left Bank Front – Initiative Russia – Current Target: Recapture Krynky
Positional fighting continues but there were no confirmed nor claimed advances in the sector.
Ukraine News
Ukraine has created the People’s Drone project to encourage private citizens to develop drones for use by the military. Participants can take a free engineering course on the building of drones. Once they build a drone, they turn them over to be tested, and if they pass, they are delivered to the military. One hundred drones have already been tested with 80% being transferred to the military.
Ukrainian figure skater Ivan Shmuratko competed in the European Figure Skating Championship in Lithuania wearing a blood-red stain on his shirt to draw attention to civilians be killed by Russian missile attacks.
Russia News
Russian law enforcement conducted a raid at a Wildberries warehouse, the Russian equivalent to Amazon.Com. 700 migrant workers were rounded up and conscripted into the Russian military to be sent to Ukraine. Russia is conducting more and more such raids to build up their forces afraid of initiating a general mobilization before the presidential election.
Russia continues to conscript Russian criminals from prisons as they are ten to sixty times cheaper to pay.
Russia continues to get around international sanctions to procure the components they need for weapon production. And they recently purchased cheap commercial flashlights from China to use on the battlefield as they are not on the sanction list.
Russian Activity in Occupied Ukraine
Russia announced $4.9 million in grants to NGOs in occupied Kherson to increase Russian support in the region.
Ukraine Ally Support
Recently appointed French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné made his inaugural international trip to Kyiv to pay respects to the fallen Ukrainian soldiers and to discuss with President Zelensky the creation of joint French/Ukrainian drone production. They also discussed the international Peace Formula to end the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden gave a press interview pleading Congress to continue funding Ukraine as the alternative of Ukraine losing will cost the US much more.
Newly elected Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that there is no place within the Polish government for those who are not in support of Ukraine. Tusk said that Ukraine’s defense was Poland’s number one priority.
Romanian farmers ended their nearly two-month blockade of the Siret border crossing with Ukraine.
Denmark pledged another $22 million in aid to rebuild Mykolaiv bringing their total aid for this cause to $125 million. The money will be used to rebuild schools, energy infrastructure, and agricultural buildings.
Source Materials
Institute for the Study of War – understandingwar.org
The Kyiv Post – kyivpost.com
The Kyiv Independent – kyivindependent.com
Militaryland.net (maps)