Updated on 06/20/2022 at 06:34
- 06:31: ➤ Ukraine’s Foreign Minister: “Let’s fight with shovels”
- 5:57 am: Zelenskyy warns of even more violent Russian attacks in Ukraine
- 5:43 am: Military experts: Moscow artillery force insufficient for offensive
➤ Ukraine’s Foreign Minister: “Let’s fight with shovels”
Even in the event of an end to Western arms supplies, Ukraine would continue to fight Russia. “If we don’t get weapons, fine, then we will fight with shovels, but we will defend ourselves because this war is a war for our existence,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in English on the ARD talk show “Anne Will ” on Sunday afternoon. “So the sooner we get the weapons, the sooner they are sent, the more help will be for us. If the weapons are sent later, we will still say ‘thank you’, but a lot will be wasted, a lot of people will have died.”
Kuleba stressed that no one in the West should believe that Ukraine would be more willing to make concessions without arms deliveries. He added: “The later they send us the weapons, the more people will die sooner and the more people will fall victim to Russian atrocities and the more Ukrainian territory will be conquered by the Russians.”
Kuleba said his country has significantly fewer weapons than Russia. “We cannot win the war with such an imbalance.” In recent days, the Russians have fired 1,000 rockets at targets in Ukraine alone. That’s why your country also needs air defense systems. (dpa)
The situation in summary:
Since February 24, Russia has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine from the air and from the ground. Earlier, President Vladimir Putin had questioned Ukraine’s right to exist as an independent state and recognized the so-called People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
Since then, the Ukrainian army has been fighting the invaders to the best of their ability. Thousands of dead are reported on both sides, but the exact numbers of soldiers and civilians have not been independently verified. The fact is: the humanitarian situation in Ukraine is getting worse every day. According to the UN, more than 7.7 million people have fled Ukraine (as of June 16), mainly women and children, as men between the ages of 18 and 60 cannot leave the country.
The EU and the US reacted with sanctions. They are also supplying weapons to Ukraine, and Germany is also supporting the country with arms deliveries. Ukraine is also expected to receive Gepard-class tanks from Germany. So far, it has been ruled out that NATO will actively intervene in the war.
On the first weekend of April, images of the dead bodies of many civilians in the small town of Bucha, near Kyiv, caused international outrage. Ukraine talks about serious war crimes and genocide and blames Russian troops for it. Despite numerous indications, Moscow denies having participated in the civilian deaths. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that negotiations with Russia must continue. A long-prepared large-scale Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine has been underway since April 18.
Russia’s Attack on Ukraine: Current Combat Operations and Troop Movements. (Notice: This infographic will be updated regularly)
© dpa infographic GmbH
The other reports as of June 20:
Zelenskyy warns of even more violent Russian attacks in Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns of even more violent Russian attacks in Ukraine. “Of course, we expect Russia to increase its hostile activity this week,” Zelenskyy said in his video message on Sunday night. He added: “We are getting ready. We are ready.”
The Ukrainian president also reiterated the importance of the EU member states’ pending decision on his country’s potential candidate status. Few decisions were “so fateful for Ukraine,” Zelensky said. “Only a positive decision is in the interests of the whole of Europe,” he added.
Fighting, however, continues in full force, especially in eastern Ukrainian Donbass. Villages around the city of Sieverodonetsk remain under intense Russian fire. Ukrainian forces said on Sunday they had pushed back the Russians around Sieverodonetsk. In a post on the online network Facebook, the Ukrainian army referred to a hit in the Toshkivka area. However, according to Kyiv, Russian forces are “invading” towards the village of Orikhove.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday it had launched rocket attacks at a meeting of top Ukrainian military officials, killing “more than 50 generals and officers”. In addition, a building where weapons supplied by the West were stored, including ten howitzers and about 20 armored vehicles, was destroyed by Russian bombing in the town of Mikolajiv. The information could not be independently verified. (AFP)
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Military experts: Moscow artillery force insufficient for offensive
According to military experts, Russian artillery superiority is not enough to capture the administrative center of Sievarodonetsk in eastern Ukraine. “Russia’s concentrated artillery capability, together with indisputably weakened infantry units, remains insufficient to make Russian advances into Sieverodonetsk,” read the latest analysis by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) on Sunday night. Russian troops continued to fight for control of the city but made little progress on Sunday.
According to experts, it is likely that Russia will continue to try to encircle the ancient city and cut off supplies to the remaining Ukrainian forces, which are largely hidden in the Azot chemical plant. However, there is currently little progress on this project. In addition, Moscow is preparing an offensive in Sloviansk. The Sloviansk-Kramatorsk area is considered the center of Ukrainian defense forces in the Donbass region.
According to the ISW, Moscow itself is hampering the success of its invasion by continuing to speak of a “special military operation” rather than a war. This prevents Russia from mobilizing to generate more forces. Furthermore, the Kremlin lacks the legal means to punish soldiers who refuse to be mobilized. (dpa)
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With material from dpa and AFP
The tickers of the last few days to read:
Updated on 06/19/2022 at 12:09 pm
“We have to prepare for the fact that it could take years,” warned NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in an interview with “Bild am Sonntag”. He also emphasizes that no NATO soldiers will be sent to Ukraine.