LIVETEXT War in Ukraine, Day 768 | Russia Will Only Be Able to Sustain a Major Offensive in One Direction, US Experts Say

Mihailo Podoliak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, says in a post on the X Network that Ukraine still needs weapons because there are no signs of a “freeze” in the war.

“No illusions. There is no positional war (no advance, but with an extremely high intensity of fighting), there are no signs of a “freeze”, the Ukrainian official said, adding that Russia “has not solved its basic tasks (among which include the destruction of a sovereign state, the confiscation and legal fixation of foreign territories, the filtering/deportation and killing of large groups of disloyal populations)’.

“Therefore, it continues to escalate. The RF (Russian Federation) throws all its resources into the war. A war of this type has only a military solution”, says Podoliak.

“Let’s not delude ourselves; it will not be possible to sit and wait; it will still be necessary to dramatically expand military production and saturate Ukraine with an even amount of weapons. The faster, the more efficiently and the better the situation will look…”, stated Zelenski’s advisor.

Mihailo Podoliak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, says in a post on the X Network that Ukraine still needs weapons because there are no signs of a “freeze” in the war. “No illusions. There is no positional war (no advance, but with an extremely high intensity of fighting), there are no signs of a “freeze”, the Ukrainian official said, adding that Russia “has not solved its basic tasks (among which include the destruction of a sovereign state, the confiscation and legal fixation of foreign territories, the filtering/deportation and killing of large groups of disloyal populations)’. “Therefore, it continues to escalate. The RF (Russian Federation) throws all its resources into the war. A war of this type has only a military solution”, says Podoliak. “Let’s not delude ourselves; it will not be possible to sit and wait; it will still be necessary to dramatically expand military production and saturate Ukraine with an even amount of weapons. The faster, the more efficiently and the better the situation will look…”, stated Zelenski’s advisor.

14:28 – 16 minutes ago

01-04-2024

Russia has destroyed “almost all” of Kharkiv’s energy infrastructure, the city’s mayor says

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The Russian attacks destroyed “almost all” of Kharkiv’s critical energy infrastructure, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in an interview with Liga.net, The Kyiv Independent reports.

Kharkiv has been at the forefront of Russian attacks since the invasion began and has seen an escalation of strikes in recent weeks.

The attacks destroyed a power plant and all electrical substations in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Terekhov said earlier.

“Private (energy) infrastructure is also destroyed. Russia wants to intimidate us, but this is impossible,” said the mayor.

Russia launched five 3M22 Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles against Kyiv in the first three months of the year, the city’s military administration announced on Monday, April 1, The Kyiv Independent reports.

The claim came a week after claims that Russian troops had used Zircon ballistic missiles in a March 25 attack on Kiev, injuring at least two people. Specialists began examining the fragments to determine what type of missile was fired.

Also, since the beginning of this year, Ukrainian forces have shot down more than 180 missiles and drones targeting the capital Kyiv, authorities say. Apart from the Zircon missiles, these include one Kalibr cruise missile, three Kh-69 cruise missiles, six Iskander-M ballistic missiles, 11 Kh-47M2 Kinjal air-launched ballistic missiles, 48 ​​Shahed drones and 113 Kh-101 missiles.

According to the cited source, Russia attacked Ukraine with a 3M22 Zircon hypersonic cruise missile for the first time since the beginning of the invasion on February 7, killing at least five people and injuring several.

Illia Yevlash, an Air Force spokesman, said Ukraine could shoot down Zircon missiles with air defense systems such as SAMP/T or Patriot. Thus, Kiev urged the Western allies to send more such weapons to defend the entire territory of the country.

Moscow says the Zircon hypersonic missile entered the Russian military’s arsenal in early 2023 and that it has a range of 600-1,500 kilometers, can travel at nine times the speed of sound and has a warhead which weighs about 300-400 kilograms.

The governor of the Russian Belgorod region, Viacheslav Gladkov, announces that Ukraine bombed the village of Terezovka, without any casualties, reports BBC Russia.

