Vladimir Putin has “significantly weakened” Russia’s huge armed forces by invading Ukraine, Britain’s defense chiefs said on Tuesday. They also stressed that the failures in the strategic planning and execution of the Russian president’s military campaign in Ukraine meant that he had failed to “translate numerical power into a decisive advantage.” Putin’s plan for a lightning strike on February 24, which included the occupation of Kiev within days, failed miserably. He has resumed his military campaign in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, dropping thousands of additional troops into operations there. However, so far his forces have made slow progress and have been repulsed in some areas by strong Ukrainian forces.
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In its latest update, the Ministry of Defense in London stressed that Russia’s defense budget almost doubled between 2005 and 2018, with investments in several “high-level air, land and sea capabilities”. Since 2008 it has supported the extensive New Look military modernization program, MoD explained. “However, the modernization of its physical equipment did not allow Russia to dominate Ukraine. “Failures in both strategic planning and operational execution have left it unable to turn numerical power into a decisive advantage,” he said. A woman holds a child after arriving from Russian-occupied territories in a registration and processing area for internally displaced persons in Zaporizhia / AFP via Getty Images “The Russian army is now significantly weaker, both materially and conceptually, as a result of its invasion of Ukraine. Recovery from this will be exacerbated by sanctions. “This will have a lasting impact on Russia’s ability to develop a conventional military force.” The Ministry of Defense estimates that about 15,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the invasion began more than two months ago, with the number of wounded or disabled three to four times higher. As the West sends more weapons to Ukraine, a senior US official has warned that Russia plans to annex large parts of the eastern part of the country later this month. Michael Carpenter, the US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said the United States believed the Kremlin was also planning to recognize the southern city of Hersonissos as an independent democracy. No move will be recognized by the United States or its allies, he said. Mr Carpenter has said Russia plans to hold fraudulent referendums in the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk democracies, which will “try to add an investment of democratic or electoral legitimacy” and annex the entities to Russia. He also said there were indications that Russia was planning an independence vote in Kherson. He noted that mayors and local lawmakers there had been abducted, that Internet and mobile telephony services had been disrupted, and that a Russian school curriculum would soon be in place. The Ukrainian government has said that Russia has also introduced the ruble as its currency. In the bombed-out city of Mariupol in the Sea of Azov, more than 100 people, including elderly women and mothers with young children, left the shattered Azovstal steel plant on Sunday and boarded buses and ambulances for the Ukrainian-controlled city. of Zaporizhzhia, about 140 miles northwest, according to authorities and video released by both sides. People ride their bicycles on the street as smoke rises over a Azovstal Iron and Steel Works factory in Mariupol / REUTERS Mariupol Deputy Mayor Sergei Orloff told the BBC that the evacuees were making slow progress. Authorities did not provide any explanation for the delay. At least some of the civilians were apparently relocated to a Russian-backed separatist village. The Russian military said some had chosen to remain in separatist areas, with dozens fleeing to Ukrainian-occupied territories. In the past, Ukraine has accused Moscow troops of transporting civilians against their will to Russia or to Russian-controlled areas. The Kremlin denied it. The Russian bombing of the extensive factory by air, tank and ship resumed after the partial evacuation, said the Azov Battalion of Ukraine, which assists in the defense of the mill, in the application of Telegram messaging. Mr Orloff said high-level talks were under way between Ukraine, Russia and international organizations to remove more people. The evacuation of the steel plant, if successful, would represent rare progress in alleviating the human cost of the war, which has caused particular pain in Mariupol. Earlier attempts to open safe corridors outside the southern port city and elsewhere have collapsed, with Ukrainian officials blaming Russian forces for shootings and bombings along the agreed evacuation routes. Prior to the evacuation at the weekend, under the supervision of the United Nations and the Red Cross, about 1,000 civilians were believed to be in the factory along with about 2,000 Ukrainian defenders. Russia demanded that the fighters surrender. have refused. Up to 100,000 people in total may still be in Mariupol, which had a population of over 400,000 before the war. Russian forces have hit much of the city in ruins, trapping civilians with little food, water, heat or medicine. Some residents of Mariupol left the city on their own, often with damaged private cars. As sunset approached, Yaroslav Dmytryshyn, a resident of Mariupol, jumped into a reception center in Zaporizhzhia with a car with a rear seat full of young people and two signs stuck in the rear window: “Children” and “Little ones”. “I can not believe we survived,” he said, worn out but in good spirits after two days on the road. “There is no Mariupol at all,” he said. “Someone has to rebuild it and it will take millions of tons of gold.” He said they lived right across the railroad from the steel plant. “It was destroyed,” he said. “The factory is completely lost.” Anastasiia Dembytska, who took advantage of the ceasefire to leave with her daughter, nephew and dog, said she could see the steelwork through her window when she dared to look outside. “We saw the rockets flying,” and smoke clouds over the factory, he said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Greek state television that citizens remaining at the steel plant were afraid to board buses because they feared they would be taken to Russia. He said he had been assured by the United Nations that they would be allowed to go to areas controlled by his government. More than a million people, including nearly 200,000 children, have been evacuated from Ukraine to Russia since the start of the Russian invasion, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday, according to TASS. Defense Ministry official Mikhail Mizinchev said that number included 11,550 people, including 1,847 children, in the past 24 hours, “without the involvement of the Ukrainian authorities.” He said the civilians had been “evacuated to the territory of the Russian Federation from the dangerous areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics” and other parts of Ukraine, according to the report. No details were given. Mr Zelensky also said at least 220 Ukrainian children had been killed by Russian troops since the start of the war and that 1,570 educational institutions had been destroyed or destroyed. Ukrainian and Western officials say Moscow’s troops are falling indiscriminately, costing civilians dearly and making only slow progress. The governor of the Odessa region along the Black Sea coast, Maxim Martchenko, told the Telegram that a Russian rocket attack on an Odessa infrastructure target on Monday had caused deaths and injuries. He did not give details. Zelensky said the attack destroyed a dormitory and killed a 14-year-old boy. Ukraine said Russia had also struck a strategic road and rail bridge west of Odessa. The bridge was badly damaged by previous Russian strikes and its destruction would cut off a supply route for weapons and other cargo from neighboring Romania. The attack in Odessa came eight years after deadly clashes between supporters of the Ukrainian government and protesters demanding autonomy in the east of the country. Supporters of the government in 2014 bombed a union building containing pro-autonomy protesters, killing more than 40 people. Ukraine has claimed to have destroyed two small Russian patrol cars in the Black Sea.
