Russian troops ‘are humiliated’… but they can still crush Ukraine
Russian troops ‘are humiliated’… but they can still crush Ukraine: Officials warn that Vladimir Putin’s forces are gaining territory and now outnumber defending soldiers three to one
A general known as ‘The Butcher’ overhauled the performance of the advanceOfficials believe it will be hard to dislodge Russians from areas they have wonRussian forces launched a blitzkrieg on Ukraine’s second largest city, KharkivPutin also declared the ‘successful liberation’ of the southern city of Mariupol He ordered his forces to seal off the steel plant housing the remaining defendersThe U.S. meanwhile declared yet another round of arms shipments and monetary aid was destined for Ukraine
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Russian troops are being ‘ritually humiliated’ in Ukraine but they are still in a position to win the war, Western officials cautioned last night.
In their bleakest assessment of the campaign since the very first days, they admitted that Vladimir Putin‘s forces were gaining territory and presently outnumber the defenders by three soldiers to one.
Moscow’s troops failed in their initial invasion objectives, with Ukraine inflicting a series of humiliating defeats on them.
The turnaround has come after a general known as ‘The Butcher’, who is a veteran of the Syrian campaign, overhauled the performance of the Russian advance.
Officials now believe that with such a numerical advantage, and more effective leadership, the Russians will be difficult to dislodge from the territory they have won.
But they said that many of the Russian units now targeting the east of Ukraine and the Donbas region had not had time to properly reconstitute after receiving a mauling in the failed advance on Kyiv.
As a result, they were being fed into the new phase of the war in a ‘piecemeal’ fashion with limited impact, taking ‘relatively small amounts of terrain’.
Damaged market’s pavilions after shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 21 April 2022
Ukrainian servicemen fire a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launch system, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues
A Ukrainian serviceman works with a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launch system
One official said it may be driven by a desire by the Kremlin to secure a tangible success in time for the Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9 marking the defeat of the Nazis in the Second World War.
‘If President Putin is going to stand at the Victory Day parade, he will want to do so on the back of Russian forces not being ritually humiliated in Ukraine which has pretty much been happening so far,’ the official said.
‘I think that may have been a factor in their decision to commit their forces into the Donbas ahead of that force being entirely prepared.’
The warning came as Russian forces launched a blitzkrieg on Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, where one million remain trapped.
Rockets struck a neighborhood of Kharkiv on Thursday, and at least two civilians were burned to death in their car. A school and a residential building were also hit, and firefighters tried to put out a blaze and search for anyone trapped.
In a televised address its mayor, Ihor Terekhov, described ‘huge blasts’ and said the city in north-eastern Ukraine was ‘being furiously bombed’, with many men, women and children feared dead.
But Ukrainian servicemen in the Kharkiv region fought back using weapons such as the BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launch system.
In a boost to the Ukrainians, its troops reportedly destroyed at least two Russian fighter jets and an attack helicopter yesterday over eastern Ukraine. They may have been involved in the attack on Kharkiv.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon´s assessment, said the Ukrainians were hindering the Russian effort to push south from Kharkiv and Izyum.
Firefighters battle a fire at a warehouse after a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 21, 2022
The city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest, has witnessed repeated airstrikes from Russian forces
Western officials also raised the chilling prospect of Putin’s troops returning to Kyiv for a second attempt to storm the capital.
They credited the reversal in Russia’s fortunes to General Aleksandr Dvornikov, who was made overall commander a fortnight ago.
His takeover followed Russia’s failure to seize any major cities, its retreat from Kyiv, and the loss of 30,000 troops and hundreds of aircraft and tanks.
Since then its use of drones, rocket systems and electronic warfare has been transformed – potentially providing Putin with a platform to claim victory.
‘This is a new chapter of the campaign and, despite his previous failures, Putin is still in a position to win,’ an official said. ‘Russia has concentrated sufficient force that if they use it intelligently they should be able to destroy a large part of Ukraine’s forces.’
In the light of the latest Russian offensive in the Donbas, U.S. President Joe Biden pledged an additional $1.3 billion Thursday for new weapons and economic assistance to help Ukraine.
He promised to seek much more from Congress to keep the guns, ammunition and cash flowing.
The latest military aid, Biden said, will be sent ‘directly to the front lines of freedom.’
‘Putin is banking on us losing interest,’ Biden said. The Russian president is betting that ‘Western unity will crack… and once again we’re going to prove him wrong.’
