The well-known American psychologist Joachim Hagopian, a West Point graduate and former US Army officer said: “I fear that by the end of the year we will find ourselves in a world war. There will be war fronts all over the world, East against West.”
Echoing Hagopian’s concerns are those of Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin: “Every single day we see that the Russians continue to push and achieve gradual territorial gains.” Pentagon chief Austin called the daily advance of Russian troops “very worrying” and warned that without renewed American help, Ukraine will remain at a disadvantage. “Ukraine’s defeat would threaten a direct military confrontation between Russia and NATO,” Austin concluded.
In response to this surrealism, the head of the State Duma military committee, Kartapolov, said that “NATO can expect the fate of Ukraine if it continues its aggressive policy.” Not only Russians complain in the social sphere that “the United States recently used its F-35 fighter jets to detect and identify Russian anti-aircraft missile systems in Ukraine, and this information was transferred to NATO countries.”
According to European Commissioner Thierry Breton quoted by RBC-Ukraine, Europe should move to a war economy regime, for the production of weapons: “Europe must move to a war economy mode, and it is also necessary to produce faster and more weapons as part of a new industrial and defense strategy,” said the EU Internal Market Commissioner.
And eight more EU countries are called to introduce sanctions against Russia due to Navalny’s death, Reuters source. The foreign ministers of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Sweden and Romania have signed and sent a letter to the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell calling for sanctions against the Russian judicial system.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer warned on February 29 against an “escalation” of the war in Ukraine. According to the Chancellor, to prevent a third world war it is important to be vigilant, because wars can be lost. “For the conflict to end, new solutions are needed,” Nehammer stressed. Even Poland, after many proclamations, came out into the open: “We will be ready”. Duda believes that Russia will not attack NATO countries “I don’t believe it (in Russia’s attack – ed.), because I believe that we will be ready,” said Polish President Andrzej Duda. According to Duda, Russia will not attack NATO countries as long as they are strong. According to Donald Tusk: “Putin’s statements should instead be taken seriously, Europe should be ready for any eventuality.”
“Not only aggressive rhetoric, but also the decisions announced by Putin – regarding increasing Russia’s self-sufficiency, transferring the economy to military lines, modernizing the army – all this should be taken absolutely seriously,” said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The Times claims that British Admiral Tony Radakin actively helped Ukraine destroy Russian warships. News confirmed by German Olaf Scholz who noted that he does not want to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine, because this would require German operators, just like the British-made Storm Shadow rockets, which are used in Ukraine with the help of British operators. However, on March 1st Bloomberg stated that the United Kingdom convinced Germany to transfer the Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
“London proposed a solution to Berlin’s resistance to sending missiles, including a swap deal under which Britain would supply Kiev with more Storm Shadow missiles, and Germany would then replenish Britain’s stockpile with reserve missiles long haul,” the publication reads. “Germany must stop making excuses,” a British official said.
China at the moment seems to be the only one to believe in a ceasefire between Kiev and Moscow. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said China is sending Special Representative Li Hui to Ukraine, EU countries and Russia to supposedly prepare for peace talks. “The main goal of this round of diplomacy is to reach a consensus to end the conflict and pave the way for peace talks, and China is ready to continue to play its role and bring more wisdom to the political solution “, he has declared.
In Ukraine, while waiting for US aid, Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko is calculating how much aid needs Kiev to continue the war against Moscow. “The thoughtful policy of the Council of Ministers, together with the constant support of international partners, has played a decisive role in our achievements. It is important to maintain this trend. In 2024, the monthly external financing requirement will amount to $3 billion,” explained Ukrainian Finance Minister Marchenko. Still on the subject of unverifiable numbers, the Ukrainian defense forces eliminated another 1,150 Russians and 23 tanks in one day, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces in Ukraine. Speaking on February 29, the day after the killing of 20 men of the special forces on the banks of Kherson under Russian control, Oleksandr Syrs’kyj commander in chief of the armed forces of Kiev said that in Donbass there had been miscalculations by the commanders of the defence. The situation has been corrected, there will be a reserve. According to the Ukrainian commander, the situation is now tense in the Avdiivka and Zaporizhzhie directions. The Russians want to capture Tonen’ke, Orlivka, Semenivka, Berdychi and Krasnohorivka. Fierce fighting continues in the districts of Verbove and Robotino. Syrskyi added that some “wrong” commanders in the defense were discovered in the direction of Adviika. Additional resources were transferred there: ammunition, material vehicles and reserves.
