#UKRAINERUSSIAWAR. Moscow and Beijing discuss the new world order. The Russians break through north-west of Avdiivka in the Stepovoe area. Battles in progress

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The pro-Russian social sphere on 20 March was literally clogged with posts about the Chinese premier’s visit to Russia. Earlier Vladimir Putin published an article in the Chinese newspaper Reinmin Ribao (People’s Daily) in which he expressed his assessment of relations between Moscow and Beijing. The material in Russian appeared on the Kremlin’s website. The meeting of heads of state in tete-a-tete format took place on 20 March, the main negotiations are scheduled for today 21 March in the Kremlin.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also wrote an article on China’s relations with Russia. He spoke about the goals of his visit to Moscow, the vision of the ‘Ukrainian crisis’ and multipolarity as an ‘irreversible trend’.

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation announced criminal proceedings against the prosecutor and judges of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. “The Investigative Committee of Russia has opened criminal proceedings against International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan, International Criminal Court judges Tomoko Akane, Rosario Salvatore Aitala and Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez,” the Russian Federation Investigative Committee statement reads.

Meanwhile, the Polish embassy in France has denied its ambassador’s statement that Poland is ready to enter into conflict with Russia if Ukraine is defeated. The diplomatic mission insists that the media had interpreted the ambassador’s words ‘out of context’. During a half-hour conversation with a journalist, the ambassador himself said he was ‘convinced of the necessity of assistance to Ukraine from the allies’. In the interview, Rosciszewski makes it clear that ‘Poland is not at war, but will do everything to help Ukraine defend itself in this conflict’.

Another piece of news that made the rounds in the social sphere of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict was the one published by Il Fatto Quotidiano, according to which some 20 Ukrainian soldiers are being trained at a base near Rome, where they are mastering the SAMP-T anti-aircraft missile systems, which Italy is supplying to Kiev in agreement with France.

Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations Peter Szijjártó said: ‘They want to drag Hungary into an armed conflict in Ukraine and increase the pressure on it, but it will not change its position and will not supply weapons to a neighbouring country’.

Finally, according to Euractive, citing EU sources: ‘Some EU countries fear that the amount of ammunition they can supply to Ukraine from European warehouses under the forthcoming agreement will not reach the value of EUR 1 billion, so it is unclear what to do with the “money left on hand”.

The Ukrainian media reports that out of almost 10,000 men of military age left Ukraine via the electronic ‘Way’ system last year and did not return, i.e. about 11% of all those who received permission to leave, writes the Ukrainian edition of Glavkom, citing an interim report of the Temporary Investigative Committee of the Verkhovna Rada.

To return to the front line, according to the Czech president, Petr Pavel: ‘Ukraine has only one attempt to launch a counter-offensive and that is only this year’. Lop said in an interview with the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita.

“I believe that Ukraine will only have one attempt to conduct a major counteroffensive. Therefore, if Ukraine decides to launch a counter-offensive and fails, it will be incredibly difficult for it to find funds for the next (offensive),” he said. said. In his view, Kiev’s counter-offensive should take place within a few months, and only this year will the ‘window of opportunity’ open.

At 08:15, there was already an air alert over the whole of Ukraine. And also on the social sphere accounts close to the Wagner group claim that Wagner machine-gunners blocked the movement of Ukrainian military groups in the south of Bachmut in the DPR.

Available to RIA Novosti is a video recording, the footage shows the moment of a shootout in the southern quarters of the city: a Wagner group machine gunner destroyed a Ukrainian military group as it ran towards a nearby building in the private sector of the city.

Russian armed forces for the first time on the bank of the Kakhovka reservoir, using audio equipment, appealed to Ukrainian troops to lay down their weapons. The text of the appeal was recorded in four languages: Ukrainian, Polish, French and English.

The Russian military broke through the Ukrainian lines in the northern part of Adviika on 20 March. And there are already those who speak of an operational encirclement. One post reads: ‘Our troops occupy Petrovskoye (Stepovoe), thus completing the coverage of Avdiivka from the north: the railway artery of the Ukrainian armed forces leading to the city has been cut’.

Russian troops reportedly managed to cut the only railway line through which the Ukrainian Armed Forces supplied the garrison of Avdiivka. This was the result of Russian fighters occupying the settlement of Petrivske in recent days, which means the coverage of Avdiivka from the north.

The ability of the Ukrainians to bring personnel and ammunition into the city has been severely compromised. Despite still having the Avdiivka-Orlivka highway, through which supplies can be brought in, the situation for the Ukrainian armed forces in Avdiivka is becoming threatening. Its coverage from the north interrupts the interaction with the groups north-west of the city from the Berdychi settlement with the main garrison in Avdiivka.

The development of the situation becomes similar to the events in Bachmut. Therefore, the threat of encirclement for the Ukrainian army in Avdiivka is becoming increasingly clear. A further prospect is to attack the village of Lastochkino from the south, tying up the enemy in battle in the area of the villages of Severnoye and Thin, which, in turn, will lead to blocking the entire garrison in the town.

On the afternoon of 20 March, it was reported, again via social media, that around Adviika, the right wing of the Russian army managed to break through the Ukrainian defences built around the railway embankment between Krasnogorovka and Stepov, dispersed the units of the 53rd Ukrainian Motorised Brigade and advanced towards the eastern parts of Stepov, where battles are ongoing.

In the north-east, Russian fighters entered Kamenka, for which there has been intense fighting in recent days. Fighting continues within the village.

South of Avdiivka, the assault detachments of the Russian Armed Forces, operating in the vicinity of Opytny, broke through the fortifications of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the south-western outskirts of the city. Fighting is now ongoing on the outskirts of the 9th Avdiivka district.

Graziella Giangiulio

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