President Joe Biden walks to board Air Force One, Thursday, April 21, 2022, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
A damaged Russian tank near a road in Zalisia village not far from Kyiv. Some cities and villages had recently been recaptured by the Ukrainian army from Russian forces
The new package includes $800 million in military aid for much-needed heavy artillery, 144,000 rounds of ammunition and drones for the escalating battle in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. It builds on roughly $2.6 billion in military assistance that Biden previously approved.
There´s also a fresh $500 million in direct economic assistance t o Ukraine for government salaries, pensions and other programs. That raises the total U.S. economic support to $1 billion since Russia´s invasion began nearly two months ago.
Biden sought to make clear to Russians that plenty more military assistance for Ukraine would be coming.
‘Sometimes we will speak softly and carry a large Javelin, because we´re sending a lot of those,’ Biden said, paraphrasing Theodore Roosevelt and referring to an anti-tank missile system.
The new U.S. military assistance is to include 72 155mm howitzers, 144,000 artillery rounds, 72 vehicles used to tow to the howitzers onto battlefields, and over 121 Phoenix Ghost tactical drones, as well as field equipment and spare parts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his gratitude to the United States in his nightly address in Ukraine, saying the military aid was ‘just what we were waiting for.’
Earlier in a virtual address to the World Bank meeting in Washington, he said his nation will also need up to $7 billion each month to make up for economic losses.
Putin claimed victory Thursday in the battle for Mariupol despite an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters still holed up at a giant steel mill, ordering his troops not to storm the stronghold but to seal it off ‘so that not even a fly comes through.’
Putin expressed concern for the lives of Russian troops in deciding against sending them in to clear out the sprawling Azovstal plant, where the die-hard defenders were hiding in a maze of underground passageways.
Putin´s comments came as satellite image provider Maxar Technologies released photos showing more than 200 of what it called new mass graves in a town where Ukrainian officials say the Russians have been burying Mariupol residents killed in the fighting.
The imagery shows long rows of graves stretching away from an existing cemetery in the town of Manhush, outside Mariupol.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko accused the Russians of ‘hiding their military crimes’ by taking the bodies of civilians from the city and burying them in Manhush.
As many as 9,000 civilians could be buried in mass graves in Manhush, the Mariupol City Council said Thursday in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Boychenko labeled Russian actions in the city as ‘the new Babi Yar,’ a reference to the site of multiple Nazi massacres in which nearly 34,000 Ukrainian Jews were killed in 1941.
All told, more than 100,000 people were believed trapped with little or no food, water, heat or medicine in Mariupol, which had a prewar population of about 400,000. Over 20,000 people have been killed in the siege, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The British Ministry of Defence said that Russia probably wants to demonstrate significant successes ahead of Victory Day on May 9, the proudest day on the Russian calendar, marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
‘This could affect how quickly and forcefully they attempt to conduct operations in the run-up to this date,’ the ministry said.
In other developments, Zelensky warned Ukrainians living in areas of southern Ukraine under Russian control not to provide Russians with their IDs, which he said could be used ‘to falsify a so-called referendum on our land’ to create a Moscow-friendly government.
‘This is a real possibility,’ he said in his nightly video address to the nation. ‘Beware.’
In the continuing war of sanctions and countersanctions between Russia and the West, Moscow announced it has barred U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg and 27 other prominent Americans, including foreign affairs commentators, from entering Russia.
The move was a response to ‘ever-widening anti-Russian sanctions’ by the Biden administration, the ministry said in a statement, and targeted people it said were shaping a ‘Russophobic narrative.’
Mass graves for the thousands of Mariupol victims ‘liberated’ by Russia: Satellite images show extent of Putin’s carnage as he orders troops to seal civilians in steelworks and starve them to death
The images, taken between March 19 – April 3, show new mass grave sitesThe March 19 image shows an empty field next to a cemetery on the city’s edgeBut by April 3, there were several rows of fresh grave sites visible along the fieldWell over 10,000 civilians are believed to have been killed in MariupolPutin meanwhile declared today the city had been ‘successfully liberated’He ordered his military to seal off the Azovstal steel plant, trapping thousands of Ukrainians inside with no access to food, water or other suppliesByDavid Averre For Mailonline
Fresh satellite footage has revealed the extent of the carnage wrought by Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s forces in the besieged city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine as hundreds of civilians are left to starve underground.
