Incapacity does generally describe Russian forces even as they continue to bombard targets and spread disinformation. Peripheral threats continue as the numbers still favor Russia, even as Ukrainians have managed to keep the Russians from mounting major offensive operations. The fog of war persists.
Russian forces have not abandoned efforts to reconstitute forces northwest of Kyiv to resume major offensive operations, and the commander of Russia’s Eastern Military District (EMD) may be personally commanding the operations. The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russia’s 35th Combined Arms Army is rotating damaged units into Belarus and that Russian forces established a command post for all EMD forces operating around Kyiv in the Chernobyl area. Ongoing Russian efforts to replace combat losses in EMD units and deploy additional reinforcements forward are unlikely to enable Russia to successfully resume major operations around Kyiv in the near future. The increasingly static nature of the fighting around Kyiv reflects the incapacity of Russian forces rather than any shift in Russian objectives or efforts at this time.
Ukrainian forces continued to conduct limited counterattacks in several locations, recapturing territory east of Kyiv, in Sumy Oblast, and around Kharkiv in the past 24 hours. Ukrainian counterattacks are likely enabling Ukrainian forces to recapture key terrain and disrupt Russian efforts to resume major offensive operations. Likely escalating Ukrainian partisan operations around Kherson are additionally tying down Russian forces. Russian forces continue to make slow but steady progress in Mariupol, but Russian assaults largely failed elsewhere in the past 24 hours.
Key Takeaways
- Russian Eastern Military District (EMD) Commander Colonel-General Alexander Chayko may be personally commanding efforts to regroup Russian forces in Belarus and resume operations to encircle Kyiv from the west. The Kremlin is highly unlikely to have abandoned its efforts to encircle Kyiv but will likely be unable to cohere the combat power necessary to resume major offensive operations in the near future.
- Neither Russian nor Ukrainian forces conducted major operations northwest of Kyiv in the last 24 hours.
- Ukrainian forces counterattacking east of Brovary since March 24 successfully retook territory late on March 26.
- Ukrainian forces conducted limited counterattacks in Sumy Oblast on March 26-27.
- Fighting continued around Izyum in the past 24 hours, with little territory changing hands.
- Russian forces continued steady advances in Mariupol.
- Ukrainian partisans around Kherson continue to tie down Rosgvardia units in the region, likely hindering Russian capabilities to resume offensive operations in the southern direction.
https://t.co/5O2de7ev7i
LVIV, Ukraine, March 28 (Reuters) - With peace talks between Russia and Ukraine set to take place in Turkey this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy insisted on the territorial integrity of his country after earlier suggesting he was ready for a compromise.
Zelenskiy said in his video address to the Ukrainian people late on Sunday that in talks due to take place in Istanbul his government would prioritise the "territorial integrity" of Ukraine.
But in comments made to Russian journalists earlier in the day Zelenskiy adopted a different tone, saying Ukraine was willing to assume neutral status and compromise over the status of the eastern Donbas region as part of a peace deal.
In the video call that the Kremlin pre-emptively warned Russian media not to report, Zelenskiy said any agreement must be guaranteed by third parties and put to a referendum. read more
"Security guarantees and neutrality, non-nuclear status of our state. We are ready to go for it," he added, speaking in Russian.
Even with talks looming, Ukraine's head of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said Russian President Vladimir Putin was aiming to seize the eastern part of Ukraine.
"In fact, it is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine," he said, referring to the division of Korea after World War Two. Zelenskiy has urged the West to give Ukraine tanks, planes and missiles to help fend off Russian forces.
www.reuters.com/...
"Number one is the situation, when Russia is struck by a nuclear missile." 2/
"The second case is any use of other nuclear weapons against Russia or its allies," 3/
"The third is an attack on a critical infrastructure that will have paralyzed our nuclear deterrent forces." 4/
"And the fourth case is when an act of aggression is committed against Russia and its allies, which jeopardized the existence of the country itself, even without the use of nuclear weapons, that is, with the use of conventional weapons." 5/
That's all good news as none of these conditions are present or even being threatened. None will occur. NATO will never attack Russia preemptively, let alone jeopardize the existence of Russia. Never. 6/
Note, he did not say 'If NATO supplies fighter jets to Ukraine.' 7/
Note, he did not say 'if Russia begins to lose on the battlefield in Ukraine' 8/
In fact, compared to Russian doctrine before the invasion of Ukraine, I see nothing new at all in what Medvedev said regarding the conditions under which Russia would use nuclear weapons. What am I missing? 9/
And as for actions, I have seen no evidence that Russian nuclear forces are on a higher alert now than before invading Ukraine. Correct me if I am wrong. 10/ END THREAD.
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This war is not Chris Rock getting slapped by Will Smith at the Oscars.