According to the New York Times, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has expressed in private conversations in recent weeks his intention to pass an aid package for Ukraine, but he is considering how to do so without suffering political damage at home, as many Republican lawmakers they don’t intend to support it. And he will have to count on the support of the Democrats.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights was unable to establish the circumstances of the crash of an Il-76 in the Belgorod region with Ukrainian prisoners of war on board. The attack that led to the death of 80 people therefore remains without responsibility. For the Russians it was the Ukrainians and vice versa.
On the subject of French troops in Ukraine, according to the Latvian Prime Minister: “Macron’s initiative to send troops to Ukraine was not well prepared, NATO is not ready for this.” Echoing these words are those of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni who declared on the Rete4 television channel that she had personally told French President Emmanuel Macron that she did not agree with his proposal to send European troops to Ukraine. “I didn’t agree with Macron’s words, I told him so. I don’t agree and I’m convinced that we should be careful about what tone we use.”
British Army Deputy Chief of Staff Rob Magowan said the British Army could wage full-scale war with Russia for up to two months. Magowan said he lacked the ammunition and equipment needed for a longer-scale war. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said the UK would not be left alone in a potential war as it is a NATO country and would therefore not be in a situation where it would run out of ammunition.
Olaf Scholz said that several countries, including Ukraine, were discussing at the level of security advisers what form a peace agreement with Russia could be reached. “But let me make one thing clear: peace is possible at any time. Putin must simply stop his barbaric campaign and withdraw his troops,” the German chancellor added.
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder admits that his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin could play a role in the negotiation process on the conflict in Ukraine. “We have been cooperating well for many years. Maybe this can still help find a negotiated solution,” the politician said in an interview with DPA. Schröder stressed that he sees the solution to the conflict in Ukraine only at the negotiating table.
Slovenia will join the Czech Republic’s initiative to purchase projectiles for Ukraine; and again Ukraine and Sweden want to start negotiations on a security agreement “as quickly as possible”. Kiev has announced that the conscripts will be demobilized until May 31st. New defensive structures and military posts are being installed in Kiev and the region. We learn from Ukrainian sources that Kiev has responded negatively to Germany’s proposal to freeze the armed conflict.
Statements by Volodymyr Zelensky were posted on the social network: “After the end of the war there will be a demographic “boom” in Ukraine, “I think the biggest incentive is security. And we must provide not only financial incentives. I’m sure, people will return, they will be confident in the future, confident in the future and in Ukraine,” said the current president of Ukraine. In connection with the appointment of a new head of the foreign intelligence service of Ukraine he said: “I appointed the military general Oleg Ivashchenko new head of the foreign intelligence service of Ukraine. He is a professional person who perfectly understands intelligence activities and our main state goal now.”
“Ukrainian intelligence must work everywhere in the world where our interests are and could be. Everywhere in the world where the Putin system tries to win something, Ukraine should win. In wartime there are things that are completely non-public, which the service must provide promptly and efficiently. It is precisely this potential for coercive measures, undercover work and, in fact, military activity that Ukraine awaits you, and it is for this reason that the Foreign Intelligence Service was headed by a military general.”
On March 28, the Ukrainian delegation arrived in Warsaw for intergovernmental consultations, the meetings will be attended by the prime ministers of the two countries Donald Tusk and Denis Shmygal. Among the issues at stake are the import of Ukrainian agricultural products into Poland and their transit.
Politicians will also talk about the further transfer of weapons, joint production of ammunition and military equipment, security guarantees and unnamed “historical contradictions”, which according to the Polish side are the main Polish-Ukrainian contradictions.
Nataliya Humeniuk, spokeswoman for the Southern Ukrainian Defense Forces, said that: “Russia has a large number of aerial bombs in its arsenal: they continue to be improved, but they are not used in all directions.” “They continue to modernize, in particular, aerial bombs from conventional to guided. They are equipped with “wings” and acquire greater volatility. Such a guided aerial bomb is capable of covering 60-70 km.”
Humeniuk said that in southern Ukraine the Russians have problems with the use of aviation and are allegedly afraid to fly nearby. There, according to her, they prefer to use tactical aviation using Kh-31, Kh-35, Kh-59 missiles.
