Russian forces are carrying out “highly risky” maneuvers that suggest their military leaders are under pressure to advance their operations in eastern Ukraine, according to UK intelligence, after a battalion was killed trying to cross a river.
Images released by Ukrainian forces appeared to show several burned military vehicles and segments of a partially submerged bridge in a river in the Donbass region.
The images showed many more damaged or abandoned vehicles, including tanks, in the forest and on the track leading to the river.
It came as a Russian soldier was put on trial in Ukraine for the murder of an unarmed civilian, marking the first time a member of the Russian military has been prosecuted for a war crime during the conflict.
A captured 21-year-old member of a tank unit is accused of shooting a 62-year-old Ukrainian man in the head through an open car window in the northeastern village of Chupakhivka during the early days of the war.
The UK Ministry of Defense said the footage suggested Russia had lost nearly an entire battalion and deployed pontoon bridge team while crossing the Siverskyi Donets River west of Severodonetsk.
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In its latest update on the situation on the ground in Ukraine, the Defense Ministry said Russia had not made “any significant progress” despite withdrawing and redeploying units from central and northern Ukraine to the east of the war-torn country. .
“Russia is investing significant effort in the vicinity of Izium and Severodonetsk in an attempt to make a breakthrough towards Sloviansk and Kramatorsk,” he said.
“The main objective in this axis is to envelop the Ukrainian forces in the Joint Forces Operation area, isolating them from the support or reinforcement of the units in the west of the country.”
He added: “Carrying out river crossings in a contested environment is a highly risky move and speaks to the pressure Russian commanders are under to advance their operations in eastern Ukraine.”
Other key developments:
• Russian soldier on trial in Ukraine’s first war crimes case
• Germany begins training Ukrainian soldiers in the use of 155mm self-propelled howitzers
• Russian agents ‘believe Putin is terminally ill’ after top-secret memo, report claims
• The EU promises 500 million euros more in military aid to Ukraine and says that the embargo on Russian oil is close
• YouTube, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook have been asked to archive content that could be used as evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine
• Relatives and sympathizers of the Ukrainian fighters sheltering at the Azovstal steel plant under shelling in the southern port of Mariupol held protests in kyiv.
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It is the latest setback on the battlefield for the invading forces after Ukraine claimed on Thursday that a Russian navy logistics ship near Snake Island in the Black Sea was set on fire as a result of a Ukrainian attack.
Satellite images captured by the US company Maxar Technologies appeared to show the fallout from what it said were likely missile attacks on a Russian Serna-class landing craft near the island.
A satellite image shows a Russian Serna-class landing craft and a possible missile trail near Snake Island, Ukraine. Photo: Maxar Technologies via Reuters
Russia is focusing on “liberating” Donbas as part of its “special military operation” after facing stiff Ukrainian resistance in the north.
Russian-backed separatists control parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, which together make up the Donbas, and Russian leader Vladimir Putin wants it all in pro-Russian hands.
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Reference-news.sky.com