Russo-Ukraine War - 18 April 2022 - Day 54

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.

According to a senior US defence official, there were about 76 Russian battalion tactical groups in southern and eastern Ukraine, an increase of about 11 in recent days. A major Russian offensive has begun in the Donbas. Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine [NSDC]: "This morning, an active phase of the Russian offensive began almost along the entire frontline [in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv regions]. The occupiers tried to break through our defenses." NSDC's Danilov: "Our military is defending, we are not surrendering our territories... The Russian military was tasked to occupy the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts by Easter," he said, referring to Orthodox Easter on April 26, "as a gift to its Fuhrer."

He said: "It's a mistake to believe that we have already won the war," in an apparent reference to Ukrainian forces pushing back Russian forces around Kyiv. "Putin hasn't canceled the task of destroying Ukraine as a state and destroying our political leadership," Danilov added during a national telethon. "The war continues and will be difficult, much remains to be done to ensure our victory."

Ukraine General Staff also reported "signs of the beginning of an offensive operation in the Eastern Operational Zone." It said Russian forces intensified attacks near Izyum & Sloviansk, as well as around Severodonetsk & Popasna, & in the direction of Kurakhove & Zaporizhzhia areas.

“... There are forces in Ukraine that are confident — and the West is strongly strengthening them in this confidence — that they can win a military conflict with Russia. Just win by military means. Accordingly, these forces consider the truce as a betrayal and an obstacle to complete victory. They can only be dissuaded from this by the same military means, depriving them of any reason to think so ... ”- Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy Fyodor Lukyanov in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.

The Russian Armed Forces offered to stop any hostilities and lay down their arms to the militants blocked at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. This was stated on April 17 in a statement by the head of the interdepartmental coordination headquarters of the Russian Federation for humanitarian response in Ukraine, the head of the National Defense Control Center of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev. All those who lay down their arms are guaranteed the preservation of life. To implement the measures of the humanitarian operation, the Russian side proposed its own algorithm of actions.

The demand to be allowed to surrender and lay down their arms was put forward to the Kiev authorities by militants from among the nationalists and foreign mercenaries blocked at the Azovstal metallurgical plant in Ukrainian Mariupol. As Mizintsev clarified, throughout the day on April 16, there was an increased intensity of radio communications between militants from nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries blocked at Azovstal. The content of the radio intercepts clearly shows that the militants are in a hopeless situation, without water, food and medicine. Mizintsev noted that 367 such radio interceptions were received per day.

The port city of Mariupol was still contested as Russia appeared to have sent reinforcements into Ukraine in recent days, a senior US defence official stated. “Our assessment is Mariupol is still contested … [it] remains under threat from the air but both from missile strikes as well as bombs from the air but even of course artillery,” the official said.

Putin called exemplary actions during the operation in Ukraine of the military personnel of the 64th separate motorized rifle brigade [aka Butcher of Bucha], which became the Guards. According to the press service of the Kremlin, this is stated in the congratulations to the command and personnel of the brigade. According to Putin, "this is a high honor and recognition of the special merits, mass heroism and courage shown in defending the Fatherland, upholding the sovereignty and national interests of Russia." The head of state said "Skillful and resolute actions of the unit's personnel during the special military operation in Ukraine are an example of military duty, courage, selflessness and high professionalism".

Since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 139 aircraft, 250 anti-aircraft missile systems, 2,337 tanks and armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was announced by the official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Major General Igor Konashenkov. "In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 139 aircraft, 483 unmanned aerial vehicles, 250 anti-aircraft missile systems, 2,337 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 254 multiple rocket launchers, 1,009 field artillery pieces and mortars, as well as 2,196 units of special military vehicles," he said.

The Russian Armed Forces destroyed four warehouses of weapons and Ukrainian military equipment, as well as three areas where the enemy’s manpower was concentrated with Iskanders, the Russian Defense Ministry said . Russian air defense systems shot down two Ukrainian MiG-29 and one Su-25 fighters, as well as 11 drones, in the air, the ministry said. The Russian Armed Forces destroyed 16 Ukrainian military facilities with high-precision missiles, including a fuel storage facility, ammunition depots, and equipment, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed the Tochka-U missile warhead repair plant in Dnipro, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The Russian Aerospace Forces attacked the 124th Joint Logistics Support Center of the Logistics Forces Command of the Ukrainian Troops in the Lviv region, the Russian Defense Ministry said. In addition, the operational-tactical aviation of the Aerospace Forces carried out strikes on 84 military facilities of Ukraine.

