Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky assured this Thursday, May 11, that his Army still cannot start its expected spring counteroffensive due to the lack of weapons to carry it out. However, the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner pointed out that Zelensky is lying and that the offensive has already started around Bakhmut. Meanwhile, the UK became the first country to supply kyiv with long-range missiles and the US formally accused South Africa of supplying Russia with weapons.
This May 11, the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, maintained that his country’s forces need more time to launch the counteroffensive in the east of the country, an operation that he has announced in recent months. According to the president of the invaded nation, the heavy weapons supplied by other countries to carry it out have not yet been fully delivered.
Zelenski referred mainly to armored vehicles and indicated that the delay in the ramming is mainly due to the fact that carrying it out without the necessary supplies would mean the loss of many soldiers in combat.
“With what we already have, we can go ahead and, I think, we would be successful (…) But we would lose a lot of men. I think that is unacceptable. So we have to wait, we need a little more time,” said the Ukrainian president.
Some statements that for Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary command, would be false. The head of the private paramilitary force accused Zelensky of lying at a time when the Ukrainian offensive to recover the eastern territories of the country had already begun, around disputed Bakmut. The Ukrainian operations were “unfortunately, partially successful,” he said.
Prigozhin pointed out that the flanks of his forces are under pressure in the vicinity of that town, which for months has concentrated the efforts of both sides of the conflict.
Previously, Wagner indicated that he controlled 80% of the city and his eventual total takeover is considered by some analysts as strategic, since it would consolidate Moscow’s dominance in the east of the country, also sealing a corridor from the breakaway provinces of Donbass, in the east, and Crimea in the south, annexed in 2014.
“The situation on the flanks is developing according to the worst-case scenario (…) All the territories that were taken with the blood and lives of our comrades for many months, advancing tens or hundreds of meters per day, now they are being scrapped practically without a fight,” Prigozhin said.
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry has acknowledged that the war in Ukraine has been more difficult than thought. “The special military operation continues. This is a very difficult operation and, of course, certain objectives have been achieved in one year,” he said. the head of the portfolio, Dimitri Peskov. The minister added that the fact that Russia has not been able to take Ukraine is because Moscow has sought to protect civilian lives, something that for kyiv is completely false.
Ukraine also accuses Prigozhin of lying
Prigozhin has been putting pressure on the Kremlin for months. He accuses his country’s defense chiefs of not providing enough support and ammunition to the group of mercenaries fighting on behalf of Moscow. Days ago, the man – known for his closeness to Vladimir Putin, but who in recent weeks has lashed out at the Kremlin – assured that he would withdraw his troops from Bakhmut if he does not receive the support he requests.
According to a report by British intelligence agencies, this confrontation with the military leadership would have earned the Wagner group that the Kremlin withdrew its permission to recruit militiamen in Russian prisons since February, with which it has shaped its ranks. in the last few months.
According to the London report, it is now the Russian Ministry of Defense that has resorted to this type of reinforcement and only last April would have gathered 10,000 soldiers from prisons.
For their part, commanders on the ground in Bakhmut accuse Prigozhin of being the one who is lying. “They have not had even close to a deficit of ammunition. In recent days, the intensity of shelling and rocket artillery has increased,” said Ukrainian Colonel Roman Hryshchenko.
Hryshchenko assured that Russian troops have been carrying out constant assaults on the city and that Ukrainian forces have been repelling them. “The situation is difficult. The enemy is launching a large number of his forces against us, constant waves of assaults,” the Ukrainian military officer told Reuters news agency on Wednesday.
However, he added that the Russian forces were suffering higher casualties than his unit, but declined to offer precise figures. The commander said that “news” from Bakhmut would arrive in the next few days, but he also did not specify the nature of him and offered no further details. “I ask everyone to have a little patience and you’ll see,” he added.
UK supplies kyiv with cruise missiles and South Africa is accused of supplying weapons to Moscow
The bitter fight for every meter of land in Bakhmut continues, while outside the land threads of war are moving. Britain has announced it has begun supplying Ukraine with cruise missiles, which will allow the attacked nation’s troops to plan and execute long-range assaults against the Russian military.
Ukraine had been asking for this kind of support for months. However, many countries that have supported him since the beginning of the offensive, such as the United States or members of the European Union, have refused to provide this type of weapon for fear of triggering a greater conflict with Moscow.
⚡️: UK delivers long-range missiles to Ukraine.
The UK has already provided Ukraine with multiple long-range cruise missiles Storm Shadow, wrote on May 11, citing senior Western officials. https://t.co/iJy4GREBfZ
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) May 11, 2023
British Defense Minister Ben Wallace assured that the missiles could only ben be used within Ukrainian territory, which implies guarantees that Ukraine will not use them to attack Russia between its borders. Wallace also maintained that his country made the decision in response to attacks on civilians by Kremlin troops. Moscow must “recognize that its actions alone have led to the provision of such systems,” he said.
For its part, Russia has previously warned the UK that sending such long-range weapons would elicit “an appropriate response”.
On the same day, tensions around the war in Ukraine have grown in South Africa, after the US ambassador to the country, Reuben Bridget, claimed that a Russian ship that had docked at a naval base near Cape Town had been loaded with weapons and ammunition late last year.
The country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, assured that his government is investigating this information. As a consequence of these accusations, the rand, the national currency, hit a low of 19.3250 against the dollar, its weakest level since the historical low established on April 6, 2020, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
With Reuters and international media
