UKRAINE. As the war in Ukraine enters its 51st day, kyiv was once again the target of strikes this Friday, April 15, 2022. The city of Mariupol, in the south of the country, is more threatened than ever… today.
Summary (04/15/2022)
The war continues in Ukraine this Friday, April 15, 2022 and Russia has just announced that it will intensify its strikes on the capital, kyiv, justifying this renewed violence by Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory. An arms factory in the suburbs of the capital was destroyed according to the Kremlin. Moscow, on the other hand, has still not launched the dreaded massive offensive in the Donbass, in the east, and is struggling to take full control of the port of Mariupol, in the south.
The sinking of the ship “Moskva” in the Black Sea, confirmed overnight, is also a new major setback for the Russian army in this war in Ukraine. These military setbacks as well as a new aid of 800 million dollars in armaments promised by Joe Biden to the Ukrainians, and including armored vehicles and long-range guns, could encourage Vladimir Putin to further intensify his attacks according to several observers.
Military setbacks in Ukraine could also prompt the Russian president to resort to a “tactical or low-power nuclear weapon in this country”, warned William Burns, the head of the CIA, the main American intelligence agency, quoted by AFP . “We haven’t really seen any concrete signs like military deployments or measures that could heighten our concerns,” he said.
It appears that Russian forces will probably seize Mariupol in the coming days, according to several observers, including the French Ministry of Defense. The latter reported yesterday in his update that the “last pockets of Ukrainian resistance” were still the place of fighting. Russia should therefore, unless surprised, take possession of this strategic port on the coast of the Sea of Azov.
Russia is also visibly continuing to prepare for a broader offensive in the Donbass. To prepare for this major attack since the start of the war in Ukraine, troop regroupings have been reported in Kharkiv Oblast, a city still under intense bombardment. The latest major news.
In Kyiv, an arms factory was destroyed according to the Kremlin, housing “Polish mercenaries”. Thirty of them were reportedly killed. Despite the withdrawal of Russian troops since the end of March, the war is not over in the capital. Russia announced on Friday that it would step up its strikes on kyiv, citing Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory. The French Ministry of Defense already reported yesterday the “resumption of bombardments in western Ukraine, in particular north of kyiv”.
The Moskva cruiser, flagship of the Russian army in the Black Sea, sank. It was Russia itself that recognized the sinking last night, after the ship was hit by fire. The Ukrainians, for their part, claim to have hit the building with missiles. This is one of Russia’s biggest setbacks and a major humiliation. “The loss of the Moskva will reduce Russia’s ability to carry out cruise missile strikes, but is unlikely to deal a decisive blow to Russian operations as a whole,” writes the Institute for the Study of War. (ISW) American.
In Mariupol, fighting around the Ukrainian “last pockets of resistance” was still going on yesterday. The city could fall to the Russian army shortly after more than 40 days of siege and resistance. Mariupol could record the worst human toll of this war when 20,000 dead are already mentioned by the Ukrainian authorities. The Russian army continues to shell the Odessa sector on the coast as well and remains in a defensive posture in the Kherson sector (see maps).
In the Donbass, the Russian bombardments continue, in particular in the Donetsk sector. Russian forces continue to regroup for a full-scale offensive. Fighting is taking place in particular on the outskirts of Kharkiv, the country’s second city. Located outside the Donbass, further west, this city is still in the hands of the Ukrainian army, but troops are massing on the outskirts, from where the offensive towards the Donbass could be launched. The towns of Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka, in Donetsk Oblast, are likely to be Russian targets soon according to the UK defense. Troops withdrawn from northern Ukraine were reportedly seen in combat operations in the eastern part of the country for the first time on April 14. Russian forces have also continued to redeploy from Belarus to Russia with a view to a new deployment in eastern Ukraine shortly.
The word “genocide” returned to Ukrainian news on Thursday. The Ukrainian parliament passed a resolution describing the Russian offensive as “genocide”. A word used by US President Joe Biden this week, but which Emmanuel Macron for his part did not want to use. Referring to “a brutal war” and “established war crimes”, the French president said he wanted to try “as much as possible to continue to be able to stop this war and to rebuild peace” and said he doubted “that the escalation of words will serve the cause”. Emmanuel Macron reacted again yesterday by indicating that he had explained himself to the Ukrainian president. “The word genocide has a meaning. It must be qualified by jurists, not by politicians”, he justified.
massive US aid in offensive armaments, promised this week by Joe Biden to Volodymyr Zelensky, made Russia react. According to washington postRussian diplomacy sent the Biden presidency a two-page note declaring that this new delivery of heavier armaments to Ukraine “aggravates the conflict” and “may have unforeseeable consequences”.
Find our summary of the news in Ukraine yesterday
Since the start of the conflict, maps have played a key role in understanding the Russian military operation and in monitoring the situation in Ukraine live. Several press agencies, but also specialized institutes and French, Ukrainian and international media, offer maps and graphics updated daily. Some of these cards offer real-time tracking of the latest events, others focus on the major events of the last 24 hours.