There Russia can’t break through the Ukrainian front lineat the cost of preventing it by sending NATO military. The worry about what could turn into a new one in the coming weeks Russian advance it doesn’t just worry Kievwhich began to receive the first supplies of weapons from United States after the approval of the latest aid package of around 60 billion dollars. The fear that men of Vladimir Putin can spread is also present atElishaso much so that, while Fly razed the town of Chasiv Yarone of the objectives of his slow advance, and conquered the village of Berdichyalways in the area of AvdiivkaPresident Emmanuel Macron returns to envisage the direct involvement of European soldiers in the conflict: “If the Russians were to break through the front lines, if there was a Ukrainian request – he said in an interview withEconomist – we should legitimately ask ourselves the question” whether to send European soldiers. “Excluding it a priori does not mean learning the lesson of the last two years”, when the NATO countries had initially excluded the sending of tanks and planes to Ukraine before changing his mind, he added. We didn’t have to wait long, however, to hear Kiev’s admission of a collapse on its front: “The situation is such that the enemy managed to break through in this settlement (Ocheretiny, ed). One part, under enemy control, is under our fire control. We are taking measures to drive them out from there. They are underway heavy fightingthe Ukrainian Armed Forces are controlling the situation,” the spokesman for the military command reported on TV Khortytsia Nazar Voloshyn quoted by Rbc-Ukraine.
The French head of state did nothing but repeat an idea that he had already presented on February 26, at the end of the Paris Conference on Ukraine. In that case he spoke precisely of “a dispatch of Western troops” which “cannot be ruled out” in the future. “We will do everything that needs to be done so that Russia cannot win this war,” Macron said, adding that “to achieve this objective, everything is possible” and the sending of Western troops in the future cannot “to be excluded”. (HANDLE).
THE RUSSIAN ADVANCE – What the battlefield tells us is precisely a gradual, slow, but constant advance of the Russian army which, as the months pass, begins to benefit from the greater military availability and personnel compared to Kiev, with Western aid becoming less frequent and difficult to unlock. Just on Thursday Russian forces captured the village of Berdichy which, they believe, is located on a strategic road for the supply of Ukrainian troops in Donbass. The logistics of Kiev’s forces in the region are therefore now seriously hampered and it should be possible for the Russians to advance to the river Volchyaalong which one of the main Ukrainian defense lines is deployed.
CHASIV YAR CARBONIZED – The other town that ended up in the sights of the Federation military after the conquest of Avdiivka, namely Chasiv Yar, also seems destined for a similar fate. A video taken by a drone and published by the international agency Associated Press shows the small city completely razed to the ground after months of incessant bombing. Among the gray rubble of houses and buildings, the small golden dome of a church remains unharmed for now, although it too was damaged. All around alone smoke, dust and rubble, in a city with a now ghostly appearance: of its 12,500 inhabitants, almost none are left. “The destruction shows the tactics of scorched earth that Russia used during more than two years of war,” he writes Ap. Conquering Chasiv Yar would give the Russian army control of a hill from which to attack the backbone of Ukraine’s eastern defenses, laying the foundation for an even heavier offensive.
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“MOSCOW USES CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN UKRAINE” – The US State Department has published a note accusing Russia of having violated the UN Convention onuse of chemical weaponsusing the chloropicrin, a suffocating chemical agent, against Ukrainian forces. More generally, Washington says, riot control substances are used by Vladimir Putin’s army “as a method of warfare”. “The use of such chemicals,” it is reported, “it is not an isolated incident and is probably due to the intention of Russian forces to remove Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and gain tactical advantages on the battlefield.” The United States is sanctioning more than 280 individuals and entities to impose additional costs on Russia for both its foreign aggression and domestic repression. Moscow’s response comes through Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov, who calls the accusations “hateful and unfounded“: “It is as if Washington does not understand that Russia and the Russians cannot be intimidated by their decisions,” he says, accusing the US of “targeting domestic high-tech, transportation and energy companies, with ‘goal of eliminate competition from the market.”
Meanwhile, attacks continue on other cities too: at least 14 people were injured by a missile bombing that occurred on Wednesday evening in Odessa, in southern Ukraine. On the other side, Russian air defense systems shot down during the night 12 Ukrainian drones over the Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod, Rostov regions and the Krasnodar Territory. Furthermore, in the morning, Kiev – through military intelligence spokesman Andry Chernyak – accused the Moscow army of having launched kamikaze drones from the territory of the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, taking advantage of the fact that Ukrainian forces cannot return fire to avoid an accident. Russian troops, it is explained, have equipped launch pads for drones right next to the sixth reactor of the plant.
