Russian troops advanced into Donbas from Kharkiva key region to flank the Ukrainian positions in the north of Donetsk, while consolidating their control over the south of the countrybordering the annexed Crimean peninsula.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the enemy army spent the last few hours concentrating troops and weapons around Izium (Kharkov) and has intensified the attacks to definitively control that area.
Besides, Moscow would have moved airborne units and up to 500 military equipment to Iziumwhich is located 70 kilometers from Kramatorsk, a Ukrainian military stronghold in Donbas.
Little Russian advances
The Institute for War Studies, an American research center, confirms in its latest report that Russian forces made minor but steady gains both in Izium and along the line of contact in eastern Ukraine.
Russian forces In the last 24 hours they also took several small towns to the west of Izium.
According to the report, the Russians intend to outflank Ukrainian positions towards those areas, on the roads to Barvinkove and the Sloviansk communications hub.
He also indicated that the increasing concentration of artillery pieces is likely to allow the Russian forces to achieve their objective.
In 2014, the two biggest battles of the donbas war they consisted of two “kotiol” (cauldron), where the pro-Russian militias reinforced by Russian forces surrounded and crushed the Ukrainian Army,
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov anticipated “extremely difficult weeks” on Thursday due to the great Russian offensive in Donbas.
Reznikov assured that foreign aid to Ukraine will continue to grow, but its implementation, “the preparation (of the military) and the logistical issues” take some time.
“And while, Russia has already amassed forces for a major offensive in eastern Ukraine“, the minister wrote on Facebook.
occupied territories
The Russians also seem determined to retain the occupied territoriesin some of which the circulation of the ruble is already being studied and its integration with the annexed Crimean peninsula is being considered, according to kyiv.
“From May 1 we will be in the ruble zone,” said Kiril Stremousovrepresentative of the new pro-Russian authorities in the Kherson region, neighboring Crimea.
According to the source, the transition period when both rubles and Ukrainian hryvnias will be in circulation will last about four months. “Then the transactions will be only in rubles,” he said.quoted by the Russian state agency RIA Nóvosti.
In Kherson, Russian forces entered the city hall building on Monday of the city, the first that Russia took and the only provincial capital that it has captured in just over two months of its military campaign in Ukraine, said the mayor, Igor Kolykhaiv.
The Russians announced that the powers of the mayor “are being delegated” and that the new head of the regional administration will be the three-time former mayor Vladimir Saldo.
This Thursday the deposed alderman of Kherson said that “Possibly they (the Russians) intend to unite (the Kharkov region) with Crimea.”
Kolykhaiv denied in this way the information about the preparations for a possible referendum in the region in order to declare independence from Ukraine, as Donetsk and Luhansk did eight years ago.
“There is no sense in creating another quasi-republic. There are no preparations for a referendum,” he said in an interview with the Ukrainian media “NV”.
Almost a month without meeting
This Thursday Almost a month has passed since the last face-to-face meeting between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators.
And although the talks between experts from both countries continued electronically after the meeting in Istanbul last March 29the parties still do not approach their positions and today Moscow assured that it has not yet received Ukraine’s response on its latest proposals to reach a possible peace agreement.
“This morning, when preparing the press conference, the Russian side had not received an answer,” said the Russian foreign spokeswoman, Maria Zajárova.
Zajárova thus referred to some Russian counterproposals forwarded to kyiv after studying his version of a possible agreement between the parties.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly insisted on the need for a direct meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.because contacts through mediators and third countries will not produce the “desired result,” he said.
At once, many analysts agree that the meeting between the two leaders can hardly be held during the active phase of the fightingwhich, in kyiv’s opinion, will last for at least two or three more weeks.
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