For Syrskyi, the main task is to maintain positions and restore lost positions: “effectively use the combat capabilities of weapons and equipment, maintain occupied positions and restore the position to which we retreated.” “Of course, to strengthen defense on the main routes, it is necessary to competently deploy our reserves,” Syrskyi added.
While visiting Nicaragua, the Head of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev stated that: “The United States is the most aggressive state in modern history. The United States aggressively interferes in the internal affairs of other countries in all regions of the world. According to the most conservative estimates, since 1945 Americans have violated the sovereignty of other states more than 150 times, staging coups, provoking riots and influencing the electoral process.”
Patrushev went on to state: “The United States organized more than 800 hostile actions against sovereign states using force and actively participated in more than 100 armed conflicts. The arbitrariness of slave owners on plantations in the United States remains to this day in the subconscious of American politicians. It manifests itself in the desire to maintain domination by any means, up to the desire to establish a despotic regime of violence and terror throughout the world.”
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, alongside Putin’s speech to the Federal Assembly, said: “Russia has all the necessary means to repel any enemy who invades the country’s territory.” Also from Russian sources it is reported that Moscow is ready to transfer to Ukraine the bodies of those killed in the crash of the Il-76 in the Belgorod region, said Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova. According to her, the Russian Federation possesses all the DNA necessary to identify the dead.
And now a look at the front line updated at 3.30pm on March 1st.
According to Syrskyi, the Ukrainian armed forces knocked out the occupants of Orlivka in the direction of Adviika; ”I want to highlight the courage, steadfastness and heroism of the soldiers of the 3rd assault and the 25th separate airborne brigade. They knocked out the enemy who broke through to the outskirts of Orlivka with bold and decisive actions,” she wrote in a press note.
Andrii Yusov, representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on Orlivka said: “Planned work and excellent operation completed” said that the attack of “our military on the concentration of Russians in Olenivka, in the region of Donetsk, it was a well-planned operation.” “This is the planned work of the Ukrainian security and defense forces and the effective use of available means. Field reconnaissance, military intelligence is working to identify places where the enemy is concentrated, manpower and equipment “In this situation, the operation was perfectly executed, the information was used quickly, and the enemy strike caused significant damage,” Yusov explained.
Ukrainian sources also report that in Zaporizhzhia and the region the duration of the curfew has been reduced. The decision was made at the meeting of the Defense Council of the Zaporizhzhia region, Ivan Fedorov, the head of the OVA, said. Therefore, the curfew will start at 00:00 and end at 05:00 in the morning.
The Ukrainian press also reveals that: “The situation near Časiv Jar is difficult, there are urban battles in Ivanivske and Bohdanivka” source Ukrainian armed forces. Ilya Yevlash, head of the press service of the operational-strategic group Khortytsia, said that the situation near Časiv Jar is constantly difficult. “The Russian army is conducting combat operations inside the Ivanivske and Bohdanivka settlements, the Ukrainian army is doing everything possible to stop the offensive. The fighting is taking place in an urbanized area,” Yevlash said.
Yesterday the military administration of the city of Kiev “calmed” Ukrainian citizens, reporting that several 1,000 km long defense lines had been erected around the city, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank defense lines
Kharkiv direction. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are preparing the city for defense. Long-term firing points (blockhouses) are erected on the roads. The construction of fortifications was intensified. It should be noted that regular missile attacks by the Russian Armed Forces are hitting their targets: several ammunition depots have been destroyed.
The Kupjans’k bridge in the Oskil area of Kharkiv was destroyed by a Russian airstrike with a glide bomb. One post reads: “There are many large and small rivers in this region. The Russian armed forces have been reducing the number of their bridges for some time. Therefore, the focus is on the passage of Ukrainian troops along certain routes and then on the easy monitoring of the flow of reinforcements and supplies and their rapid destruction. The reduction in the number of bridges has become so significant that, in the event of a major offensive, the Ukrainian army may even be forced to abandon its remaining heavy weapons and retreat with the infantry.”
