Four weeks after the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian army seems to be in increasing trouble. According to British sources, Ukrainian troops recaptured cities and defensive positions up to 35 kilometers east of Kiev. The British Ministry of Defense said Friday that this has contributed to Russian troops lagging behind as their supply lines are overstretched.
According to US findings, Russia also has huge problems with its precisely guided missiles. The high-tech weapons used in the attack on Ukraine had a failure rate of up to 60 percent, three US officials familiar with intelligence in Washington told Reuters. The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, once again appealed to the West for more assistance to his country.
However, the Russian shelling continued. According to a Russian agency report, the Russian Defense Ministry said a large fuel depot near the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, was destroyed by rocket fire. Two rockets also hit a Ukrainian military unit near the city of Dnieper. The region’s governor spoke of “severe damage.”
According to police, a clinic in the disputed Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine was hit by Russian fire. It served as a humanitarian aid center and there is no military facility nearby, police said on social media. Seven people were injured, four of them died.
In addition, Russian troops reportedly surrounded the city of Chernihiv in the north of Ukraine and cut it off from the surrounding area. Governor Wiatscheslav Tschhaus announced it on television. The city is surrounded by the enemy and is bombarded by artillery and fighter planes. The information cannot be independently verified.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government hopes that an evacuation corridor for the encircled Mariupol port will be opened next Friday. It should concern the civilian population that can leave South-East Ukraine in a private vehicle, said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. Numerous vehicles are ready for evacuation in nearby Berdyansk. “There are currently 48 buses there,” said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereszczuk on Friday in the video. There is also a tanker for refueling private vehicles in the city, about 70 kilometers from Mariupol.
A corridor to the large city of Zaporozhye for further escape was agreed with the Russian side. In addition, there is an agreement on another escape route from Russian-occupied Melitopol to Zaporizhia. Mariupol, once inhabited by 400,000, is one of the Ukrainian cities hardest hit by Russian attacks.
In a video message, Ukrainian President Zelensky thanked the EU’s 27 heads of state and government for the sanctions against Russia. However, support came too late to stop Putin from invading Ukraine. “Now we are talking about Ukraine’s membership in the European Union. At least here I am asking you not to be late, “said Zelenskiy. He hopes that the greatest skeptics of EU enlargement – Germany, France and the Netherlands – will change their course.
On the other hand, the EU did not commit itself to Ukraine’s accession to the EU again, only highlighting “Ukraine’s European aspirations and European decision” in a Friday night decision. At Thursday’s summit in Brussels, NATO, the G7 and the EU called on Russia to end the fighting immediately.