Russo-Ukraine War - 10 April 2022 - Day 46

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.

The head of Russia’s Orthodox Church has called on people to rally around the country’s authorities. Patriarch Kirill has previously made statements defending Moscow’s actions in Ukraine and views the war as a bulwark against a Western liberal culture that he considers decadent. “Let the Lord help us unite during this difficult time for our Fatherland, including around the authorities,” the Interfax news agency quoted Kirill, 75, as saying at a sermon in the Russian capital.

“May the authorities to be filled with responsibility for their people, humility and the readiness to serve them even if it costs them their life,” added the patriarch, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin. He said once the population unites around the authorities, “there will be genuine solidarity and the ability to repel enemies both external and internal …”

Speaking in front of tens of thousands of people in the Italian square of St Peter, Pope Francis called for a truce in Ukraine. “Put the weapons down!” he said at the end of a Palm Sunday service. “Let an Easter truce start. But not to rearm and resume combat but a truce to reach peace through real negotiations,” he added.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the United States is committed to providing Ukraine with “the weapons it needs” to defend itself against Russia as Kyiv seeks more military aid from the West. Sullivan said the Biden administration will send more weapons to Ukraine to prevent Russia from seizing more territory and targeting civilians, attacks that Washington has labeled war crimes. “We’re going to get Ukraine the weapons it needs to beat back the Russians to stop them from taking more cities and towns where they commit these crimes,” Sullivan said on ABC News’ “This Week”.

Sullivan said he expects Russia’s newly appointed general overseeing Ukraine, Alexander Dvornikov, to orchestrate crimes and brutality against Ukrainian civilians. Sullivan said that "no appointment of a general can hide the fact that Russia has already suffered a strategic failure in Ukraine." In an interview with CNN, he explained:" This general will only be held responsible for the crimes and brutality against civilians in Ukraine."

“No appointment of any general can erase the fact that Russia has already faced a strategic failure in Ukraine", US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union. “It doesn’t matter which general President Putin tries to appoint", he said. “But, as you noted, this particular general has a resume that includes brutality against civilians in other theaters, in Syria. And we can expect more of the same in this theater."" The commander of the Southern Military District has a reputation for mistreating civilians in Syria and other war scenarios, there are those who even dare to call him "The Butcher of Syria". Russia did not have one person in charge of the entire invasion of Ukraine. Each unit from different military regions acted without coordination and sometimes cross-purposes.

Dvornikov, born in 1961 and started in the army of the Soviet Union,commanded Russian troops in Syria from 2015 to 2016year during the offensive against jihadism, as well as against rebel troops opposed to the regime of Bashar al-Assad. During this offensive, Russian aircraft bombed densely populated areas with large numbers of civilians, especially in Aleppo. When there was resistance on the ground, artillery and aircraft were used to completely destroy the areas where the resistance of the population could pass, and in those cities where the resistance continued, chemical weapons were used.

His role in this conflict led to him being awarded the title Hero of the Russian Federation. In 2020 he was promoted to the rank of general by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Dvornikov is known as a ruthless commander and will apply the tactics used in Syria now in Ukraine. He was in Chechnya 20 years ago.

The West is convinced that Russian troops are tasked with achieving some kind of success in Ukraine by May 9, when Russia celebrates Victory Day, including a parade in Moscow with the participation of President Vladimir Putin. This may explain the accelerated preparations for an offensive in the Donbass after the withdrawal of Russian troops from northern Ukraine. At the same time, it is noted that the results of negotiations acceptable to the Russian leadership can also be recognized as "success". Western and Ukrainian intelligence allege that Russian troops are massing in the Donbass and Kharkiv region to try to launch strikes to encircle the Ukrainian group in the Donbass.

According to the Pentagon , Russia now had about 80-85 percent of its pre-invasion combat power. The Pentagon claims that about 60 thousand more military personnel can replenish the group, possibly at the expense of reservists. The Russian Defense Ministry claims that only officers and contract servicemen are participating in the operation.

Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak says President Zelenskyy and Russian President Putin will not meet until after Ukraine had defeated Russia in the east, which would bolster Ukraine’s negotiating position. “We are paying a very high price. But Russia must get rid of its imperial illusions,” he said.

Zelenskyy’s envoy for negotiations with Russia stressed in an interview with Al Arabiya that his country will not negotiate with Moscow over any inch of Ukrainian territory. “We want international security guarantees in the negotiations with the Russians,” Rustam Amirov said in an interview with Al Arabiya, adding that Donetsk and Luhansk regions are Ukrainian lands and are not negotiable. He also stressed that Ukraine is an independent country and there is no Western pressure on it, adding, “Our relations with the West are consultative, and we do not take orders from them, as Moscow says.”

