Boris JohnsonThe government has delivered more than £2 billion worth of weapons to war-torn Ukraine, including anti-tank missiles and night vision goggles, and plans to send hundreds of drones and anti-tank weapons over the next few weeks to help fend off European democracy Putin‘s war of aggression.
Minister of Defence Ben Wallace today exposed the extent of British military aid to Volodymyr Zelenskigovernment since the Russian invasion on February 24.
The British Ministry of Defense has announced that it has sent Kiev more than 6,900 anti-tank missiles, 16,000 artillery ammunition, 5,000 night vision goggles, 120 armored fighting vehicles and six Stormer vehicles with Starstreak launchers.
It plans to bolster the existing Soviet-era artillery in the coming weeks with more than 20 M109 155mm self-propelled guns, 36 L119 105mm artillery guns and more than 1,600 anti-tank weapons and hundreds of hanging air munitions. .
The defense minister said in a statement: “The scale and range of the equipment we provide shows the strength of our determination. Together with our international partners, we will ensure that Ukraine has the means to defend their country against Putin’s illegal invasion.”
The war appears to be taking a drastic new turn after Putin’s attack dog Sergei Lavrov confirmed that Moscow’s war targets now extend beyond the Kremlin-backed Donbas region to the east and include Kherson and neighboring Zaporizhzhya to the south.
The Defense Ministry announced that it has sent Kiev more than 6,900 anti-tank missiles, 16,000 artillery ammunition, 5,000 night vision goggles, 120 armored fighting vehicles and six Stormer vehicles with Starstreak launchers. It plans to bolster the existing Soviet-era artillery in Ukraine in the coming weeks with more than 20 M109 155mm self-propelled guns, 36 L119 105mm artillery guns and more than 1,600 anti-tank weapons and hundreds of hanging air munitions.
Firefighters extinguish fire in damaged school building after shelling in Kramatorsk . city today
Boris Johnson’s government has showered Ukraine with weapons since Putin invaded the country in February
In the nearly five months since Putin’s men invaded Ukraine, 1,700 tanks have been destroyed by Ukrainian forces who have inflicted heavy casualties on the Russian military thanks to advanced Western weapons and tactics.
Ukrainian armed forces said today they had killed 111 Russian soldiers in the south and east in the past day, as comments by the Russian foreign minister showed that the Kremlin’s targets had grown during the five-month war.
Russia classifies military deaths as state secrets, even in peacetime, and did not regularly update its official casualty count during the war.
Russian forces shelled towns in eastern and southern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said, hitting two schools as Putin’s forces conducted limited ground operations in preparation for a wider offensive.
The Ukrainian army reported heavy and sometimes deadly Russian shelling in the east and south of the country, amid allegedly largely unsuccessful attempts by Russian ground forces to advance into the eastern region of Donetsk.
Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Russian rocket attacks had destroyed two schools in the towns of Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka and also hit the town of Bakhmut, but there was no information about casualties yet.
Russia says it is not knowingly targeting civilians and using precision weapons to downgrade Ukrainian military targets, but the war has razed cities to the ground, particularly in Russian-speaking areas of eastern and southeastern Ukraine.
Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov said in his Telegram channel that one of the most densely populated areas of the city was being shelled and asked people not to leave the shelters. Oleh Synehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said two people had been killed and 19 injured, four of them seriously.
Vitaly Kim, governor of the southern region of Mykolaiv, said the region was targeted by seven S-300 missiles. One person was injured, he said, and infrastructure, power supplies and storage facilities were damaged.
Multiple blasts were also heard overnight and into the Russian-controlled southern region of Kherson, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
CIA Director William Burns said on Wednesday that the United States estimates that the number of Russian casualties in Ukraine had so far reached about 15,000 killed and perhaps 45,000 injured and that Ukraine has also suffered what he called significant losses.
With persistent speculation that Putin may have health problems, Burns also said the Kremlin chief was healthy as far as he knew.
British military intelligence said on Thursday that Russian forces are likely approaching Ukraine’s second-largest power station at Vuhlehirska, 50 km (31 miles) northeast of Donetsk.
“Russia gives priority to capturing critical national infrastructure, such as power plants,” the ministry, which supports Ukrainian forces, said in a regular bulletin.
Firefighters extinguish fire in damaged school building after shelling in Kramatorsk . city today
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 after a military intervention by pro-Russian separatists and Russian armed forces. That was followed by a controversial referendum across Crimea, illegal under the Ukrainian and Crimean constitutions, whose official results showed over 90% support for reunification.
It said the capture of the power plant, a Soviet-era coal-fired facility, was also likely part of Russia’s attempt to regain momentum as it attempted to advance towards key cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine.
It comes as Russian gas started flowing into Europe via a major pipeline after a hiatus – but gas flow was expected to remain well below full capacity and the outlook was uncertain.
The resumption of gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany ended a nerve-wracking 10 days for Europe as politicians expressed concern that Russia would not be able to restart them at a time when alternative energy supplies are tight and prices are high .
The pipeline traditionally carried more than a third of Russia’s gas exports to Europe, but operated at only 40% of its capacity after Kremlin-controlled Gazprom cut gas exports in a row due to the repair of a turbine.
European Union president Ursula von der Leyen has accused Russia of blackmailing Europe by using energy as a weapon, something Moscow, which is unable to quickly divert all its gas to other markets, has denied. read more
Moscow has criticized EU and US sanctions against Russia over the February 24 invasion of Ukraine and military aid to Kiev, saying it must undertake a “special military operation” to prevent NATO from using Ukraine to threaten Russia.