Russo-Ukraine War - 09 March 2022
| Su | M | Tu | W | Th | F | Sa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
"To initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." [Judgment of the International Military Tribunal]
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" in Ukraine in response to the appeal of the leaders of the "Donbass republics" for help. That attack is a blatant violation of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. Putin stressed that Moscow's plans did not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories, the goal is the demilitarization and denazification of the country. As stated in the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian military does not strike at cities, but disable only the military infrastructure, so nothing threatens the civilian population.
Michael Weiss spoke to a senior European intelligence official who said "From our estimate, the KIA figure on the Russian side was anywhere from 7,000 to 9,000 a few days ago.... Bad morale, lack of manpower" is a huge issue on the Russian side. "They're calling in reservists, offering money and contracts to people to go fight and, as you've seen, relying on conscripts.... One reason why Russian fixed-wing aircraft are being shot down is that cloudy weather is forcing them to fly at lower altitudes." Crispin Burke noted "7k-9k KIA would probably also leave behind 15k-20k WIA, MIA, and POW." This is 10% attrition of the Russian force.
Some saw the Russian bombing of a maternity hospital in Ukraine as a Putin prod to the West to overreach and enforce a no-fly-zone. UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss and US Secretary of State Blinken made clear despite Zelensky's call for a no fly zone after the maternity hospital bombing it won't happen. Truss said the “best way to help protect the skies" is anti-air weaponry. Blinken said: "Our goal is to end the war, not to expand it”.
The decision to transfer Polish fighter jets to Ukraine should be made by NATO and the United States, said Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. “This is why we are able to give all of our fleet of jet fighters to Ramstein, but we are not ready to make any moves on our own because … we are not a party to this war,” he said.The possible use by Ukraine of military airfields of other countries is an undesirable and potentially dangerous scenario, said the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov. Germany has provided a lot of assistance to Ukraine, including weapons, but will not provide combat aircraft, the chancellor said. The UK authorities will continue to supply anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, and will also explore the possibility of sending Starstreak man-portable air defense systems, said Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.
While several legislators pressed for the jets to be rushed to Ukraine, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland refused to commit Washington to support or facilitate the exchange. “I will continue to convey the very strong bipartisan view of this committee that these planes need to get to Ukraine,” she told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “There are a number of factors to consider here and there are some mixed views among Allies and even within the administration.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the U.S. and Poland to stop the 'ping pong' and sent war planes. 'Listen: We have a war! We do not have time for all these signals. This is not ping pong! This is about human lives! We ask once again: solve it faster. Do not shift the responsibility. Send us planes,' he demanded.
British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said his country would stand by Poland if it handed over the jets, noting that it could face the “direct consequence” of its decision. “And so we would protect Poland, we’ll help them with anything that they need,” Wallace said on Sky News. "In response to Ukrainian requests, the government has taken the decision to explore the donation of STARStreak high-velocity man-portable anti-air missiles. We believe that this system will remain within the definition of defensive weapons, but will allow the Ukrainian force to better defend their skies."
The Pentagon intends to transfer Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems to Poland at the suggestion of Warsaw, Adam Miller, a spokesman for the US European Command, said in response to a request from TASS. As he clarified, it is planned to "transfer two Patriot batteries to Poland." The US military department believes that this step will allow "counteracting any potential threats to the United States, allied forces and NATO territory."
Following the meeting of the heads of government of the Visegrad Group (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland) and the UK, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Petr Fiala said that Budapest's position on the issue of arms supplies by the West to the Kiev authorities differs from the position of its other participants. The words of the politician were brought by Czech television. "Hungary is reserved about the issue of sending military equipment and weapons to Ukraine," Fiala said. According to him, the introduction of the most stringent anti-Russian sanctions is supported by the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and the UK.
US officials and allies of Washington are ambivalent about the possibility of transferring Soviet-made fighter jets to Ukraine, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said at a hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Responding to the legislator's call to ensure the transfer of aircraft to Kiev, the diplomat said that "there are a number of factors that should be taken into account." "And among the allies, and even in the administration, there are some ambiguous opinions," she added.
Although Russian air capabilities are significant, their effectiveness has been limited due to Ukrainian strategic operational and tactical ground-based air defense systems, surface-to-air missiles and man-portable, air-defense systems, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said. The Ukrainian Air Force currently has several squadrons of fully mission capable aircraft, he said. "We assess that adding aircraft to the Ukrainian inventory is not likely to significantly change the effectiveness of Ukrainian Air Force relative to Russian capabilities," he said. The Iron Dome anti-missile and air defense system cannot be promptly delivered to Ukraine, despite Kyiv's calls, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said. “I would just say about the Iron Dome that you can’t just snap your fingers and get [the] Iron Dome [system]. It requires training [of personnel], the ability to deploy it and much more,” she emphasized, speaking at a hearing in the committee on foreign US Senate Affairs. "However, there are other things <...> on their list that we think we can do," Nuland continued, referring to the Ukrainian authorities' requests for weapons and military equipment from the West.
Russian President Vladimir Putin received a report on the implementation of his instructions to categorically exclude the involvement of conscripts to perform tasks on the territory of Ukraine, on his behalf, materials were sent to the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office for a legal assessment of the actions and punishment of officials responsible for failure to comply with this instruction, the press secretary of the head of State Dmitry Peskov said.