Amirov also said that his country has made progress by removing the Russians from Kyiv, noting that Moscow is preparing to launch an attack in eastern and southern Ukraine, and added, “We will continue to defend [our country] until Russia is expelled from Ukraine.” He also said, “Russia considers us a ‘Nazi’ country, and this is not true. Our president is a Jew, and I am a Muslim.”

NATO is developing plans for a full-scale deployment of armed forces on its eastern borders. There are now about 40,000 military personnel on the eastern flank of the alliance, which is about ten times more than a few months ago, however, according to Stoltenberg , their number will only grow.

Russian forces’ shelling of Ukraine’s key port of Mariupol collapsed several humanitarian corridors, making it more difficult for people to leave, The Associated Press reported. It was unclear how many people remain trapped in the city, which had a pre-war population of 430,000. Ukrainian officials have put the number at about 100,000, but earlier this week, British defence officials said 160,000 people remained trapped in the city.

The airport in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro has been completely destroyed in fresh Russian shelling, a local official said. "There has been another attack on Dnipro airport. There is nothing left of it. The airport itself and the infrastructure around it has been destroyed. Rockets keep flying and flying,” the head of the city’s military administration, Valentin Reznichenko, said on Telegram.

Satellite imagery collected and analyzed by Maxar Technologies depicted a large convoy of Russian military equipment in eastern Ukraine. The military column of the invaders, 8 miles (or 12 km) long, was moving south through the village of Bolshoi Burluk in the Kharkiv region towards the regional center. Satellite image showed the convoy heading towards the Ukrainian town of Velykyi Burluk. The images show armored vehicles, trucks with towed artillery and auxiliary equipment. According to the General Staff, Russian troops tried to break through the defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Izyum and establish control over Mariupol.

Now everyone is waiting for the second echelon. And the second echelon are: 10 battalion tactical groups that travel from the Far East, the 5th army and those they deported from the north here - from Kiev, Chernihiv, to Sumy. According to him, the forces from the Far East have not yet reached the position of attack, and the troops withdrawn from the north of Ukraine are not yet ready for the offensive.

The loudest event of the day was the hoisting of the DPR flag over the city administration of Mariupol. Earlier, the flags of the DPR troops raised over the Kalmiussky and Left-bank districts of the city - Mariupol is gradually freed from nationalists every day. In the State Duma, Crimean deputy Mikhail Sheremet today proposed to unite the Republic of Crimea with the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions into the Tauride province within the Russian Federation. Residents of the regions do not seem to mind - they raise Russian flags everywhere and complain about the attitude of the Ukrainian authorities.

Again, reports began to appear in the reports about possible provocations by Ukraine related to toxic chemicals. Yesterday, the Armed Forces of Ukraine already attacked tanks with acids, and today the Ministry of Defense reported that now in Belogorovka, Popasnyansky district, neo-Nazis mined chlorine tanks on the territory of the water utility, which they plan to blow up. The Ministry of Defense warned that Kyiv is preparing provocations with mass deaths of people in order to again blame Russia and the LDNR in foreign media.

Onn the Eastern front, the DPR State Defense Committee banned the activities of the OSCE monitoring mission. In the village of Zvonetskoe, Dnipropetrovsk region, the headquarters and base of the Dnepr national battalion were destroyed by a missile strike of the Black Sea Fleet, where foreign mercenaries arrived the other day. In Mariupol, the cleansing of the remnants of the enemy grouping in the port area and in the industrial area around Azovstal continues. Several battles of local significance took place in the Zaporozhye region, the positions of the troops did not change. Also, fighting continues north of Avdiivka, near Novobakhmutovka, near Troitsky and on the outskirts of New York. In Popasnaya, the LNR troops are slowly advancing through the streets of the city, fighting is also taking place on the outskirts of Rubizhne and Severodonetsk.

On the Southern front, the Armed Forces of Ukraine again made an attempt to counterattack the Russian forces in the Kherson region. With the support of Governor Kim, the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to strike, however, the counterattack failed - the Ukrainian troops were surrounded and blocked in one of the villages. Now they have two options - to surrender or die, because they are abandoned by the command and are trying to call for help on social networks. Near Nikolaev and Odessa, the situation is unchanged. In the Nikolaev region and at the Chuguev military airfield, air strikes destroyed the S-300 air defense systems, apparently the same ones that Slovakia recently supplied to Ukraine.

