After promises of weapons
Russia wants to intensify war against Ukraine
April 23, 2024, 3:38 p.m
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The USA is supplying Ukraine with more weapons for defense. The answer from Moscow: The shelling of the neighboring country should be increased. While Defense Minister Shoigu identifies logistical centers and storage facilities for Western weapons as targets, civilian energy infrastructure has often been destroyed recently.
After the announcement of new US military aid to Ukraine, Russia has announced even more intense shelling of the neighboring country it has been attacking for more than two years. “We will increase the intensity of strikes against logistical centers and storage facilities of Western weapons,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting of senior military officials.
Western military experts had been warning for days that Russia could use the window until the new weapons and ammunition arrived for Ukraine to intensify its attacks. After the US House of Representatives, the Senate in Washington still has to vote on the aid package of 61 billion US dollars (around 57 billion euros). After that, US President Joe Biden wants to release it.
Although Moscow often destroys civilian infrastructure during its shelling, the Russian military leadership claims that it only fights military targets. The Russian armed forces particularly bombed energy facilities in Ukraine. According to Shoigu, the Russian army has the reins firmly in its hands at the front. The Ukrainian soldiers were being pushed back from their positions, he said. Kiev’s counteroffensive failed.
“Since the start of the special military operation, the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces amount to almost half a million soldiers,” Shoigu said. At the end of February, however, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj stated the number of his own dead at 31,000. Western military experts estimate the losses – killed and seriously wounded – on both sides at more than 100,000 each.