Hours after a missile strike killed 11 people in Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, Vladimir Putin claimed losses on the Ukrainian side were “nearing catastrophic”, acknowledging the losses on his side and the need for his country’s armed forces to have more equipment, such as precision missiles. and drones. Soon after, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, gave an assessment of the Ukrainian offensive that contradicted the Russian leader’s statements.
War is not only waged on the ground. As proof that the battle for information and propaganda weighs heavily, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Kovalyov emphasized the liberation of “more than 100 square kilometers” in the eastern and southern regions of the country, while Moscow did not miss the opportunity to upload images. showing captured Leopard tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. “These are our trophies,” Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement.
“The objectives of the special operation are changing due to the current situation, but overall we are not changing anything. The issue of demilitarization [da Ucrânia] remains in practice.” Vladimir Putin
The Russian president, in a meeting with journalists and bloggers writing about the special military operation, admitted the losses of recent days, highlighting what he considers a disastrous “enemy” offensive. “Their losses are approaching a level that can be described as catastrophic. We have 10 times less losses than those of the armed forces of Ukraine,” he claimed.
His ally and at the same time opponent of the military leadership Prigozhin decided to respond to the letter. “On the offensive, she [ucranianos] do things skillfully. They cut off certain areas towards Zaporizhia and at the same time cover their left flank. They proceed cautiously and calmly. They lost a few Leopard and Bradley, it’s normal combat losses,” he said in a video.
In a rare moment, Putin acknowledged that his country’s armed forces are short of equipment and have lost 54 tanks in recent days. On the other hand, he estimated at 160 the number of tanks and 360 armored vehicles destroyed by his forces, “about 25% or perhaps 30%” of the vehicles supplied by the West, according to his records.
To the public – the meeting was broadcast on TV – Putin explained that “unlike the current authorities in Ukraine”, Moscow “cannot resort to terrorist methods”. The explanation: “After all, we have a state, a country. And they have a regime based on terror,” said the man who has an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes.
During the night, an airstrike in Kryvyi Rig, a town in central Ukraine, hit several sites, most notably a five-story apartment building, killing 11 residents. Zelensky, who was born in that city, said Russian troops waged war against “people, residential buildings and ordinary cities”.
In addition, the two largest cities, Kiev and Kharkiv, were again the target of missile and drone attacks. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia launched 14 cruise missiles and four Iranian-made drones during the night, intercepting 10 missiles and a drone. Already in the morning another missile was shot down by air defenses.
On the day NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with the head of diplomacy and the US president, Antony Blinken himself announced yet another military aid package to Ukraine. There are $325 million in 25 armored vehicles, anti-tank weapons, ammunition for the HIMARS system, among other equipment.
disinformation campaign
France’s foreign minister denounced a Russian disinformation campaign that relied on creating fake pages of real social media, as well as government websites – and at the same time fake accounts on social networks to distribute the content. “The campaign is a further demonstration of the hybrid strategy that Russia is using to undermine the conditions for peaceful democratic debate and thereby undermine our democratic institutions,” said Catherine Colonna.
“France condemns these actions unworthy of a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council,” he said of the campaign conducted by “Russian actors” with “state entities or entities associated with the Russian state” and with embassies and cultural centers Russians to actively participate in the dissemination of content.
Four French newspapers and three German publications were used in the scheme, which included publishing bogus articles on a page identical to the newspapers’ legitimate websites, but with different domains (e.g. .ltd instead of .fr). “No attempt at manipulation will prevent France from supporting Ukraine in the face of Russia’s war of aggression,” Colonna concluded.
Source: DN
