Rocket rain in Ukraine while officials speak in EU
2023.02.17 01:27
Rocket rain in Ukraine while officials speak in EU
By Tiffany Smith
Budrigannews.com – In an effort to ward off Russian missile strikes on cities and massed assaults on front lines, Ukrainian officials are expected to address a security conference that is being held in Germany on Friday.
Russia has intensified its ground attacks in southern and eastern Ukraine, supported by tens of thousands of reservists. As the first anniversary of its invasion on February 24 approaches, a significant new Russian offensive appears to be taking shape.
On Thursday, Russia struck Ukraine’s largest oil refinery and fired missiles across the country. The air force reported that about 16 of Russia’s at least 36 missiles were shot down, a lower rate than usual.
Ukraine claimed that the barrage contained missiles that its air defenses were unable to destroy, which will only make its requests for additional Western military assistance all the more pressing.
The Munich Security Conference features a number of high-ranking officials, including Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, Emmanuel Macron, the French President, and Kamala Harris, the US Vice President.
The gathering last year was held just a few days before the war started. Western leaders in Munich urged President Vladimir Putin not to invade Ukraine and warned of dire consequences if he did as Russian troops gathered on the border.
This year, leaders will have to deal with the repercussions of Putin’s decision to ignore their pleas and start the most devastating war in Europe since World War II, which has killed countless thousands of people and forced millions of people to flee.
The absence of Russian leaders from the conference, which runs through Sunday, will be notable, but senior Ukrainian officials are anticipated to address it.
In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated that he prioritized preventing Russian attacks and preparing for a potential Ukrainian counteroffensive.
He stated, “The priority for the near future is holding the situation at the front and preparing for any enemy steps of escalation.”
This week, members of the NATO alliance talked about the need for more military equipment for Kyiv. After their leaders met on Thursday, Britain and Poland agreed that support should be increased.
Ukraine has been advised by U.S. officials not to launch a counterattack until the most recent supply of American weapons is in place and training has been provided.
In a report on Thursday evening, the general staff of the Ukrainian military said that Russia had also shelled more than two dozen eastern and southern settlements.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm the battlefield reports and there was no word from Russia regarding the missile strikes or shelling.
One of the two regions that make up the Donbas, Russia’s current partial occupation of Ukraine’s industrial heartland, is the small eastern city of Bakhmut in Donetsk.
Russia has been pounding and encircling Bakhmut for months in battles led by the Wagner mercenary group, whose ranks have grown with prison recruits. The majority of its 70,000 inhabitants prior to the war have left, leaving Ukrainian soldiers rooted in.
“A lot of troops are being sent by them. Taras Dzioba, the press officer for the Ukrainian 80th Air Assault Brigade, commented on the Russians, “I don’t think that is sustainable for them.”
Their bodies are just piled up in some places. They simply do not evacuate their wounded or killed in a trench.
Dzioba spoke to Reuters outside of a defensive bunker close to the Bakhmut front lines, near a Howitzer battery.
Russia would use its capture as a stepping stone to advance on Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, two larger Donetsk cities further west. However, Ukraine and its allies contend that seizing Bakhmut would be a pyrrhic victory due to Russia’s losses and the time it would take.
The head of the Wagner group said in an interview with a military blogger who supports war that Russian forces would take weeks, if not months, to capture Bakhmut. This prediction was based on how many Ukrainian soldiers were put into the fight and how well his men were fed.
The conflict will rekindle long-running debates in Munich about things like how much Europe should build its own military and how much it should rely on the United States for security in light of fears that the crisis in Ukraine could spread.
A new pro-Western government was approved by Moldovan parliament on Thursday, and police said they found missile debris near the Ukraine-Moldova border.
In the meantime, Belarus stated that it would only fight alongside its ally in the event of an attack because it allowed Russia to use its territory to send troops into Ukraine at the beginning of the war.
According to Germany, 1.1 million Ukrainian immigrants arrived in 2022, more than double the 2015-16 influx.
The first such trip by Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen to Ukraine during the war was to coordinate with Russia over strikes on alleged Iranian targets in Syria but not to pledge arms to Kiev.
Cohen stated on Twitter that Israel would support Ukraine’s reconstruction and increase its aid to the country.