“The village of Terezovka, in the Shebekinsky urban district, came under fire from the Ukrainian armed forces. No casualties were recorded. There is damage to the power line – the villagers are temporarily without electricity,” the official wrote on Telegram.

The Shebekinski urban district is located on the border with Ukraine and is regularly bombed.

Ukraine has not officially commented on reports of strikes.

Border guards repelled an attack by Russian saboteurs in the Sumy region, the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service announced on Monday, April 1, The Kyiv Independent reports.

According to the report, Ukrainian border guards opened fire on the Russian reconnaissance group as it tried to enter the region bordering Russia. Soldiers of the National Guard and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including artillery crews, came to support the border guards, and after an exchange of fire, the Russian saboteurs retreated, Ukrainian authorities say.

In the last day, Russian forces attacked the border in the Sumî region 39 times, targeting 11 communities in the area, local officials said.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) stated, in its latest report on the situation at the front, that the Russian army will be able to sustain offensive actions in at most one direction, BBC Russia reports.

Experts from the American think tank suggest that such a direction could be the west of the Donetsk region, especially the area of ​​the city of Avdiivka, which recently came under the control of the Russian army.

ISW cites the failed attack by Moscow forces on March 30 near the village of Tonenkoe, near Avdiivka, as evidence that the Russian military can focus its main efforts there.

According to the report, Ukrainian troops managed to repel an attack by an entire Russian mechanized battalion.

“Geolocated images released on Sunday show a large number of destroyed and damaged Russian armored vehicles and tanks along the road northwest of Tonenkoye,” ISW notes.

Experts say the scale of the March 30 attack is significant, as Russian forces have not resorted to such actions since the start of the Avdiivka offensive in October 2023.

“Ukraine’s ability to repel the attack on March 30, especially near Avdiivka, where Ukrainian troops were forced to retreat quickly (…), is proof positive that the Ukrainian armed forces can defend themselves against future Russian sea offensive actions extent and of the offensive operation expected in the summer of 2024”, say the specialists.

The scale of the offensive by Russian forces near Avdiivka suggests that Russian military leaders consider this direction as a priority, and this is where the upcoming summer offensive could be focused, the authors of the ISW report suggest.

“Ukrainian officials recently warned of a concentration of Russian troops on the Kharkiv-Luhansk axis, near Bahmut, near Avdiivka and in western Zaporozhye region. But ISW continues to believe that the Russian military will be able to launch concentrated and large-scale offensive actions in a single operational direction due to Russia’s personnel problems and planning limitations,” ISW notes.

At least five people were injured in the Kharkiv region on March 31 after a Russian missile attack, reports The Kyiv Independent.

“In the afternoon, the enemy launched a rocket attack on a village in the Zmiiv district of our region,” Serhii Melnyk, the head of the Kharkiv military garrison, wrote on his Telegram channel. There are five known victims, he added.

Moscow has recently stepped up its attacks against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, destroying a thermal power plant and all power substations in Kharkiv, according to Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov.

On March 29, state energy company Centrenergo reported that Russian troops destroyed the Zmiiv thermal power plant in the Kharkiv region during a large-scale attack.

Kirilo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Service, said Russia is likely to resume Kalibr missile attacks on Ukraine in the near future as its stockpile of Kh-101 missiles is running low, Ukrainska Pravda reports.

Budanov stressed that Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Service continues to monitor Russian missile storage production.

“We know exactly how many missiles they have. The fact that they did not undertake any attack on the energy infrastructure for over a year allowed them to stockpile a certain amount of ammunition. Unfortunately, the enemy has the resources to continue their efforts.

The Kalibr missiles have been stored all this time and are fully ready to be deployed. The Russians have made the decision to use Kh-101 missiles for now because the Kalibr missiles are less effective than the Kh-101. But I think that soon we will start seeing Kalibr again, because the number of Kh-101s has decreased significantly,” said Budanov.

Asked how many missiles the Russian Federation is capable of producing per month, Budanov said: “We are talking about operational-tactical missiles, so I can assure you that it is not 100 missiles per month. But it’s still a lot.”

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