The day of the war at a glance
Moscow sees “first phase” fulfilled – USA: Russians lose control of Cherson
03/25/2022 8:53 p.m
As Kyiv’s defenders launch a counteroffensive in the east of the city, a Russian missile hits a large Ukrainian fuel storage facility. Meanwhile, the Russian army seems to be slipping from power in Cherson. The 30th day of the war at a glance.
At the beginning of March, Russia announced that it had captured the port city of Cherson in southern Ukraine. Since then there have been repeated demonstrations against the occupiers. The Pentagon has now reported that the Russian army has again lost complete control of the city. A US Pentagon official said during a conference call with journalists that Ukrainian soldiers are now fighting Russian forces in the city. However, according to Ukrainian officials, the city is still in Russian hands.
Meanwhile, there are signs of a change of strategy in the Russian General Staff. In the future, the army will concentrate on “liberating” the Donbass region in the east of the country, said Russia’s Deputy Chief of Staff Sergei Rudskoy. “The main goal of the first phase of the operation” has been achieved and the “Ukrainian combat units have been significantly reduced”. This would allow the army in the future “to focus most of its efforts on the main goal: the liberation of Donbass,” said Rudskoy. However, he did not rule out further air raids on Ukrainian cities.
Secret service: Ukrainian counterattacks near Kyiv successful
For the first time in three weeks, Russia also presented figures on its own losses in Ukraine. Accordingly, 1351 Russian soldiers were killed and more than 3800 others injured. Ukraine speaks of far higher casualties on the Russian side.
On the other hand, the Ukrainian authorities assume that Around 300 people were killed in the Russian attack on a theater in Mariupol last week. The city administration of the port city referred to evaluations of eyewitness reports. According to consistent information from aid organizations, hundreds of people had sought shelter in the basement of the building. According to The Guardian newspaper, only 150 survivors stumbled out of the rubble immediately after the attack.
Russians surround towns in the north
According to British military intelligence, the Ukrainian army has recently recaptured several important locations and defensive positions east of the capital Kyiv. According to them, the Ukrainian army also destroyed a Russian ammunition dump as part of its strategy to target vulnerable Russian supply lines. However, there is a new danger in the north. According to Ukrainian sources, Russian units have surrounded the small towns of Slavutych and Chernihiv north of Kyiv.
Russian rocket attacks also continue. Moscow said it had destroyed a large fuel depot nearby by rocket fire. A fuel base in the village of Kalynivka near Kyiv was attacked with “high-precision Kalibr sea-launched cruise missiles,” a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said. The Ukrainian army kept its “largest remaining fuel stocks” there.
Lavrov accuses the West of “total war.”
Meanwhile, another general in the Russian armed forces has been killed, according to Kiev. Ukrainian troops killed the commander of the 49th army of the southern district, General Yakov Vladimirovich Rezantsev, in a bomb attack on the airport of Chernobaivka in the Kherson region, said presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych. Rezantsev is the sixth Russian general to be reported dead in Ukraine since the beginning of the war. About a week ago, Lieutenant General Andrei Mordvichev, commander of the 8th Army of the Southern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces, was killed at the same airfield.
When it comes to war rhetoric, however, the Russian leadership seems to know no bounds. With a view to Western sanctions, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has spoken of a “hybrid war” directed against Moscow. “Today they declared a real hybrid war on us, total war,” Lavrov said at a meeting with representatives of a diplomatic foundation, according to the state agency TASS. “This term, which was used in Hitler’s Germany, is now used by European politicians when they talk about what they want to do with the Russian Federation.” However, the actual use of the term by well-known EU politicians in the past few weeks is not known.
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