The topic is very sensitive in Russian society and President Vladimir Putin had denied several times that such a deployment would happen. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation discovered several facts of the presence of conscripts in parts of the Russian armed forces participating in a special military operation on the territory of Ukraine, almost all of them were withdrawn to Russian territory, said the official representative of the department, Major General Igor Konashenkov. According to him, "at the same time, one of the units performing the tasks of logistics support was attacked by a sabotage group of the national battalion."
"A number of servicemen, including conscripts, were captured. Comprehensive measures are currently being taken to prevent the sending of conscripts to combat areas and the release of captured servicemen," Konashenkov said. This marked the beginning of the split between Russian political and military leadership.
Russian forces are moving, albeit slowly, towards Izyum, southeast of Kharkiv, while also trying to lock Chernihiv, north of the capital, Kyiv, from all sides. At the same time, they are advancing north of Mykolaiv after failed attempts against the southern city and are trying to cut west of Kyiv in order to encircle it.
The military movements show that the threat of further escalation is far from over. It is possible that the Russian army will transfer more equipment, as well as increase its air raids and artillery shelling on civilian infrastructure as part of a campaign to put pressure on the Ukrainian military command and political leadership to surrender or agree to the terms of the Kremlin, which has said its military actions are only aimed at military targets. While the Russian military has clearly suffered setbacks, including reports of low morale and abandoned vehicles, its campaign continues and new troops have been sent to the front lines.
On day 14 of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, DOD officials have noted more than 710 missile launches of all varieties, nearly evenly split from being launched inside Ukraine and from Russia, a senior Defense Department official said. "We do believe that around Kharkiv, [the Russians] are reassessed to be just outside the city now. They appear to have gained about 20 km worth of distance. [There is] still heavy, heavy fighting there. We don't assess that they've taken the city by any means, but they have closed in on it," he said. "The same can be said a little bit about Mykolayiv, down in the south [of Ukraine]. We didn't see them over the last 24 hours advance farther to the north of Mykolayiv, and we estimate they're about 15 km away, but to the north of Mykolayiv. And they have increased their shelling of the city."
The troops of the DPR advanced 4 km and captured four settlements, the troops of the LPR advanced 2 km, established control over two settlements, said the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov. The DPR said that the army of the republic had liberated 74 settlements. At the moment, a little more than 50% of the territory has been liberated.
The Russian-led "special military operation" preempted and thwarted Ukraine's large-scale offensive against the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics in March 2022, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said. As the official representative of the Russian military department emphasized, this is proved by secret documents of the command of the National Guard, which came into the possession of Russian military personnel during a special military operation.
The Russian Ministry of Defense published the original secret order of the commander of the National Guard of Ukraine dated January 22, 2022, on the offensive against the Donbass in March of this year. This was reported to journalists by the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov. According to him, "in the order, brought to the command of the national guard of Ukraine, the plan for preparing one of the strike groups for offensive operations in the zone of the so-called" joint forces operation "in Donbass" is described in detail.
Russian Aerospace Forces on the ground and in the air claimed to have destroyed 89 Ukrainian combat aircraft and 57 helicopters, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. According to him, Ukraine receives information about the air situation at the expense of E-3A aircraft, which are on duty in the airspace of Poland. It is claimed that during the special operation, the RF Armed Forces destroyed 137 S-300, Buk M-1 and S-125 anti-aircraft missile systems. 81 radar posts of Ukrainian air defense were destroyed, which led to the loss of combat control of aviation and air defense of Ukraine. The Ukrainian air defense system is already "focal in nature" and cannot significantly counteract Russian aviation, the ministry said. According to him, 90% of the Ukrainian military airfields, on which the main composition of military aviation was based, have been put out of action.
Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office Igor Zhovkva said that Kiev is ready for a diplomatic settlement of the conflict in Ukraine and direct talks between the presidents of Ukraine and Russia, Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin. Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, the official said that direct talks between Zelensky and Putin are essential "to stop this horrible war." He stressed that Kiev's major conditions for such talks are a ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
Russian authorities have arbitrarily arrested thousands of peaceful protesters at anti-war rallies across Russia, in line with their increasingly brutal crackdown on those who disagree with Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. The global rights watchdog accused Russian police of using “excessive force,” against protesters while detaining them, and, in several cases, inflicting “abuse amounting to torture or inhuman and degrading treatment, on those in custody.” According to OVD-Info, a leading human rights NGO in Russia, 13,500 people have been arbitrarily arrested since Moscow launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
The Ukrainian army claims that the Russian side has lost more than 12 thousand people - how many of them were wounded, and how many were killed or captured, is not specified. On March 7, the adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Anton Gerashchenko , announced two thousand prisoners (the parties to conflicts usually tend to exaggerate their successes at the front, this estimate cannot be quickly verified in the context of ongoing hostilities).
More than 2.2 million refugees from Ukraine arrived in neighboring countries of the republic, the International Organization for Migration reported. More than 80 thousand refugees from Ukraine arrived in Germany. Over 259,000 citizens of Ukraine have crossed the border with Moldova since the beginning of Russia's special military operation. Of these, 157 thousand crossed the republic in transit.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
