Ukrainian counter-offensive looms as Putin leans on Wagner

Photo of author

By Webdesk


Ukrainian troops refused to surrender Bakhmut on Orthodox Easter, despite ceding even more territory to advancing Russian forces during the 60th week of the war.

Kiev continued to collect war materials for a counteroffensive, and shifts in power in the Russian military suggested that President Vladimir Putin was dissatisfied with his army’s performance during a winter offensive, that it failed to capture the remaining areas of Luhansk and Donetsk that were not under Russian control stood in March to conquer. 31.

The Ukrainian army said the eastern city of Bakhmut was the scene of “bloody battles unprecedented in decades”.

Geolocated images published Monday suggested Wagner units had advanced in the northwestern part of the city. Russia’s defense ministry said it had captured three city blocks in the north, south and center of the city.

Colonel Dmytro Zovorotnyuk, who commands a Ukrainian battalion in Bakhmut called the Teronoron Force, said his troops faced tactics unusual for Russian forces.INTERACTIVE - WHO CONTROLS WHAT IN UKRAINE

“The Russians are attacking mainly in small groups of five to six people who, under the cover of artillery, try to penetrate the battle formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and engage in close-range shooting,” he said.

This was different from the broad frontal assaults the Russians attempted in the early months of the war.

Moscow said its paratroopers had succeeded in blockading the embattled city, preventing Ukrainian troops from entering or leaving it.

“Airborne troops are blocking the transfer of Ukrainian army reserves to the city and the possibility of withdrawal for enemy units,” the defense ministry said in a statement.

Both sides claimed that the battle caused more dropouts on the other side.

“During the last two weeks, the enemy in the Bakhmut area lost nearly 4,500 ‘Wagnerians’ and soldiers of the regular forces of the Russian Federation, killed and wounded,” said Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov of the Ukrainian General Staff.

Deputy Defense Minister Hannah Malyar said on Facebook: “Enemy losses in Bakhmut are many times higher. There are days when the difference is 10 times that.”

Ukraine estimates about 100 Russian dead per day in Bakhmut and about the same number wounded. But the head of the Wagner Group’s mercenary force said Russia had the advantage.

“Bakhmut is extremely beneficial to us,” Yevgeny Prigozhin wrote in a 3,000-word essay. “We are grinding the Ukrainian army there and limiting their maneuvers.”

He admitted what Ukraine has argued, namely that the battle was strategically pointless for Russia.

“The conquest of Bakhmut itself will not bring victory over Ukraine in the short term, the road to the Dnieper [River] or even the conquest of Donbas,’ he said.

Putin leans on Wagner to win the war

Putin appeared to put Wagner back at the center of his strategy in Ukraine after his military leadership tried to starve it of ammunition over the winter.

“Wagner forces appear to be receiving reinforcements, ammunition and political recognition – which is a stark departure from the Kremlin’s previous attempts to expand Wagner forces and Prigozhin in Bakhmut since at least January 2023,” the Institute for the Study said. of War, a Washington Think Tank.

“Wagner-affiliated sources announced on April 17 that Wagner is training up to three motorized rifle brigades of mobilized personnel to reinforce Wagner’s flanks in Bakhmut,” the institute said.

The spokesman of the Eastern Armed Forces of Ukraine Serhiy Cherevaty confirmed the cooperation between paratroopers and Wagner mercenaries.

“The main striking force of the enemy remains the mercenaries of the Wagner forces group, who are driven to the attack under the threat of being shot,” said Cherevaty. “At the same time, due to heavy losses, the leadership of this terrorist company has been forced to add regular airborne units of the Russian Armed Forces to their formations for support, which we also successfully destroy.”

Prigozhin also confirmed this cooperation.

The European Union last week introduced sanctions against Wagner as an essential part of Russia’s war effort.

It said Wagner “led” the attacks on Soledar, a city in the east that fell on January 12, and in Bakhmut, and “is therefore responsible for supporting material actions that undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine and to threaten”.INTERACTIVE - WHO CONTROLS WHAT IN EAST UKRAINE

The EU also approved RIA Fan, which it described as a propaganda channel controlled by Prigozhin.

Putin’s favor to Wagner suggested his displeasure at his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, and his armed forces commander, Valery Gerasimov, who attempted to starve Wagner of ammunition and conscripts during the winter.

That displeasure was probably due to the fact that Shoigu and Gerasimov had failed to take the remaining areas in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk that were not under Russian control by the end of March, as Putin had requested.

But Putin’s closer relationship with Wagner could also land him in legal trouble.

New evidence against Wagner emerges as trials await

Al Jazeera previously reported on pending civil lawsuits that its lawyers said they wanted to prove Wagner is a “terrorist” organization.

New evidence has come to light that strengthens those lawsuits.

On Monday, Russian human rights organization Gulagu.net released a video interview with two former prisoners who were released after turning themselves in to Wagner.

Azamat Yaldarov admitted that Prigozhin ordered his unit to kill children while taking control of Soledar and that he had killed 18 children in Krasnodar Krai and in Saratov and Kirov provinces.

Aleksey Savich said Wagner ordered the killing of all civilians in Bakhmut aged 15 and over and that his unit killed 23 civilians, 10 of whom were unarmed teenagers.

Savich also said he witnessed the execution of 80 Wagner fighters for refusing to obey orders and that he had fired on his own men for the same reason.

INTERACTIVE - WHO CONTROLS WHAT IN THE SOUTH OF UKRAINE
(Al Jazeera)

These testimonies reinforce existing evidence suggesting that Wagner killed needlessly and committed crimes against humanity.

Putin’s increasingly undisguised dependence on the group to achieve state goals could land him in further legal trouble.

On March 17, Putin became the first head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court. The charge was “for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children)” to Russia.

Ukraine is expanding its arsenal

Ukraine continued to assemble equipment and train fighters for its counter-offensive.

Military intelligence said it had deployed its first Black Hawk helicopter into combat and was looking for more.

Canada said it would begin transferring seized Russian assets to Ukraine on an Antonov-124 Ruslan transport aircraft. It had also sent to Ukraine all eight Leopard 2 tanks it had promised.

Britain donated a company of 14 Challenger-2 main battle tanks to Ukraine.

Germany on April 13 authorized Poland to send its MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. Poland bought 22 MiG-29s from Germany after the fall of communism and Berlin had to approve the change of end user.

Poland has sent four MiG-29s, plans to send four more soon and is preparing six more.

Slovakia had sent all 13 of its MiG-29s to Ukraine, but Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said not all of them were useful in combat. Only four were flown to Ukraine. Nine traveled by road. Ignat said some Slovak MiGs would be cannibalized for spare parts.

Meanwhile, Prigozhin said Ukraine had 200,000 troops in the field and enough equipment to send them on the offensive “in different directions,” he said.

But, he warned, “if the armed forces of Ukraine do not go on the offensive in the near future, they will gradually begin to lose their combat potential.”

Prigozhin said he believed the Ukrainian counter-offensive, if it came, could succeed.INTERACTIVE Refugees from Ukraine



Source link

Share via
Copy link