While the Ukrainian armed forces speak of intense fighting in the Donbass, the Kremlin continues to fire rockets at the infrastructure. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian secret service assumes that Moscow is slowly reaching its “military limits.” The 267th day of the war at a glance.
Zelenskyj proposes the exchange of all prisoners of war
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made an exchange of all prisoners of war with Russia a condition for the restart of an important chemical pipeline. At an economic forum he spoke about the future of the ammonia pipeline from Togliatti on the Volga in Russia to Odessa in the Ukraine. The line, which is more than 2,400 kilometers long, has been idle since the start of the war on February 24. “We don’t want to trade with Russia, we don’t want to help them – they are our enemy,” Zelenskyy said after media reports in Kyiv. “We could only come to an agreement if they first exchanged all our prisoners for all their prisoners.”
Kremlin: Peace negotiations fail because of Kiev’s unreliability
However, the Russian Presidential Office accuses the Ukrainian government of standing in the way of peace negotiations through its behavior. Kyiv is unreliable, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a telephone switchboard with journalists. Ukraine has repeatedly changed its position on whether it wants to negotiate with Moscow at all.
Peskow called on the United States to get involved. These are able to take into account Russia’s concerns. And if Washington wanted to, it could persuade Kyiv to return to the negotiating table. Peskov also stressed that participation in public negotiations was unthinkable for Russia.
Ukraine reports fierce fighting in the east
According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army, there has been heavy fighting in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk over the past 24 hours. Attacks on seven towns, villages and settlements were repelled. Fighting took place in Stelmakhivka and Bilohorivka in Luhanks Oblast and in Verkhnokamianske, Soledar, Nevelske, Marinka and Pervomaiske in Donetsk Oblast.
The Ukrainian army also destroyed a headquarters in Melitopol and two Russian army depots. Furthermore, civilian infrastructure in the city of Zaporizhia was fired upon by the Russian side. Russia carried out four airstrikes, six rocket attacks and 40 multiple rocket launcher attacks.
ISW sees Russian fighting spirit sinking
According to the US think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the Russian army continues to struggle with massive motivation problems, especially among the mobilized recruits. The Russian news portal “Astra” reports that around 300 men are being held captive in a cellar in the town of Zaitseve in the Luhansk district because they refused to go to the front. In Donetsk and Luhansk, the army maintains a total of seven such facilities for prisoners from its own ranks. Reports of mobilized soldiers being sent into combat without training and proper equipment continue unabated.
London: Russia uses dwindling reserves to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure
According to the assessment of the British secret service, the Russian leadership is ready to use up its last stockpiles of missiles to destroy Ukraine’s electricity, water and heat supplies. The attacks on infrastructure have become a key target of the Russian campaign, apparently hoping to break the Ukrainians’ spirit of resistance and trigger more refugee movements towards Western Europe. But if Russia continues attacks on this scale, it will have a significant impact on its reserves of conventional cruise missiles.
Moscow blames Ukraine for power outages
Despite much evidence to the contrary, Russia maintains that it only attacks military-related infrastructure objects with rockets. The consequences of the shelling, the loss of electricity and heating, are the responsibility of Ukraine itself because it does not want to negotiate, said Kremlin spokesman Peskov. The “special military operation” in Ukraine will therefore continue, “and its goals must be achieved,” he said, according to Russian news agencies.
Kyiv accuses Russia of attacking civilian infrastructure and homes in violation of international humanitarian law and the rules of warfare. According to Ukrainian information, several cities were again fired at with Russian rockets today. Accordingly, infrastructure objects were also hit in the city of Dnipro and in the Zaporizhia region. There were injuries and deaths.
Ukrainian secret service: “Russia is reaching its military borders”
According to the deputy chief of the Ukrainian military intelligence service, Vadym Skibitsky, Russia is coming under increasing pressure in the war against Ukraine. “I think Russia is slowly reaching its military limits,” he said in an interview with the “t-online” portal. “At least when it comes to the production of new weapon systems, Russian industry is severely restricted.” This is also due to the punitive measures taken by the West.
“It is the success of the international sanctions that has slowed down Russian military production enormously,” said Skibitsky. Looking towards Moscow, he also believes that a change of regime is possible in the near future. “In Russia, people are starting to understand what’s going on,” he told the portal. The goal must now be for Russia to no longer possess any nuclear weapons, he demanded. “The only solution is to denuclearize the Putin regime to remove its ability to blackmail the world with nuclear weapons,” Skibitsky said.
Ukrainian experts are allowed to examine impact craters
According to President Zelenskyy, Ukrainian experts are allowed to attend the investigation into the rocket hit in Poland. The corresponding confirmation came from Poland, the head of state said in front of participants at an economic forum. “Until the investigation is completed, we cannot say for sure which missiles or their parts fell on Polish territory,” he said in Kyiv.
According to Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, the participation of Ukrainian specialists in the investigation is bound by the regulations of international legal assistance. “If guests from Ukraine want to see the ongoing investigation, then it will be possible to show them, as I was shown today,” Duda said. However, active participation in the investigation requires a contractual basis “in the sense of international law and international agreements”.
Contrary to preliminary Western knowledge, Zelenskyj stands by his claim that a Russian rocket landed in the village of Przewodow near the border on Tuesday. The crater that formed there was too large to have been caused by just one anti-aircraft missile. But Zelenskyy said he wasn’t 100% sure what happened.
277 civilian mine victims since the beginning of the war
Almost five times as many people have been killed this year in Ukraine as in the previous year by mines and explosive remnants of ammunition. According to the annual report of the Landmine Monitor, there were 277 civilian casualties in the first nine months of the current year. Last year there were 58 people.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Moscow has used at least seven types of landmines, according to the report. Accordingly, there is also confirmed evidence that Russian troops planted booby traps and explosive devices in Ukraine before withdrawing and abandoning positions.
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