The United States plans to begin training Ukrainians on how to operate howitzer artillery systems in the coming days, a senior US defence official has said, as the Biden administration seeks to bolster Ukraine’s defences against an expected Russian offensive in the east. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the howitzer training would take place outside Ukraine.

Putin said that the barrage of Western sanctions imposed against Russia over its invasion of neighbouring Ukraine has failed. Putin said that the West “expected to quickly upset the financial-economic situation, provoke panic in the markets, the collapse of the banking system and shortages in stores”. He added that “the strategy of the economic blitz has failed” and instead led to a “deterioration of the economy in the West”.

Putin noted that “Russia has withstood the unprecedented pressure”, arguing that the rouble has strengthened and the country has recorded a historic high trade surplus of $58bn in the first quarter of the year. Instead, he contended that the sanctions backfired against the United States and its European allies, speeding up inflation and leading to a drop in living standards. Putin acknowledged a sharp hike in consumer prices in Russia, saying they rose by 17.5 percent as of April on a year-to-year basis and directing the government to index wages and other payments to alleviate the impact of inflation on incomes.

If Zelensky is thinking about the citizens of Ukraine, he must immediately make the following decisions. First. Withdraw troops from the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Second. Fix on a contractual basis obligations to recognize Crimea and the non-bloc status of Ukraine, as well as to denazify and demilitarize the country. It won’t work any other way, ” Vyacheslav Volodin , speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation stated.

Doctor of Psychology Yuri Gromyko, the director of the Institute for Advanced Research named after V.I. Schiffers, stated "Based on pragmatics, if denazification is not carried out, then the issue of genocide of the Russian population will exist as a real practical threat. The mayor of Dnipro/ Dnepropetrovsk/ Ekaterinoslav said that the Russians should be killed. And this is not just rhetoric, but a real setting. What has happened over the past eight years (and started much earlier) is the process of breeding, that is, breeding a breed of people who want to destroy the “Muscovites”, are ready to maim and torture the wounded, cut off their genitals, kill children. So the issue of denazification is not an abstract wish, but a real problem. Another thing is how it can be implemented.

"It seems to me naive to think that this can be done in the following way: we will annex the Donbass, and Zelensky and his clique will sign some documents that they will now love the Russian language and think about participating in Russian civilization. This is an abstraction in the worst sense of the word. These people will not embark on any path of blissful change.

"And here we return to a very difficult question: what is "Nazification"? I want to recall the timeless formulation of Georgy Dimitrov , who proposed to discuss what fascism is. Remind because nazification and nationalism exist in a special, specially created regime of fascism. It is fascism that creates the conditions for the birth of extremely militant soil forms of nationalism. As Dimitrov argued, fascism is generated by large financial capital. And the current breeding of a special breed of creatures that outwardly have a human form, but in fact go to extreme forms of destruction of human existence, was launched at the suggestion of the United States and Britain with the support of the EU, where France and Germany were drawn first of all.

"And in order to carry out denazification, it is necessary first of all to have direct access to the population, in respect of which it is necessary to carry out a reverse operation. In addition, there must be a clear definition of those fascist world groups that launched this process. This is primarily about the US Democratic Party and about the system of coups d'état, provocations, including the creation of biolaboratories for genocide, information about which has now become public."

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi complains in a newspaper interview that Western diplomatic efforts to persuade Vladimir Putin to stop the war in Ukraine have led nowhere thus far. “I am beginning to think that those people are right when they say ‘it is useless to talk to him, it’s just a waste of time’,” Draghi told the daily Corriere della Sera. The relative majority of Italian citizens are sure that the hostilities in Ukraine do not stop because of the United States, these are the results of the Termometro Politico poll. 42.7% of respondents chose the answer option "the hostilities do not stop because the United States has worked for years to start them and now is not interested in stopping them."

Since the start of the special operation of the Armed Forces (AF) of the Russian Federation to denazify Ukraine, more than 4.9 million people have left the territory of this country. This followed from the data of the management portal of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Jerome at Military Land reported