So far, nothing has been announced about the start of the major Ukrainian offensive. Russian information that this began in Donetsk cannot be verified.
(Photo: dpa)
Kyiv, Moscow According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Russia has thwarted a major Ukrainian offensive in the south of the Donetsk region. “The enemy’s goal was to break through our defenses on the part of the front that he believed to be the most vulnerable,” Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Monday night, according to the state news agency TASS.
The enemy had failed in their mission. The alleged offensive began on Sunday morning on five front sections, it said. The Ukrainian armed forces lost more than 250 soldiers.
However, the Russian field commander Alexander Khodakowski contradicted the report from Moscow. So far, the enemy has been “accompanied by success,” wrote Chodakowski on his Telegram channel on Monday.
According to him, the attacks west of Wuhledar are a limited tactical operation by the Ukrainians. Khodakovsky has headed the Vostok brigade of Donbass separatists since 2014. His units were incorporated into the Russian National Guard after the start of the aggressive war against Ukraine.
At first, the Ukrainian troops gave the impression that they were increasing the pressure on the Velika Novosilka front, where they had already made a breakthrough on Sunday. Meanwhile, a raiding party advanced almost unnoticed further east near the village of Nowodonetzke. “Traditionally disrupting radio communications, the enemy managed to put us in a difficult position,” wrote Chodakowski. The situation is in flux.
Kyiv does not comment on the alleged major offensive
The Russian reports were not confirmed by the Kiev side. The situation report of the Ukrainian general staff on Monday does not note any special activities in the region. There it was only said that Wuhledar and the adjacent towns had been shelled by the Russians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly emphasized that his country is ready for the long-announced counter-offensive to liberate its territories from Russian occupation.
Russia invaded the neighboring country on February 24, 2022 and currently occupies around 20 percent of Ukrainian territory, including the Donetsk region.
In his evening address on Sunday, the Ukrainian president made no mention of starting an offensive. Zelenskiy said at least 485 children had been killed since the Russian war of aggression began. These are exclusively victims whose data have been officially recorded. In reality, the number is significantly higher.
Selenski recalls deported children
Zelensky also referred to the more than 19,500 Ukrainian children who had been deported to Russia from occupied territories. So far, it has only been possible to bring back the “little Ukrainians” in around 370 cases, said the head of state.
Selenski keeps reminding us of the almost 20,000 children who were deported from the Russian-occupied territories.
(Photo: dpa)
In mid-March this year, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lwova-Belowa, in view of reports of deportations of Ukrainian children. The legal accusation is war crimes.
Fighting flared up again in the Russian border region
Meanwhile, in the Russian border region of Belgorod, fighting has apparently flared up again between the army and volunteer groups fighting alongside the Ukrainians. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov confirmed fighting in the village of Novaya Tavolshanka. Russia’s defense ministry said it had managed to stop a “sabotage and reconnaissance group of Ukrainian terrorists” from crossing a nearby river.
For some time there have been repeated fights and attacks in the Belgorod region, for which Moscow always blames Kiev. In fact, once again the intruders appear to be members of the so-called “Russian Volunteer Corps”, which is fighting on the side of the Ukrainians but consists of Russian nationalists.
Several members of the paramilitary organization also released a video on Sunday in which they claimed to have captured several Russian army soldiers and intend to hand them over to the Ukrainian side.
Mercenary chief Prigozhin accuses the army of mining retreat routes
The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner again raised serious allegations against the regular Russian army. In mid-May, soldiers mined a road on which his fighters wanted to drive out of the city of Bakhmut, which has since been conquered in eastern Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin said.
Prigozhin regularly raises new allegations against the Russian Defense Ministry.
(Photo: dpa)
He also published a document that is supposed to be an operational log from mid-May and in which there is also talk of exchanges of fire between Wagner mercenaries and soldiers. These allegations could not be verified. The Ministry of Defense in Moscow did not comment on this.
More than 15 months after the invasion of Ukraine, power struggles are raging in Russia’s military leadership, which are clearly evident. Prigozhin repeatedly railed against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, whom he accused of poor warfare and insufficient ammunition supplies for the Wagner fighters.
Research: Secret report on Moscow’s military problems published
Meanwhile, according to research by investigative journalists, the Russian military accidentally published a text about problems with mobilization for the war against Ukraine – and deleted it shortly afterwards. The Russian portal “The Insider” published a link to an entry in the web archive, where the text can still be viewed.
In the document, which was then briefly available in an online journal of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Russian mobilization officer Yevgeny Burdinsky named two main problems with regard to the wave of recruitment last autumn: “the unwillingness of part of society to fulfill military obligations” and “the provision of military equipment and the accommodation of personnel”.
This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:
US election campaign: Nikki Haley pleads for support for Ukraine
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley made a clear statement on the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine during a public question session on US broadcaster CNN. Supporting Ukraine is also about defending freedom and stopping tyranny worldwide, she said at the performance in Des Moines, Iowa on Sunday evening (local time).
The 51-year-old, who was US Ambassador to the United Nations from 2017 to 2018, clearly distinguishes herself from her strongest internal party competitor and former boss Donald Trump. “It’s about more than Ukraine, this war is about freedom,” she said.
What will be important on Monday
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) are starting a three-day visit to Brazil this Monday. For Baerbock, the focus of their political talks in the capital, Brasilia, should be the host’s relationship with Russia’s President Putin in the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
More: You can find the latest developments in our news blog on the Ukraine war