Russian forces have begun a spring offensive in eastern Ukraine, this week’s reports show. Russia lost 6,090 soldiers killed and wounded over four days last week as it intensified offensive operations, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Oleksandr Syrskyi said Monday.
Between Monday evening and Tuesday night, Russia launched the largest series of strikes against Ukraine of the war so far that included the use of 982 drones and missiles. Four people were killed and 11 others wounded in four regions across Ukraine overnight on Monday. Eleven regions sustained damage. At least three people were killed and 27 others were wounded in Russia’s daytime drone attacks on Ukraine’s western regions on Tuesday. Ukrainian air defenses shot down or otherwise neutralized 94.6 per cent of the incoming aerial targets, the country’s defense ministry said.
This week, Ukraine has launched a series of successful strikes deep into Russia. It struck an oil terminal at the port of Primorsk in Russia’s Leningrad region and the Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim oil refinery in Ufa in the Bashkortostan Republic, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said Monday. Ukrainian drones attacked Russia’s Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga days after it resumed operation, causing serious damage to the facilities. Ukraine also struck a hard-to-track Bastion missile system in Crimea on Tuesday. Other targets that were hit in that series of strikes included troop concentrations and a drone control point in the occupied part of Donetsk region.
NATO’s energy facilities would be among the priority targets if Russia attacks the alliance, NATO’s annual report says. Ukraine and the U.S. have divergent views on Russia’s intent to end the war, Zelenskyi said. NATO Secretary General denies the reports that the U.S. could divert Ukraine military aid to the Middle East.
Putin asks oligarchs to donate to budget as cost of Ukraine war soars.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has asked oligarchs to donate to the country’s budget in a bid to stabilize the country’s finances as he presses on with his invasion of Ukraine, Russian online media outlet The Bell reported late on Thursday, citing unnamed sources.
The Financial Times also published a similar report, citing three people familiar with the matter. The comments by Russia’s president to a large group of prominent businessmen on Thursday made it clear that he is intent on pursuing the war to a victorious end despite the growing strains on the Kremlin’s budget. Russia will fight on, Putin said, until it captures the remaining areas of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region not under its control, according to two of the people.
At least two of the businessmen told Putin they would be happy to make voluntary contributions to fund the budget, the people familiar with the matter told the Financial Times. Suleiman Kerimov, an oligarch reportedly linked to the controversial recent takeover of leading online retailer Wildberries, said he was prepared to make a Rbs100bn contribution, they said.
