Russian army advances: village conquered again – Stoltenberg: “NATO countries did not deliver what they promised” | War Ukraine and Russia

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Monday that the Russian army has captured the village of Semenivka, near Avdijivka in eastern Ukraine. The Russian army is advancing rapidly in this sector.

The Russian ministry said in a statement that Semenivka had been “liberated”. The village is located northwest of Avdijivka, the Ukrainian fortress city that was captured by Moscow in February. Since the capture of this symbolic city, the Ukrainian army has been forced to remain on the defensive due to a lack of men and ammunition. Especially since its own counter-offensive failed in the summer and Kiev fears that Russia will increase its attacks on the front line in the coming weeks.

Moscow already claimed responsibility on Sunday for the capture of another village in the Avdijivka region, Novobachmutivka. This village is located near the village of Ocheretyne, which was quickly captured by Russian forces this week, sparking criticism from Ukrainian military bloggers. The Telegram channel DeepState, which is close to the Ukrainian military, blamed the leadership of the 115th Motorized Brigade, a unit deployed there, for “the collapse of defenses throughout the region, causing significant losses.”

On Sunday, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandre Syrsky, acknowledged that the situation on the front had “deteriorated”, with Russian forces, superior in terms of weapons and soldiers, having achieved “tactical successes” in several areas. According to him, “the Russian army concentrated its efforts in several sectors, thus creating a significant advantage in terms of forces and resources”, to “try to take the strategic initiative and break through the front line”.

The NATO countries did not deliver to Ukraine what they had promised and this had direct consequences on the battlefield. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this during a visit to the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

“The NATO allies have not delivered what they promised,” Stoltenberg said at a press conference in Kiev, alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. For example, it took months to wait for the US Congress to approve new military aid to Ukraine. The European member states did not deliver the promised amount of ammunition, the Norwegian said.

“This has had serious consequences on the battlefield,” Stoltenberg said. The ammunition shortage allowed the Russians to advance further on the front line, he said. In addition, more Russian missiles were able to hit their targets due to a shortage of anti-aircraft resources. Russia could also raise more troops because Ukraine lacks the capacity to carry out attacks at long range, the Secretary General said. “We are now seeing the consequences of that.”

According to Stoltenberg, it is therefore very important that there have been major changes in recent weeks, with military aid packages announced from the US and the United Kingdom, among others. “Now it is our responsibility to ensure that these announcements translate into real, physical deliveries of weapons and ammunition as quickly as possible,” Stoltenberg said. According to him, NATO countries understand the urgency of Ukrainian needs.

The Ukrainian president called on his Western allies to speed up arms deliveries to Ukraine to foil a new Russian offensive. “The speed of delivery literally means the stabilization of the frontline.”

The Russian secret service has arrested five suspects who destroyed a Russian army helicopter at a military airfield in Moscow last week. It turns out to be Russian youths, including a 19-year-old girl.

It was the Ukrainian military intelligence service GUR that carried out the destruction of the Russian army helicopter reported. It was about one Ka-32, which is used for fire-fighting operations. Images show the plane catching fire.

According to ‘Baza’, a Russian Telegram channel with sources within the Russian security services, the victims are three 22-year-olds, a 21-year-old and a 19-year-old girl. They come from Novosibirsk in southern Russia, Norilsk in the far north and Rostov near the border with Ukraine. The five are suspected of a terrorist attack.

One of the suspects – the man from Rostov – had just returned from the army and bragged the day before the attack that there was a large amount of money in his bank account.

The helicopter that they set on fire during the night of April 25 to 26 was under maintenance. At the scene of the incident, investigators found, among other things, a bag, a scarf, gloves, barbed wire and a liter bottle with the smell of flammable liquid.

It Russian army is dealing with a increasing number of deserters. That’s what the Ukrainian military intelligence services (GUR) say.

“Desertion thrives in the combat units of the Southern Military District,” it said. “Already have in total more than 18,000 soldiers leave the army.”

