Russo-Ukraine War - 01 April 2022 - day 37
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On 24 February 2022, Ukraine was suddenly and deliberately attacked by land, naval and air forces of Russia, igniting the largest European war since the Great Patriotic War. The military buildup in preceeding months makes it obvious that the unprovoked and dastardly Russian attack was deliberately planned long in advance. During the intervening time, the Russian government had deliberately sought to deceive the world by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.
"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 goal is the demilitarization and denazification of the country. On March 24, the UN General Assembly adopted a Western resolution on Ukraine, which makes Russia responsible for the current crisis.
According to reports, Ukrainian helicopters launched a missile attack on a civilian oil storage facility located on the outskirts of Belgorod, resulting in a fire. According to a press release published by the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations on Friday, April 1, 2022, there is a fire in an oil depot in Belgorod, Russia. The governor of the Belgorod region, Viacheslav Gladkov, accused Ukraine of attacking a fuel depot in the city of Belgorod, 40 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. According to him, the object was attacked by two low-flying Ukrainian military helicopters. The oil storage began to burn only two days after the city was shaken by an explosion in an ammunition depot. The Kremlin subsequently declared that the incident would be an obstacle to the continuation of Russian-Ukrainian peace negotiations. The secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (RNBO), Olexij Danilov, denied that Kiev was behind the attack on a fuel depot in Russian Belgorod. "For some reason (the Russians) say we did it, but according to our information it does not correspond to reality," Danilov said.
Zelensky said in a night speech that he had revoked the military rank of two generals . According to the AP agency, he said that they "broke their oath and betrayed their homeland." According to Zelenský, one of the generals led the internal security of the Ukrainian secret service SBU. The other man was the head of the SBU in the Kherson region. Zelensky did not say what would happen to them next. "Now I don't have time to deal with all the traitors, but in time everyone will be punished," he said.
The German cabinet approved the delivery of former East German armored personnel carriers, which are now used by the Czech army, to Ukraine, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported. In total, these are 58 units of upgraded BMP-1 vehicles, designated the Pbv 501 [PbV stands for PansarbandVagn] in Swedish Army service. They ended up on the balance sheet of the army of united Germany after the reunification of the FRG and the GDR, at the end of the 1990s they were transferred to Sweden, which eventually sold them to a Czech defense company.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that his country will send Bushmaster armored vehicles to Ukraine, which was explicitly requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a speech to the Australian Parliament. Morrison did not specify how many all-wheel drive vehicles he would send to the Eastern European country. They will be transported from Australia by Boeing C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.
Russia is moving its troops from Georgia to strengthen its position in Ukraine, which it attacked five weeks ago. Referring to military intelligence, the British Department of Defense said. According to British correspondents, three tactical battalions will be formed. These are to consist of 1,200 to 2,000 Russian soldiers who have recently been stationed in breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The British Ministry of Defense, in a regular assessment of the development of the war in Ukraine published on Friday morning and based on intelligence reports, said that the Ukrainian army had reoccupied the villages of Sloboda and Lukashivka south of Chernihiv. These municipalities are located on one of the main supply routes between Chernihiv and the capital Kiev.
Ukrainian forces managed to reconquer the city of Bucha, located a few kilometers northwest of Kiev , the local mayor said in a video statement. Like the previously liberated neighboring Irpin, the fighting parties have been fighting hard in recent weeks. "This day will go down in the history of Buchi… as the day of the liberation of the city by the Ukrainian armed forces from the hands of the Russian occupiers," said Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk in the video.
The mayor of Kiev, Vitaly Klitschko, has said that the bombing of satellite towns near the capital is taking place despite Russia's promises to withdraw its troops from the area. Zlicko told the British station Sky News that he heard the sounds of explosions "without a break during the day and night". According to the mayor, cities northwest of Kiev such as Irpin, Borodanka and Hostomel are shelled even after Ukrainian fighters drove away Russian soldiers. Klitschko pointed out that the fighting did not stop even in Brovary east of Kiev. People who want to return to Kiev after reports of the alleged withdrawal of Russian troops have called on Klitschko to wait "several weeks" for the situation to develop.