The imagery, obtained by Maxar Technologies, appears to show a dramatic expansion of mass graves which were dug on the edge of the port city in March to accommodate the victims of Russia’s indiscriminate bombing campaigns.
Analysis of a series of images taken from mid-March to mid-April suggests the site, which lies just 12 miles from the centre of Mariupol, now contains more than 200 new graves, according to Maxar.
The city, which was a bustling metropolis home to some 400,000 people prior to Russia‘s invasion in late February, has been utterly obliterated by eight weeks of constant bombardment.
Now, all that remains of Ukraine’s resistance there is a small contingent of fighters and civilians sheltering in the Azovstal steel plant, which remains surrounded by invading soldiers.
‘Hundreds of civilians, children, injured Ukrainian defenders are trapped in plant’s shelters. They have almost no food, water, essential medicine,’ a Ukrainian foreign ministry statement said this morning.
‘An urgent humanitarian corridor is needed from the Azovstal plant with guarantees people will be safe.’
But Putin today cruelly instructed his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, to command troops to seal off all routes out of the plant – effectively condemning those trapped within to a slow and painful death from thirst, hunger and exhaustion.
‘Block off this industrial area so that a fly cannot not pass through,’ the Russian President told Shoigu, before declaring the city ‘successfully liberated’.
The first satellite image, taken on March 19, 2022, shows a cemetery on the outskirts of Mariupol. A large empty field can be seen nearby the graves on the right. But the second image, taken on April 3, clearly shows several rows of freshly-dug mass graves running along the length of the field by the cemetery. Thousands of civilians are believed to have died in Mariupol after eight weeks of constant Russian bombardment
This image, taken on March 26, shows the expansion of the mass grave site in progress. Weeks before the horrors of Bucha and other towns north of Kyiv were discovered when Russian forces withdrew in early April, the citizens of Mariupol had already been forced to excavate vast swathes of land to clear their streets of the bodies
A local resident pushes a dog in a pram past a building destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 19, 2022
Emergency management specialists transport the body of a person killed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 21, 2022
Dead bodies are placed into a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 9, 2022, as people cannot bury their dead because of heavy shelling by Russian forces
Putin today cruelly instructed his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, to command troops to seal off all routes out of the Azovstal steel plant – effectively condemning the Ukrainian fighters and civilians trapped within to a slow and painful death from thirst, hunger and exhaustion
A satellite image taken on March 19 shows a large field on the outskirts of Mariupol completely bare, yet just one week later on March 26, several graves appear to have been dug.
A third picture, taken on April 3, shows several rows of freshly-dug graves stretching across the length of the field, symbolising the brutality of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the sheer extent of the civilian casualties.
Weeks before the horrors of Bucha and other towns north of Kyiv were discovered when Russian forces withdrew in early April, the citizens of Mariupol had already been forced to excavate vast swathes of land to clear their streets of the bodies.
Russia launched a savage campaign of air and missile attacks on Mariupol just days after the invasion began – a tactic its forces have continued without reprieve ever since.
The port’s strategic significance meant it quickly became a high priority target for Russia in the early days of the war.
Mariupol is the biggest Ukrainian city on the Sea of Azov and the main port serving the industries and agriculture of eastern Ukraine.
On the eve of the war, it was the biggest city still held by Ukrainian authorities in Luhansk or Donetsk, the two eastern provinces known as the Donbas that Moscow has demanded Ukraine cede to pro-Russian separatists.
Control of Mariupol means Russia commands the entire coastline of the Sea of Azov, and has a secure overland route linking the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow seized and annexed in 2014, with mainland Russia and the parts of eastern Ukraine held by separatists.
It links up two of the main axes of Russia’s invasion, and frees Russian forces to join the main offensive being waged against the bulk of Ukraine’s army in the east.
The city’s capture has both strategic and symbolic importance, boosting Putin’s hopes to demonstrate major success by Russia’s Victory Day on May 9, with operations set to ramp up to coincide with the celebrations, the British MoD said today.
But if Putin’s forces eventually erase all resistance in the port and claim it as their own, they will be left with a smouldering shell of a city.
Mariupol’s mayor Vadym Boychenko said earlier this month that more than 90 per cent of the urban centre’s infrastructure has been damaged, with more than 40 per cent ‘unrecoverable’.
Boychenko also said more than 10,000 civilians are believed to have died in the Russian attacks.
