Russia’s war effort is becoming increasingly difficult as the invading army has not only hit a wall in the territories it is trying to occupy, but now also faces a local insurgency that is constantly attacking and bombing its territory from the border with Ukraine. Faced with an increasingly vulnerable border in the west, Russia now faces a dilemma – to defend its border or try to advance into Donbas, where Chechen units have replaced those of Wagner mercenaries, themselves increasingly criticism of the Kremlin and the way the war is being conducted, writes EFE in an analysis cited by Agerpres.
The Belgorod region, the weakest link on the border because it shares 540 kilometers with the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Kharkiv and Sumy, has been attacked non-stop for the past two weeks, with apparently nothing the Kremlin can do to stop it. .
Meanwhile, the government in Kiev says that everything is ready to launch the counter-offensive, the first step of which would be to force Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine to protect its territory.
Also read: Frightened of counteroffensive, Russians are building the largest defensive lines seen on the planet. Experts say they are ineffective
Belgorod, the front line
Belgorod no longer represents the rear of the front, but its first line. Its governor, Viacheslav Gladkov, updates Russians and the rest of the world on his Telegram channel about the daily bombings, which killed seven civilians on Friday and Saturday.
“Listen to the authorities and temporarily leave your homes to preserve the most important thing, which is your life and that of your loved ones,” he wrote on Sunday.
The official explained that his call does not refer only to the Şebekino district, which was the most severely affected by the attacks of the last few days, but to all the areas under bombardment.
Gladkov, who estimated that more than 4,000 civilians have already been evacuated, announced on Saturday the urgent evacuation of 600 children from the border towns, while another thousand will be sent to the annexed peninsula of Crimea.
The governor and other figures in Russia called on the authorities to take the threat seriously once and for all and create a security strip about 40 kilometers wide in the neighboring Kharkiv region.
In the middle of the afternoon, the governor acknowledged a new incursion by a group of enemy saboteurs, an action that would have led to fighting in the town of Novaya Tavoljanka.
“I hope they will be annihilated. It cannot be otherwise. These fascists kill civilians in Belgorod every day (…), mutilate children and the elderly,” he said in a video recording.
The two previous raids, by the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom Legion for Russia, were repelled.
“We continue to crush the enemy. Russia will be free!” wrote on Telegram one of the members of the legion, which seeks to create a military administration in Belgorod.
The Russians are trying again in Donetsk
After the capture of Bahmut, Russian troops are now focusing on the outskirts of Donetsk, the capital of the region of the same name, the most heavily militarized area on the entire front line since 2014.
The targets are Avdiivka and Marinka, where the Chechen special unit “Ahmat” would play the role of assault troops that the Wagner mercenaries had in Bahmut.
According to the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, the Chechens are actively involved in fighting in the center of Marinka, from where they would advance towards Vugledar, a bastion that has resisted them since the beginning of the war.
The final objectives, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, seem a long way off at this point, although the military report on Sunday reported the destruction of an ammunition depot in the first of the Donetsk towns. He also stated that he destroyed a drone factory in the city of Dnipro with precision weapons.
Instead, Ukraine reported the death of a two-year-old girl in the same city after a rocket hit a residential neighborhood.
The counteroffensive, an open secret
After assuring The Wall Street Journal the day before that the Ukrainians were “ready” to launch a counter-offensive and would not wait “several months” for heavy weaponry and Western aircraft to arrive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was much more forthcoming. careful, sunday.
“It’s not like in the cinema (…) The evacuation of our territory, this is the result of the counter-offensive. When it happens, you will understand that it is already underway,” he said in a press conference.
For its part, the defense ministry in Kiev released a video recording of a group of soldiers with their fingers on their lips and the title: “Plans like silence. We will not announce their start”.
“The enemy is waiting in amazement for the next actions of the Ukrainian army,” Serghei Cherebatîi, spokesman of the army’s Eastern Command, said on local television.
Editor: Adrian Dumitru