Most of them went off in the 8th Combined Arms Army, active in eastern Ukraine. According to the GUR, this concerns 12,000 men. 10,000 of them were mobilized, the other 2,000 signed a contract voluntarily.

In the 58th Combined Arms Army amounts to 2,500 troops.

In an attack on a police post in the Karachay-Cherkessia Republic in the Russian Caucasus on Sunday night two officers died. Report that local authorities.

Five attackers opened shortly before midnight from their car the fire on a temporary police post in Mara-Ayagy, a village about fifty kilometers south of the regional capital Cherkessk. During the gunfight, two police officers were killed and four were injured. All attackers lost their lives.

According to Russian investigators, the attackers also took part in one previous attack against police on April 22. This included falling two deaths. A jihadist guerrilla movement has been ravaging the Russian Caucasus since the early 2000s.

Several videos have appeared on Russian Telegram channels of worried Russians in Europe seeing large convoys of Western army vehicles driving towards Ukraine and Poland. One of the columns appears to consist of Dutch cars. “This is not good. It’s like there’s no end to it,” you hear someone say.

Read more about it here.

The two Ukrainians that last weekend Germany were killed soldiers. That’s what Kiev says. The men were ahead in Germany revalidation after being injured in the war against Russia, according to Ukrainian media.

The two men, aged 23 and 36, were stabbed on Saturday on the grounds of a shopping centre in the German town of Murnau (Bavaria). Not much later the police caught one 57 year old Russian on as suspect. According to initial information, it appears that the three men knew each other, a police spokesperson said. “There is evidence that a lot alcohol was in play,” Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrman (CSU) said on Sunday on the Bavarian broadcaster.

Dmitry Peskov (56), the Kremlin spokesman, claims that the Ukrainian army is in panic now that the Russians have the upper hand in the war. He said this in an interview with TV presenter Pavel Zarubin. Peskov also believes that Volodymyr Zelensky’s days as Ukrainian president are numbered.

Read more about it here.

The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian troops indicates that the situation at the front is deteriorating now that the Russians are attacking the entire front line and achieving tactical successes here and there. Are we at a tipping point in the war? What are the Russians up to? Is the long-awaited American support coming too late? Former Colonel Roger Housen analyzes.

Read more about it here.

“The situation at the front has deteriorated.” Oleksandr Syrsky, the commander of the Ukrainian army, said this on Facebook on Sunday. Russia “actively attacks the full front line and books in some sectors tactical successes“, he says.

According to the Commander-in-Chief, Moscow has a “significant benefit” in terms of troops and resources. In the past week, “fought hard“, with captured positions sometimes changing camps several times a day.

Syrsky admits that the Ukrainian troops have themselves withdrawn from the villages of Berdytchi, Semenivka and Novomykhaïlivka. The situation is currently “the most complicated” in the Pokrovsk and Kurakhové zone, the commander said, citing “relentless fighting.”

The Ukrainian army has been on the defensive since the fall of the strategic city of Avdijivka in February. One plays a role in this shortage of men and ammunition bother them.

The Russian military says one on Sunday village in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Fighting in Ukraine has mainly taken place in recent days area around Novobachmutivka place, says Russia.

The Russian Ministry of Defense also reports Ukrainian attacks Chasiv Yar to have declined. At the beginning of this month, the Russians reported having reached this larger town in eastern Ukraine, which Ukraine denied at the time. Chasiv Yar is considered an important place in the region, President Putin would like the city to be conquered within a few weeks.

The Ukrainian army leadership recognizes this Russia last week “tactical successes” has made progress in Donetsk and that its own positions have been weakened.

Ukraine can staff from the United States looking forward to. President Joe Biden signed a support package on Wednesday for 61 billion dollars, equivalent to 57 billion euros. In the short term, Ukraine can count on anti-aircraft defense, artillery ammunition, armored vehicles and anti-tank weapons.