Investigations are on-going into war crimes in the city, with two attacks – one on a maternity ward and another on a theatre where hundreds of civilians were taking shelter at the time – of particular focus.
The final Ukrainian holdout in Mariupol is located in the Azovstal steel works by the harbour, where hundreds if not thousands of Ukrainian fighters and civilians are trapped.
Chechen warlord and Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov yesterday declared the plant would be in Russian hands ‘by lunchtime’, but Putin today ordered his military not to seize the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance.
Rather than sending his troops into the plant, which has a sprawling labyrinth of tunnels underneath it, Putin instead chose to have his forces seal off all entries and exits to and from the plant, effectively creating a tomb from which the sheltering Ukrainians cannot escape.
‘I consider the proposed storming of the industrial zone unnecessary,’ Putin told Shoigu in a televised meeting at the Kremlin. ‘I order you to cancel it.’
He said his decision not to storm the steelworks was motivated by the desire to safeguard the lives of Russian soldiers.
‘There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities,’ he said.
‘Block off this industrial area so that a fly cannot not pass through.’
Shoigu confirmed the plant was ‘securely blocked’, leading Putin to deliver a final message to Ukrainian fighters in Azovstal who had not yet surrendered.
He asked them to lay down their arms, saying Russia would treat them with respect and would provide medical assistance to those injured.
But the message was met with incredulity from Ukrainian authorities, who say Russia has time and again launched attacks upon previously agreed ‘humanitarian corridors’, preventing many civilians from escaping the city to safety.
Meanwhile, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss today announced a new raft of sanctions targeting individuals and companies believed to be aiding Russia’s war effort, citing the brutality in Mariupol as clear evidence of Russia’s crimes in Ukraine.
‘We are relentless in support of Ukraine,’ Truss said.
‘The depravity of Russia’s assault on the people of Ukraine is plain for all to see.
‘They are deliberately targeting hospitals, schools and transport hubs in Mariupol and beyond – just as they did in Chechnya and Syria.’
In a statement the FCDO said: ‘Since March 10 2022, Russian bombers have repeatedly dropped munitions on civilian infrastructure, including civil government buildings, hospitals, schools and transportation nodes.
‘The UK Government conclusion is that this is intentional targeting based on the types of civilian targets struck, frequency of strikes, volume of munitions and the repeated targeting of the same locations on consecutive days.’
Russia launched a savage campaign of air and missile attacks on Mariupol just days after the invasion began – a tactic its forces have continued without reprieve ever since
After Defence Minister Shoigu (pictured right today) told Vladimir Putin (pictured left) that Russia’s forces controlled the city – apart from the Azovstal steel plant – the Russian president hailed the ‘successful liberation’ of Mariupol
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered the Russian military to cancel plans to storm a Mariupol steelworks. Pictured: Smoke rises above Azovstal steelworks, in Mariupol, Ukraine, in this still image obtained from a recent drone video posted on social media
On Wedensday, a Ukrainian marine believed to be holed up in the steel plant posted a Facebook video urging world leaders to help evacuation efforts.
The man, who identified himself as Serhiy Volyn of the 36th Marine Brigade, said: ‘We have more than 500 wounded soldiers and hundreds of civilians with us, including women and children. This may be our last appeal, we may have only a few days or hours left.’
The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.
Meanwhile, Putin’s troops were ordered to shoot civilians in the city if they do not wear white ribbons on their clothes.
Russia was accused of forcing civilians to wear the white ribbons, a symbol of the Russian army, so that they become ‘bait’ for Ukrainian snipers – and in turn help Putin’s men find out where the snipers are hidden.
Petro Andriushchenko, the advisor to the Mayor of Mariupol, said on Telegram: ‘The occupiers no longer ‘mildly’ propose that civilians wear white ribbons to mark themselves out – they have turned to direct threats to open fire on anyone seen on the street without such ribbons.
‘Russians are gradually turning the city into a true ghetto for Ukrainians, at the same time using civilians as bait to detect hotspots.’
The disturbing development came as Zelensky said he was ready to swap Russian prisoners of war in exchange for the safe passage of civilians and Ukrainian troops who remain in Mariupol.
More than 100,000 people overall were believed trapped in Mariupol with little if any food, water, medicine or heat. The city’s pre-war population was 400,000.
A Zelensky adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said on Twitter that he and other Ukrainian negotiators were ready to hold talks without conditions to save the lives of trapped Mariupol defenders and civilians. There was no immediate response from Russia.
