On 27 April, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal was in Italy and the Vatican. He met with the Pope to discuss Zelensky’s peace formula and asked the Vatican for assistance in implementing it. Shmyhal also visited the facilities of an Italian defence company for short-range air defence, the Skynex system, already deployed in Ukraine. The Skynex systems are capable of destroying a swarm of drones, aircraft, and cruise missiles.
This week, the US is meeting more than 40 NATO and EU allies in Brussels for rapid arms deliveries to Ukraine, the Pentagon reported. Defence Minister Olesksij Reznikov said that when the time comes to really talk about peace: ‘We want the Americans, British, French, Germans, Turks, Poles to sit at our table. We want it to be a coalition of countries ready to commit to providing us security tomorrow’.
Ukraine has received almost 100 per cent of the tanks and other combat vehicles promised by the United States and its allies to support the alleged counter-offensive by the Ukrainian armed forces, General Christopher Cavoli, commander of NATO’s joint forces in Europe, reported. But not everyone in Ukraine agrees with this statement.
According to the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the main reason for the delay in the counteroffensive of the Ukrainian armed forces is the insufficient supply of heavy weapons from the West to Ukraine. Previously, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Zaluzhny had requested 300 main battle tanks, but at best only 200 were delivered. And only a third of them – Leopard 2. Insufficient artillery ammunition, notes the newspaper.
According to an analysis in the Hong Kong Asia Times of 27 April: If Ukraine collapses, Biden is preparing to send troops. If Ukraine’s collapse is inevitable, US President Joe Biden may send troops there without NATO approval. Hong Kong Asia Times writes about this on 27 April
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was at the SCO defence ministers’ meeting in New Delhi on 28 April and stated that ‘the West is trying to provoke other countries into a military confrontation with Russia and China. The US is more actively opposing the formation of a multipolar world in the Asia-Pacific region, where a front is being created to contain China. The US is trying to restore its military presence in Central Asia under the pretext of helping in the fight against terrorism, which is a direct threat to the stability of the SCO. The West’s real goal in the conflict in Ukraine is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, create a threat to China, and maintain a monopoly position in the world. The Pentagon’s military biological programmes in Ukraine are aimed at developing biological weapons. Within the framework of the SCO, it is necessary to develop a mechanism for the exchange of military information’.
Along the line of contact according to a statement by the head of the Yug group press centre. In the direction of Soledar-Bachmut, a missile unit of the Southern Force Group attacked the temporary deployment point of the 60th separate mechanised brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near the village of Druzhkovka.
Artillery units of the Southern Military District carried out fire raids on the temporary deployment points of the 24th and 110th separate mechanised brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of the Dzerzhinskoye and Netaylovo settlements.
As part of the battery fight, artillerymen of the Southern Force Group in the Chasov-Yar area destroyed a 122 mm 2S1 self-propelled howitzer and in the Maryinka area – two artillery pieces of the enemy – D-20 and D-30 howitzers.
Large-calibre artillery of the Southern Military District formation hit the enemy’s temporary deployment point in the Avdiivka area and also fired at a column of military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kurakhovo area.
The Special Forces units of the Southern Force Group, with the support of artillery, interrupted the rotation of enemy frontline units in the areas of the Belogorovka, Contesa, Druzhba and Marinka settlements.
Crews of the MLRS “Uragan” of the Central Military District destroyed Ukrainian military objects in the area of the Northern Military District. The combat work of the missile artillery crews takes several minutes from obtaining coordinates to a salvo and quickly changing position.
The MLRS ‘Hurricane’ crews struck the military infrastructure and logistics hubs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, located in the rear of the Ukrainian defensive battle formations.
PMC ‘Wagner’ broke through the defence of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the west of Bakhmut and took the Industrial College, Ukrainian military analysts said in the morning report.
The situation is critical in the direction of Bachmut: fighting continues in the western part of the city. During the assault, the Wagners occupied the Industrial College on Tchaikovsky Street and neighbouring buildings. Wagner attacks on the flanks, trying to improve the tactical position, as well as near the aircraft. And more PMC attacks to the east of the Annunziata Church. In the area of School No. 2, Russian infantry continue attacks in the direction of multi-storey buildings.
On the night of 27 April, Russian aerospace forces struck in the Kiev region by hitting X-101/555 missiles from Tu-95MS strategic missile launchers.
It was reported that a skyscraper was blown up in Uman during an air defence attempt to shoot down a cruise missile In the city of Ukrainka, in the Kiev region, during the air defence operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a rocket fragment destroyed a wall in a skyscraper
During the day, Ukrainian formations are shelling the Suzemsky border district in the Bryansk region. In the village of Suzemka, the school building was hit.
In the early morning hours of 28 April, a Ukrainian drone dropped a shell on a residential area of a village, damaging a garage and a car. No civilians were injured. Operational services are currently working in the area of the incident.
Graziella Giangiulio