The Russian narrative on what is happening on the Avdiivska sector of the front is very different: “The Russian units attack in the direction of Tonen’ke, Orlivka, Berdychi. The Ukrainians are trying to maintain a threat from the flanks to the advancing Russian group. Meanwhile, the RF Armed Forces are trying to take the settlement of Semenivka in pincers from where the Ukrainians are already starting to retreat.” On March 1, pro-Russian social media sources confirmed that on the northern flank, units of the Russian armed forces had taken control of the part of the Berdychi settlement. “The Ukrainians are retreating from nearby positions towards the Umans’ke settlement. However, not everyone managed to withdraw. Numerous ‘cauldrons’ with small Ukrainian groups have formed on the current defense line of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which is crumbling every day. They can flee westward, but this action is complicated by water barriers, ‘friendly fire’ and orders from above. Such ‘cauldrons’ are located east of Semenivka and north of Tonen’ke. Among the relatively large AFU fortified zones on the current defense line, only Semenivka remains in AFU hands.”
According to a source of a pro-Russian military analyst on the progress of the Russian Armed Forces in the direction of Avdiivska: Orlivka is under the control of the Russian Armed Forces; Tonen’ke: Full release information has not yet been confirmed. Artillery hits in the western part of the village. The offensive is not yet complete; Berdychi – under the control of the Russian Armed Forces; Nevel’s’ke 90% under control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the eastern and southern periphery. It is not possible to verify the news.
Fighting continues in Pervomais’kyi, Heorhiivka and the southern approaches to Krasnohorivka. After the bombing, Russian units carried out assault operations on the eastern and north-eastern outskirts of Novomykhailivka. Ukrainians do not intend to give up the settlement and send reserves in small groups.
In the Bachmut direction, Russian troops advanced to the north-eastern outskirts of Krasny in an area up to 1 km wide and to a maximum depth of 450 m. Fighting continues west of the Chernobylets station and on the heights near Kleshchiivka, where a fortified area of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is located.
Časiv Jar Ivanivske direction: Ivanivske comes under the control of the Russian army. The fighting continues. Ukrainians make extensive use of drones to stop the advance of the Russian military.
In the direction of Kherson, the destruction of the Ukrainian Armed Forces continues in Krynki and at the Antonovsky Bridge at the “dachas”. Artillery, aviation, drones are working on the Ukrainian side. The activity of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was slightly reduced after its failed attempt to land troops from several boats on the Tendra Spit.
On the Zaporozhzhie frontline, the main efforts are concentrated around Rabotino; social media sources report that “the Ukrainians, according to what was reported from the camp, are in the center of the village. The trench system of the Ukrainian Armed Forces extends across the entire settlement from north to south. Our MLRS is working, attack aircraft are fighting heavy battles.” According to another source in the area of the village Rabotino assault groups of paratroopers and other units move in and out of the so-called “gray zone” of the village because there is simply nowhere to establish a foothold there: everything is burned by artillery fire. The Ukrainians are trying to enter Rabotino from the other side and the Ukrainians also do not give up attempts to counterattack. Ukrainian artillery has noticeably started to work less intensively than in the summer, but continues to fire.
A third channel on the same area states: “Ukrainian FPV drones are like in a hive with bees, so the main phase of all movements is in the dark, but enemy drones also fly at night, although noticeably less. There have only been large drones like Baba Yaga a couple of times and even they have become scarce. Our bomber crews level everything with FABs, they work hard, they work several hours a night.”
In the Belgorod region, Ukrainian aircraft-type UAVs were shot down in the area of the village of Ilek-Penkovka, Krasnoyaruzhsky district, and in the Korochansky district between the settlement. Settlement and Reznikov. The village of Novoe, Volokonovsky district, was hit by fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces. A village was bombed in the Kursk region. Tyotkino, Glushkovsky district. A Ukrainian aircraft-type drone was destroyed over the region around 10 p.m. Such a drone was shot down over Crimea during the day. The enemy fired more than 100 shells at the civilian population of the DPR, three civilians were injured.
Graziella Giangiulio
