The fighting in Ukraine enters its second year without signs of peace

The military campaign in Ukraine entered its second year of fighting this Saturday without its end in sight at the moment, quite the contrary: an offensive is expected russian and a Ukrainian counter-offensive, while casualties mount on both sides.

In the past twenty-four hours, Russian troops intensified their attacks, especially with the use of assault aircraft and artillery, on the eastern fronts of Ukraine, according to the report of the Russian Ministry of Defense, which estimated around 450 casualties in the Ukrainian ranks during the past day.

In turn, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that between yesterday and today the country’s forces inflicted 650 fatalities on Russian troops.

RUSSIA ATTACKS IN ALL EASTERN REGIONS

According to the Ukrainian command, more than 70 enemy attacks were repelled last day, mainly in the Kharkov, Lugansk and Donetsk regions, in the east of the country.

“In the Kreminna sector three Russian companies launched a powerful attack, but were repulsed. Of the three companies only two returned to their positions. The Russians left 70 dead and as many wounded.”said today the head of the military administration of the Lugansk region, Serhiy Hayday.

Speaking to Ukrainian television, Hayday described the situation in the region of “difficult but controllable”.

BAJMUT, IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Russian troops do not give up in their attempts to capture the city of Bakhmut, an important communications hub in the Donetsk region, whose surroundings have been the scene of fierce fighting for months.

“The enemy continues to try to break through the defenses and take Bakhmut. The commander-in-chief of the Eastern troop grouping, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, inspected the units of the defense of Bakhmut and its surroundings.reported the Land Army of Ukraine on its Facebook page.

According to the statement, “the fighting is taking place in the surroundings and outskirts of the city.”

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said earlier this week that the defense of Bakhmut is “important, but not at any price” and that there will be a fight “as long as it’s reasonable” and a counteroffensive is prepared.

Hence, it is not ruled out that the Ukrainian troops could withdraw to the west, towards a new defensive line, in case the threat of being surrounded looms over them.

This Saturday, the air raid alarms were activated throughout the territory of Ukraine twice, in the morning and in the afternoon, for 30 and 18 minutes respectively, without any reports of Russian attacks with missiles or drones.

IS RUSSIA RUN OUT OF IRANIAN DRONES?

An intelligence update from the UK Ministry of Defense on the situation in Ukraine published today in Twitter notes that Russia has likely exhausted its stocks of Iranian-made kamikaze drones and is looking to replenish them.

And he supports this supposition with the fact that since around February 15, there have been no reports of attacks with these types of drones.

According to the report, these drones do not have a good record of destroying targets, but possibly Russia sees them as a decoy to distract Ukrainian air defense from Russian cruise missiles, which are much more effective.

ATTACKS WITHOUT ADVANCES ON THE GROUND

The spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, indicated that the attacks by the Russian forces covered a wide geography of the eastern Ukrainian regions, but did not report any concrete progress on the ground or communicate the number of their own casualties.

The last official figure that Russia gave on the number of soldiers killed in Ukraine was in September last year, seven months after the start of military operations.

Then, the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, reported 5,937 deaths in the Russian ranks.

According to the count of the independent media Mediazona and the Russian-language service of the British television channel BBC, more than 15,000 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine in the last twelve months, more than those officially recognized by Moscow in the almost ten-year war in Afghanistan. .

Source: EFE