A high-ranking Ukrainian representative in eastern Ukraine said today that Ukrainian forces hit a hotel where Russian private army “Wagner” fighters were stationed and killed large numbers of them, Reuters reported.
The news was announced by Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk region, the main part of which is occupied by Russia. The information cannot be confirmed by Reuters.
In an interview on Ukrainian television, Gaidai said that Ukrainian forces hit a hotel in the town of Kadiivka, west of Luhansk, on Saturday. Photos posted on Telegram show a ruined building.
“They had a small crack there, right where the Wagner’s command post was,” Gaidai said, adding, “A large number of those who were there died.”
There are no comments from the Russian Defense Ministry so far.
The governor of the Luhansk region did not provide the death toll, but said the survivors lacked adequate medical care. “I am sure that at least 50% of those who managed to survive will die before receiving medical help. This is because even in our Luhansk region they stole equipment,” he said.
Some Ukrainian media quoted local officials as saying the hotel had been closed for some time.
Gaidai has previously reported Ukrainian attacks on targets in the Luhansk region, including an attack on a Wagner command post in the town of Popasna in August.
The Ukrainian military today claimed responsibility for a series of weekend attacks on command posts and warehouses in Russian-occupied territories, the DPA reported. The statement did not specify specific targets but noted that the attacks were carried out using artillery and rockets.
Russia reported multiple Ukrainian artillery strikes on the southeastern city of Melitopol on Saturday. Russian air defenses were active in Melitopol as well as Simferopol on the Crimean peninsula.
The Russian advance into Ukraine is likely to be halted for months
Russia currently lacks the capabilities to seize new territory in Ukraine, British intelligence believes, although Moscow says despite its failures, large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine will be under its control, DPA said.
The Defense Ministry in London said Russia probably still aims to extend its control over the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. All four regions were illegally annexed by Moscow in late September. However, the Kremlin does not currently control the entire territory of these areas either politically or militarily, and Kiev has made significant progress in recapturing its territory in recent months.
“Russia’s strategy is unlikely to achieve its goals any time soon. It is highly unlikely that the Russian military will currently be able to create an effective strike force capable of capturing these areas,” an intelligence briefing said today. British. “Russian ground forces are unlikely to make significant progress in the coming months,” the briefing added.
General Armageddon disciplined and stabilized the Russian forces
General Armageddon disciplines and stabilizes Russian forces in Ukraine, writes journalist James Kilner in the British Daily Telegraph.
Sergey Surovikin is a dangerous opponent for the Ukrainians, intending to subdue them with the help of cold weather. He has stabilized the front lines of Russian forces since he took command in October and has disciplined the Kremlin’s military, Kilner said.
According to analysts, Surovikin’s organizational skills and lack of scruples make him a dangerous opponent for the Ukrainian military. “He’s probably the most competent commander Russia has appointed so far,” said Dara Massicot, a senior policy researcher at the Rand Corporation, a US think tank.
Surovikin took command of Russian forces in Ukraine at a time when they were disorganized and demoralized, Kilner noted. Their advance into Kharkiv Oblast in northeastern Ukraine was repulsed, their control over southern Kherson Oblast was weakening, and with the help of their Western-made long-range artillery, Ukrainian forces were destroying the Russian supply lines. Desperate to reverse course, Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed General Surovikin, a 56-year veteran of campaigns in Syria and Chechnya, to command Russian forces in Ukraine.
Surovikin’s first challenge was to convince Putin to allow Russian forces to withdraw from Kherson, the most important settlement Russia captured after its troops invaded Ukraine in February. “During this operation, there were forecasts that the withdrawal across the river would lead to heavy losses for the Russian forces. This did not happen,” Masicut commented.
After the withdrawal, Russian soldiers dug a network of trenches adapted to the natural characteristics of the Dnieper River and difficult for Ukrainian forces to penetrate.
Surovikin has been called General Armageddon because he carried out attacks on civilian areas of Syria in 2017, when he was the commander of Russian forces fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Analysts say it is now pursuing the same strategy. Russian forces are currently subjecting Kherson to artillery fire on a daily basis and targeting civilian infrastructure across Ukraine with missiles and drones. The Kremlin’s goal is clear, analysts say: to break the will of the Ukrainians, who will be forced to endure temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius, without heating or electricity.
Russian soldiers in Ukraine are not happy with the top leadership
Some Russian officers fighting in Ukraine are unhappy with senior military leaders and President Vladimir Putin over the war’s misconduct, an influential Russian nationalist blogger said after visiting the conflict zone, Reuters reported.
According to Igor Girkin, a nationalist and former FSB officer who helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014 and then organized pro-Russian militias in eastern Ukraine, there is some discontent with Russia’s top leadership.
In a scathing 90-minute video analyzing Russia’s conduct of the war, Girkin said that “the fish’s head is completely messed up” and that the Russian military needs to reform and recruit competent people who could lead a successful military campaign.
Some of the army’s middle ranks, Girkin said, have openly expressed their displeasure with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and even with Putin.
“It’s not just me, people aren’t blind and deaf at all. Mid-level people don’t even hide their opinions, which, how to say, aren’t entirely flattering to the president or the defense minister,” Girkin said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry declined to comment on comments by Girkin, who has repeatedly criticized Putin’s close ally Shoigu for battlefield defeats Russia suffered during the war.
In modern Russia, public criticism directed at Putin is rare, although nationalist bloggers have been vocal about the conduct of the war, especially the heavy Russian defeats in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine in September.
Girkin was convicted in absentia by Dutch judges of murder for his role in the downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014, which killed 298 passengers and crew. Russia, which has repeatedly denied shooting down the plane, has rejected the verdict, Reuters recalled.
Ukrainian President Zelensky spoke with the leaders of the United States, France and Turkey
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held a series of telephone conversations yesterday with US President Joe Biden, as well as French and Turkish leaders Emmanuel Macron and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Reuters reported.
Although Zelensky has spoken numerous times with his three colleagues since the start of the Russian invasion, the bundling of so many conversations into one day is unusual and speaks to an increase in diplomatic activity around the war, the agency commented.
“We are constantly working together with our partners,” Zelensky said in his evening video address and added that he expected some “major results” in the new week from a series of international events devoted to the situation in Ukraine.
He said he thanked Joe Biden for the “unprecedented defensive and financial” aid the United States has provided to Ukraine and spoke with the US president about effective air defense systems to protect the population.
Earlier, Zelensky said he had a “very substantive” conversation with Macron on “defence, energy, economics, diplomacy” that lasted more than an hour, as well as a “very specific” conversation with Erdogan about the security of exports of Ukrainian wheat.
