The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine insisted on Friday that “the enemy continues to lead a large-scale armed aggression” and that it is once again being directed from across the border of Belarus, where “the threat” of air strikes persists.
“There is an increase in radio intelligence and electronic warfare systems in the areas bordering Ukraine with the Belarusian region of Gomel,” says the General Staff statement, which reports on posts established by Minsk to interfere with communications around other bordering regions.
Also, “the opponent has carried out training of additional forces and air defense equipment”, so “the threat of missile attacks against targets of the civilian and military infrastructure of Ukraine from the territory of the Republic of Belarus persists,” the statement insists.
“The regrouping of enemy troops continues,” said the Ukrainian authorities, citing, among other cases, the partial blockade of the city of Kharkov, or shelling of the city of Mariupol.
Russia announced on Friday that it intended to control the entire south and east of Ukraine, after almost two months of an offensive that targeted its troops by the UN for possible “war crimes”.
“One of the objectives of the Russian army is to establish full control over the Donbas and southern Ukraine,” said Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of the forces of the military district of central Russia.
In this way, he added, “a land corridor” would be established between the pro-Russian separatist territories of Donetsk and Lugansk, in the eastern Donbas region, with the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.
The conquest of southern Ukraine would also help separatists in the Moldavian region of Transnistria, “where we also see cases of oppression of the Russian-speaking population,” the official said.
The western government of Moldova immediately summoned the Russian ambassador and expressed its “deep concern” to him about these statements.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the offensive against Ukraine on February 24, in the name of defending the Russian-speaking population in the east of the country.
Putin claimed on Thursday the capture of the strategic southeastern city of Mariupol, although the vast Azovstal industrial complex remains under the control of Ukrainian resistors.
“The success of the Russian offensive in the south depends on the fate of Mariupol,” regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenk told AFP, adding that about “300 civilians” are also in Azovstal.
Authorities estimate that some 20,000 people died in Mariupol, due to shelling or lack of water, food and electricity in the middle of winter.
Putin said he would guarantee the lives of “Ukrainian military, nationalist fighters and foreign mercenaries if they lay down their arms,” but that the Ukrainian government “does not authorize this possibility.”
The Russian Ministry of Defence also said it was ready to agree to a humanitarian truce in that area and to give civilians the option of going to territories under Russian or Ukrainian control. But Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky said that Russia rejected a proposal for a truce during the Orthodox Easter holiday.
(With information from EuropaPress and AFP)
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