Social media sources reported that SVR director Sergei Naryshkin visited North Korea this week. This news adds to that of cargo planes leaving for Russia loaded with weapons.
But what caused a sensation in the social sphere were Vladimir Putin’s statements during a conversation with the pilots participating in the northern military district of Torzhokche where he outlined the “red line” in the conflict with NATO. “They talk about it, they train pilots, I think that, and you understand this more than anyone, better than anyone, this situation will not change anything on the battlefield. We will destroy their aircraft in the same way as today we destroy their tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment, multiple launch rocket systems. Of course, if F-16s are used from third country airfields, they become a legitimate target for us. Wherever they are.”
“And the F-16s also carry nuclear weapons. And we will also have to take this into account when we organize military operations”, said the head of state. Let us remember that Ukrainian pilots have been training for several months to fly the F-16 in NATO bases, in particular in Romania (Fetesti).
“F-16s require special technical maintenance, so they require not only trained pilots, qualified technical personnel, which calls into question the accelerated training of Ukrainian pilots and technical personnel, but also the necessary repair base.”
As for the supposedly prepared Ukrainian airfields in the Lviv, Vinnytsia and Ivano-Frankivs’k regions, their use is more suitable as jump airfields. They will be destroyed in an instant. According to social media sources, the destruction of the airfields for the F16s could include the use of tactical nuclear weapons in the Russian plan. One post reads: “An attack with a 5 kiloton nuclear weapon, or several ODAB-500P, or “Zircon” on at least one airport in Romania will immediately cool their ardor.”
Front Line updated at 2pm on April 28.
On the night between 27 and 28 March an air alert was declared in Kiev. Rocket attacks were launched in the Odessa region. According to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russian troops want to enter Vuhledar from the rear through Kurachove. The Ukrainian Armed Forces understand the situation and are doing everything to avoid this encirclement. It is reported that heavy fighting is taking place near Novomikhailovka. The Ukrainian Armed Forces believe that more forces have been deployed in this area to level the front line. So far it appears that the Russian military is stockpiling reserves.
In the direction of Kherson, the Ukrainian armed forces bombed civilian infrastructure. According to the Dnieper group of troops of the Russian Armed Forces, the Ukrainians fired cannons at the village. Dnepryany – 5 shells, Kakhovka – 6 shells, Staraya Zburevka, Aleshki – 7 shells, Korsunka – 4 shells, Cossack camps – 6 shells and 16 shells in the settlement. Peschanivka, Golaya Pristan, Kardashinka and Maslovka. Following an attack in a residential area of Aleshki, a woman born in 1960 was injured. Fighting continues in Krynki, actions are underway on islands in the floodplain of the Dnieper River. In recent days, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have received hundreds of FPV drones as part of decentralized deliveries.
On the Zaporozhyzhie front, battles are underway in the Rabotyne-Verbove area, the Ukrainians use armored vehicles, cluster munitions and many different drones. In the direction of Vremivka, the Russian Armed Forces are advancing south-west of Staromaiors’ke, units of Far Eastern soldiers, as elsewhere, are actively using UAVs to correct artillery fire.
In the north there are battles at Novomykhailivka; Russian army units were reported to be in control of the central part of the village.
In the Avdiivska section of the front, Russian armed forces are attacking Semenivka from the south, and there are battles in the Berdychi and Pervomais’kyi districts.
In the direction of Časiv Jar the Russian armed forces are attacking the city from the east, moving north of Ivanivske (Krasny). In the direction of Seversky Donets there are battles in Bilohorivka. In the direction of the Lyman district, the troops advance towards Terny.
Daily multiple attacks by MLRS and drone attacks continue in the Belgorod region. Yesterday one of the UAVs hit the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In the Kursk region, Gordeevka, Korenevsky district and Popovo-Lezhachi, Glushkovsky district were bombed. In the DPR, in Gorlovka, three civilians were killed and five injured due to the shelling of the Ukrainian armed forces on the civilian population, including two teenagers.
Graziella Giangiulio