A criminal case has been opened against the commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine brigade after the Tochka-U attack on Kramatorsk, the DPR Prosecutor General's Office said. The Armed Forces of Ukraine fired at the settlement of Novoaydar with the help of the Tochka U missile system. This was announced on Sunday, April 10, at the LPR representation in the JCCC and during the negotiation process. “From the side of the armed formations of Ukraine, shelling was recorded at 19.15 from the direction of the settlement. Severodonetsk Novoaydar, using the Tochka-U tactical missile system, the report said. Journalists proved that the Tochka-U missile that fell in Kramatorsk belongs to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It turned out that the rocket has the same serial numbers as those rockets that the Armed Forces of Ukraine used to fire at Donbass earlier.

The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that the Russian Armed Forces destroyed the launchers of the S-300 complexes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with air-launched missiles at the Chuguev military airfield. Air defense systems of the Russian Federation shot down eight Ukrainian drones in the air. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation destroyed the headquarters and base of the Dnepr national battalion, where reinforcements from foreign mercenaries arrived the other day.

Aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces hit 86 military facilities of Ukraine in a day, including two command posts. Since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine, 127 aircraft have been destroyed. In total, since the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the following have been destroyed: 127 aircraft, 234 S-300, Buk-M1, Osa AKM air defense systems, 436 unmanned aerial vehicles, 98 helicopters, 2052 tanks and other combat armored vehicles, 232 rocket launchers volley fire systems, 894 field artillery and mortar guns, 1975 units of military vehicles. This was announced by the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov. Operational-tactical aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces hit 86 military facilities of Ukraine. Russian means of air defense (air defense) in the areas of N. p. Olkhativka, Avdiivka, Novaya Astrakhan, Kurakhovo, Shakhtyorskoe, Novoselivka Vtoraya, Veseloye, 8 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down in the air.

During the night in n.p. Zvonetskoye, Dnipropetrovsk region, high-precision sea-based missiles destroyed the headquarters and base of the Dnepr national battalion (an organization whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation), where recently reinforcements from foreign mercenaries arrived.

Russian forces are seeking to bolster troop numbers with personnel discharged from military service since 2012, British intelligence said in its latest bulletin. It added that Russia has been trying to recruit forces from the unrecognised Transnistria region of Moldova.

Steffan Watkins wrote that "The Harpoon to Ukraine story makes 3 #disinformation based defence stories in less than a week that many people shamelessly amplified." Jonathan Beale wwrote that "Speculation that U.K. will supply Harpoon anti ship missiles to #Ukraine is NOT correct. MOD says its looking at sending more lethal aid to Ukr including anti ship missiles - but won’t yet say what." Mark Nicol writing for the Daily Mail had reported 08 April 2022 that "According to sources, the UK has also agreed to send Harpoon anti-ship missiles in a bid to break the Russian navy’s siege of Black Sea ports."

Slovakia could sell Ukraine some of its Zuzana self-propelled howitzers, said Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad. “I can confirm that we are in talks [about the sale],” Nad said in a televised debate. He did not give further details. The Zuzana 2 howitzer, a modernised version of an older model, is using 155mm rounds and has an effective range of 40-50km (25-31 miles) depending on ammunition type.

Ukraine intends to purchase 35 units of infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) Marder from the defense concern Rheinmetall (Germany), writes Bild am Sonntag. If the contract is concluded, the equipment will be delivered before the end of this year. Earlier, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz , despite pressure from a number of officials, postponed the final decision on the issue of deliveries of modern battle tanks to Ukraine from Germany.

A request for the supply of 100 self-propelled howitzers was sent to Germany by the government of Ukraine. According to the plan proposed by the Kyiv authorities, Germany can supply 100 Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzers for a total of €1.7 billion, as well as spare parts for them and a training kit. At the same time, the German company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann will need to produce new howitzers for Germany instead of the howitzers delivered to Ukraine.

According to the plan, the first batch of military equipment can be sent to the Kiev authorities 30 months after the signing of the relevant agreement. Accordingly, the Ukrainian authorities will receive the equipment no earlier than the second half of 2024. Full delivery can be completed in 2027.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has updated the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine since the war started, bringing the total to some 4.5 million. About 2.6 million of those fled at least initially to Poland and more than 686,000 to Romania, the UN said.

Jerome at Military Land reported