According to the Ministry of Defense in Kiev, Ukrainian forces managed to embark on an offensive in the north of the Kherson region, which Russia claims to control it. In addition to the conquest of 11 villages, Ukrainian troops seized several Russian T-64 tanks and other abandoned military equipment and delivered food and medicine to the local population. The administrative center of the area - Kherson - is the only major Ukrainian city to be conquered by Russian troops in more than a month since the invasion began. Russia claims to control the entire Kherson region, and Ukrainian authorities fear it plans to set up a puppet "people's" republic, following the example of pro-Russian separatists in Donbas in eastern Ukraine.
Many cities in the Luhansk region are under fire from Russian forces every day, according to the head of the local regional administration, Serhiy Hajdaj. According to him, the intensity of the attacks is so high that it is not possible to deliver humanitarian aid to people or take the slain from the streets of the body. According to him, the toughest fighting is now taking place near the town of Rubižna. "All villages are under fire. Lysychansk, Severodonetsk, Rubizne, Popasna and Hirne face air raids and rocket launchers on a daily basis, "said Hajdaj. "The most intense fighting is taking place inside the towns of Rubižna and Popasna," he specified.
The director of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant said that it was not possible to determine the degree of radiation to which Russian troops were exposed during the occupation of the territory. Valery Sejda said in a statement on the telegram channel of Enerhoatom, the state operator of Ukraine's nuclear power plants, that "in the territory of the power plant itself, the occupiers did not dig anything", but the thick dust that rose as vehicles passed through their lungs. Sejda added that it was not clear what the Russians were doing in the contaminated area in the Red Forest, and that it was possible that they could be exposed to considerable radiation there when they dug trenches there.
"It should be noted that information about fortifications and trenches built by Russian troops directly in the Red Forest, which is the most polluted place in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, has been confirmed," Energoatom wrote via the Telegram application. "It is therefore not surprising that the occupiers were exposed to significant doses of radiation and panicked at the first sign of the disease," the statement said.
The new President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, at a meeting with the head of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, promised that Ukraine would become a candidate for the EU "officially and quickly." This is stated in a message circulated on the website of the Ukrainian Parliament following the meeting. "We recognize Ukraine as a candidate for EU membership officially and quickly, and I promise you this from the European Parliament," she said in a statement. The President of the European Parliament also met with the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal. They, in particular, discussed support for the European integration aspirations of the country. Shmygal once again assured that Ukraine is fully ready for the next step in relations with the European Union, traditionally called for increased sanctions against the Russian Federation and thanked for the support.
EU leaders warned China at a virtual summit that if it helped Russia wage war in Ukraine or, for example, circumvent Western sanctions, its trade relations with the Union could suffer . This was stated by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. "No European citizen would understand any support for Russia in its ability to wage war. In addition, it would lead to a huge damage to China's reputation here in Europe, "von der Leyen said after virtual talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The President of the European Commission further emphasized that "China has an influence on Russia". According to her, the EU therefore expects China to "take responsibility for ending this war" and for Russia to return to resolving the situation through negotiations.
A total of 513 servicemen of the Ukrainian army voluntarily laid down their arms and defected to the side of the Donetsk People's Republic since the beginning of the special military operation, said Eduard Basurin, deputy head of the People's Militia Department of the DPR. He added that since the beginning of the day, four servicemen of the 25th airborne brigade and three of the 54th mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have voluntarily surrendered to the forces of the DPR.
According to Polish border guards, more than 2.4 million people have fled Ukraine to Poland . However, the number of Ukrainians crossing the border dropped significantly. Complaints about the lack of food and essential goods began to arrive at the points of reception of humanitarian aid for refugees from Ukraine in the Polish city of Wroclaw, Gazeta Wyborcza reported. "We have deliveries from abroad, residents are still bringing food, but the influx of aid, unfortunately, has been exhausted. The shelves are empty. The scale of aid is no longer the same as it was at the beginning, and the needs have not decreased," the newspaper writes, citing volunteers of one of the help points in the city. The situation is exacerbated by the inability of refugees to obtain legal work, as the bureaucratic procedures associated with obtaining work permits and individual identification numbers also take time, and state institutions cannot cope with the flow of applications.
At the same time, the number of Ukrainians returning to the territory of their state is growing. 406,000 people have entered Ukraine through Poland since the beginning of the war. During Thursday, 15,000 people crossed the Polish border into Ukrainian territory. Some of those who crossed the border from Ukraine went to other countries.
Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian army has lost about 17.7 thousand soldiers, as well as 625 tanks, 316 artillery systems, 143 aircraft and 131 helicopters, the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff said in a communiqué.
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