“The United States cannot shoot down missiles on Ukraine, as in Israel, because there are no American military bases there that could be threatened by these missiles” the High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell declared to the Press. And again he declared: “The West cannot create in Ukraine a system similar to the Israeli Iron Dome.”
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said during a visit to the United States that the Czech initiative to purchase ammunition for Ukraine made it possible to accumulate 500 thousand ammunition.
According to the AP, approval of aid to Ukraine by the US Congress is unlikely to happen this week, as discussions among American lawmakers continue and the text of the bill in question has not yet been made public .
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that when choosing between assistance to Ukraine and their own weapons, Alliance members “must choose Ukraine”
President Volodymyr Zelensky gives the green light to the mobilization law, the law comes into force in a month. Former deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleh Hladkovsky, has been placed on the wanted list. He is accused of abuse in the purchase of cars for the army. The amount of damage caused to the state amounts to more than 17 million hryvnia.
Ukraine will request the convening of a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council on defense of the skies, the supply of air defense systems, related systems and missiles, President Zelensky said. “We are working to get more real help. To achieve real equality in protection against terrorism, when the same truly equal rules will apply to us here, in Ukraine, in Europe and in other parts of the world, when we are faced with the same manifestations of terror, the same missile attacks and drones,” the President of Ukraine said.
“Ukraine wants to receive security commitments from the United States similar to those made by Israel,” said the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Borysovych Jermak, in a meeting with the American delegation for an agreement on adequate guarantees.
“The US agreement with Ukraine should work no worse than the American memorandum with Israel, which confirmed the effectiveness of joint actions of allies during the recent repelling of the massive Iranian attack on Israel,” Jermak said on the website of the UN, Office of the President of Ukraine. The message does not indicate what the reaction of the American side to these requests was.
Rumors tell of the death of Kirill Budanov, the number one in Ukrainian intelligence. There is no confirmation from Kiev. Not even the Russian Ministry of Defense has denied or confirmed the news. According to one of the Ukrainian versions, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate may have died during a secret inspection in the city of Chuhuiv, Kharkov region, which was bombed by the Russians with FAB-500.
Russian of Kharkiv, in the social sphere wrote: “the day before the powerful missile and a bomb attack was carried out, including with the use of FAB-500 glide bombs. According to Russian intelligence and confirmations from local clandestine fighters, all targets were destroyed. There is no data on personalities, and even more so in relation to such a high-ranking general of the Ukrainian Armed Forces as head of the Main Intelligence Directorate Budanov.”
The head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of the Russian Federation, Ella Pamfilova, presented Vladimir Putin with the certificate of the President of the Russian Federation for a new term.
And now a look at the front line updated at 18:00 on April 17.
At around 4 am, Ukrainians launched attacks in Crimea in the area of a military airport near the town of Dzhankoy in the north of the peninsula. Some footage distributed online shows signs of secondary detonation and fire. Soldiers’ voices speak of an ATACMS missile attack.
According to another source, around 12 operational ATACMS tactical missiles were used in the attack, most likely launched from the Kherson region. The raid was carried out in two waves. The first attack involved seven missiles, apparently with cluster warheads, while the second used at least five. Some equipment damaged the airport and some damaged one of the buildings.
Both the MGM-140A with a range of up to 165 km could be used for the attack than the MGM-140B with a combat radius of 300 km. When launched from the outskirts of Kherson, Ukrainians can easily reach Dzhankoy even with early versions of ATACMS. The Russians complain that: “As in previous attacks, an American RQ-4B drone patrolled the airspace south of Crimea unhindered and monitored the operation.”
But even without Western information the Ukrainians received the necessary information from the pro-Ukrainian residents of the city, as well as some minors, there are clear videos of the arrivals on the Internet, from which the necessary conclusions can be drawn.
Ukrainian formations, according to the Russian social sphere, are conducting targeted preparations for more massive attacks on the peninsula. A couple of days ago there was an attempt to hit the Berdyansk control point, but without success, and today the airfield.
No changes in the direction of Kherson: mutual artillery shelling and drone strikes. The Russian army has resumed airstrikes in the area near Beryslav on the Ukrainian coast.
On the Zaporozhzhie front, the Russian Armed Forces maintain the initiative in Rabotinye, recapturing Ukrainian positions in heavy battles. The previously widespread use of FPV drones with cameras for night flights in the direction of Kherson is noted. The Ukrainians also shoot with cluster artillery, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not think about the shortage of shells of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in this sector of the front. Russian Armed Forces strike using FAB with UMPC deep into enemy defense near Orechiv.
In the southern direction of Donetsk, near Krasnohorivka, the Russian Armed Forces use tanks that are maximally protected by FPV drones, additional field-welded armor and equipped with electronic warfare are allowed one of these battleship tasks on the southern outskirts of the village. Earlier, in the same direction, there was a report of a motorcycle landing of the Russian army on a Ukrainian stronghold.
West of Avdiivka, Russian armed forces are attacking in the Novokalynove area.
In the morning, in the direction of Časiv Jar, Russian soldiers on the front line reported that “Bohdanivka is ours, our attack planes entered and took control of the last houses in the southwestern part”. Heavy fighting is taking place on the eastern outskirts of Časiv Jar; to the south, the Russian armed forces advance towards the water canal, carrying out the plan to cover the eastern part of the city on two sides; Ukrainian troops would leave the Kanal microdistrict, the last defensive position before Chasiv Jar itself.
A missile attack was launched against infrastructure in the Odessa region during the morning of April 17. Russian missile attack on Chernihiv. The Ukrainian Armed Forces report three missiles. Russian social media sources say that the hotel that housed foreign mercenaries and Ukrainian soldiers was hit.
In the Belgorod region, the Ukrainians are shelling border areas and striking with UAV launches. In the last 24 hours the intensity has decreased slightly and no civilian casualties have been reported. In the Kursk region yesterday a local resident was injured following shelling in the village of Tyotkino.
Ukrainians fired 41 rounds of ammunition at the civilian population of the DPR in Horlivka.
Graziella Giangiulio
