19/3/2023–|Last updated: 3/19/202310:19 PM (Makkah)
Ukraine announced the continuation of Russian attacks on several fronts in the east of the country, stressing that the city of Bakhmut is still the main focus of fighting, and revealed that the death toll of Russian soldiers has risen since the beginning of the war until Sunday.
The Ukrainian General Staff said that the Russian forces are trying to penetrate the Ukrainian defenses in the cities of Avdiivka, Marinka and Shakhtar, in Donetsk Province, and Kobyansk in Kharkiv Province, and that the Ukrainian forces are confronting them.
It indicated that the Russian Air Force bombed more than 50 towns in the east and south of the country during the past 24 hours.
Bakhmut.. a counterattack
On the other hand, Russian media said that the Ukrainian forces are trying to launch counterattacks on the positions of Wagner forces in the city of Bakhmut, and added that fierce battles are taking place all over the city and are getting closer to its center, and that the Ukrainian forces are pushing more support for their forces in the city, noting that Wagner’s forces continue to advance despite the ferocity of the battles.
In Bakhmut, in the Donbass region, eastern Ukraine, the spokesman for the Eastern Operations Command of the Ukrainian Forces, Serhiy Chervaty, said that his units are capable of carrying out operations to evacuate civilians and wounded military personnel from the city.
In turn, Andriy Yermak, director of the Ukrainian President’s Office, said in a post on social media today, Sunday, that his country’s forces continue to defend the city of Bakhmut, and explained that clashes with Russian forces are still continuing in the city.
On the seventh of March, maps published by the American Institute for the Study of War showed that Russia controls about 40% of the city of Bakhmut, and the institute said that the decision to defend Bakhmut forces the Russian army to get involved in a costly and bloody war, and that the city has a strategic dimension of This particular angle, according to what was reported by the European “Euro News” network.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the army to reinforce the military deployment to defend the city, which has been witnessing fierce battles for months.
The Battle of Bakhmut is the longest battle since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and it has acquired a symbolic character for both Kiev and Moscow.
Russia losses
On the other hand, the Ukrainian Armed Forces announced today, Sunday, that the number of Russian soldiers killed – since the beginning of the Russian war on the country until today – has risen to 164,910 soldiers, including 710 soldiers who were killed during yesterday, Saturday only.
A statement by the Ukrainian General Staff, on its Facebook page and reported by the Ukrainian national news agency “Ukrinform” today, Sunday, said that the Ukrainian forces destroyed 5,332 tanks, 6,853 armored fighting vehicles, 2,568 artillery systems, 507 multiple-launch rocket launcher systems, and 268 defense systems. aerial.
The statement added that 305 aircraft, 290 helicopters, 2,159 drones, 907 cruise missiles, 18 warships, 5,408 vehicles and fuel tanks, and 262 units of special equipment were also destroyed.
Chinese mediation
Politically, on the eve of an upcoming visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow, John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator at the US National Security Council, said that it is clear that China implicitly supports Russia, as it did not condemn the war and did not apply sanctions to Russia.
Kirby added that the cease-fire plan proposed by Beijing in Ukraine is unacceptable, because it gives legitimacy to Putin on the lands occupied by Russia, he said.
The US official had other statements about China and Russia, in which he accused the two countries of trying to destabilize the international system, and added that the two countries do not want a world order led by the United States.
On the other hand, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his country was looking forward to a peaceful solution to the situation in Donbass, but the West was preparing Ukraine to fight, and stressed that Russia should make more efforts to develop its forces.
Putin’s statements were preceded by a tour he made in the Ukrainian lands annexed by Moscow, as the Kremlin announced that Putin visited the city of Mariupol, in the Donbass region, for the first time since the beginning of the war, and inspected a number of facilities and facilities in the city.
The Kremlin said Putin arrived in Mariupol by helicopter, before a private car took him for a tour of the city’s streets.
Putin also visited – earlier – the Rostov region, in southern Russia, where he met with the command center of the military operation in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said Putin had heard reports from the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, and a number of military leaders.
Putin’s visit to Mariupol was preceded by a surprise visit he made yesterday, Saturday, to Crimea, on the ninth anniversary of its annexation to Russia. He also visited the port of Sevastopol, which is the main headquarters of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea.
In other developments, the British Air Force said that a fighter belonging to it, and another from the German Air Force, intercepted, for the second time in a week, a Russian military aircraft, off the coast of Estonia, as part of the work of the NATO air police.
Britain indicated that the Russian military plane was a transport plane, and it was accompanied by two Sukhoi Su-27 fighters, in addition to another military transport plane.
On the other hand, commenting on the crash of an American march last week in the Black Sea, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the planes’ missions are not peaceful, and accused those he called “the operators of those marches” of engaging in the conflict against Russia.
