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2024-02-20 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: February 19, 2024

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title
[Korrespondent] 21:18 Zelensky said in an evening video message that the situation is now “extremely difficult” on several parts of the front - where Russian troops have concentrated maximum reserves. “They are taking advantage of delays in aid to Ukraine. And these are very tangible things. There is a shortage of artillery. The need for front-line air defense and greater range of our weapons,” the president added.

21:01 The Russians promised to evacuate the defenders wounded in Avdievka from the Zenit fortified area, but they shot them, reports the 110th brigade. Due to the complete encirclement of Zenit, it was decided to contact the coordination center and organizations that are negotiating with the Russian Federation on the exchange of prisoners. The Russian side assured the coordinators that it agreed to evacuate the wounded Ukrainians and provide assistance to them, and in the future exchange them. However, the Russians did not fulfill their promises and shot the wounded.

20:19 Five more Ukrainian children were returned from the occupied territory of the Kherson region, said the head of the OVA, Alexander Prokudin.

19:00 Children's Ombudsman of the Russian Federation Maria Lvova-Belova stated that Russia returned 11 children to Ukraine: “Today we have the largest group, 11 children. Some, due to the loss of their parents, go to relatives in Ukraine, some We are returning children from the orphanage." Qatar acted as a mediator.

18:53 In the Krivoy Rog region of the Dnepropetrovsk region, an X-59 guided aircraft missile was destroyed, the Air Command of Skhid reported.

18:24 Russian pilot Maxim Kuzminov, who in the summer of 2023 hijacked a Mi-8 helicopter of the Russian Aerospace Forces and flew it to the territory of Ukraine, was found dead in Spain, Ukrainskaya Pravda reports, citing a source in the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense. It is known that he was shot.

18:05 Hungary will not block the 13th package of sanctions against Russia, because at the preparation stage “we managed to remove all points that were contrary to Hungarian interests,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said.

17:58 The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry stated that the country will not send weapons to Ukraine: “Ecuador will not send weapons to a country that is involved in an armed international conflict.”

17:33 The US Army is forced to independently pay for the support of the Ukrainian military, since Congress has not yet passed a bill to help Ukraine, CNN reports. In particular, the US army has spent more than $430 million since October 2023 on various operations, including training Ukrainian troops, transporting equipment and transferring US troops to Europe. This bill was paid by the Army Europe and Africa Command. But without additional funding for Ukraine from the United States, the command will have to withdraw money from other projects.

16:45 Ukraine and Italy plan to sign an agreement on security guarantees in the near future - the final details of the bilateral agreement are currently being worked out, reports the Italian publication Formiche. Diplomatic sources expect the Italian agreement to be more similar to the French one than the German one.

16:21 Japan in the first months of 2024 became the largest donor of financial assistance to Ukraine - according to the results of the first quarter, the amount will be about $2.2 billion, the Ministry of Finance reported.

15:44 The EU plans to approve the transfer of income from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine in the coming days, said the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. "We have now initiated legal steps to ensure that the interest received from these deposits does not belong to Russia," she added.

15:32 After success in Avdievka, Russia is trying to return the territories that the Ukrainian Armed Forces liberated during counter-offensives in 2022 and 2023. We are talking about a bridgehead further outside the city, as well as Marinka, Rabotino, Kremennaya and Bakhmut. This is the most dangerous situation since the beginning of the war, writes The New York Times. More details - in the material the Russian Federation launched a wide offensive.

15:23 The White House is working to provide Ukraine with longer-range ATACMS, NBC News reports, citing sources. If Congress approves a funding bill for Ukraine, the missiles could be included in one of the first military aid packages, officials say.

15:00 Russian troops dropped explosives from a drone on an indestructibility point in one of the villages of the Novoaleksandrovsk community of the Kherson region, no people were injured. Berislav was also hit by a drone, one person was wounded, the OVA reported.

14:46 Zelensky said that he is in the Kharkov region, visited the command post of the battalion of the 14th separate mechanized brigade named after Prince Roman the Great, which defends Kupyansk. “We discussed important issues with the brigade commander, talked with the soldiers, and presented them with awards,” the president said.

14:28 According to Russian rescuers, the pilot of the downed Su-35 died in the Sea of Azov, said Nikolai Oleshchuk, commander of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

13:54 Soldiers of the Third Assault Brigade in Avdeevka were completely surrounded for some time, but were able to get out, said deputy commander of the 3rd Special Brigade Maxim Zhorin. He also assured that there was not a single defender left on the territory of the Avdeevsky Coke Plant. “Basically, there is nothing left there except a few dilapidated basements. Almost half of all the KABs that fell on our heads in Avdievka were located on the territory of the coking plant,” Zhorin added.

13:33 In the Avdeevsky direction, the defense forces have gained a foothold on new lines of defense and are successfully repelling the enemy’s attempts to develop an offensive, said the commander of the Tavria group of troops, Alexander Tarnavsky. In the Zaporozhye direction, the Russians returned to the tactics of small assault groups with the involvement of several armored vehicles. These attempts at offensive actions are stopped, the enemy in the vicinity of Rabotino is destroyed, Tarnavsky assured.

13:14 The head of the NATO military committee, Rob Bauer, said that the West was too optimistic about the war in Ukraine in 2023, believing that “if we give the Ukrainians the ammunition and training they need, they will win.” "We have to be careful not to be too pessimistic in 2024. The very fact that Ukraine is still a sovereign state and that the Ukrainians have regained 50% of what the Russians took in 2022 is simply amazing," Bauer added.

12:35 “Governor” of the occupied Kherson region Vladimir Saldo was poisoned with ricin in August 2022, the substance was found in biomedical samples, said the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defense forces of the Russian Federation Igor Kirillov. Saldo claims that “a person from the inner circle who was recruited by the SBU” was allegedly involved in his poisoning; the poisonous substance was added to the food.

Kirillov also claims that the leader of the “LPR” Leonid Pasechnik received severe poisoning with phenolic compounds in December 2023. Before this, Pasechnik’s poisoning had not been reported.

12:07 In the new sanctions package, special attention will be paid to the issue of supplying drones to Russia, said German Foreign Minister Annalena Bärbock. According to her, the foreign ministers of the European Union countries will today discuss new sanctions, which Brussels expects to introduce by February 24.

11:59 Syrsky clarified that the enemy fighters destroyed today carried out attacks with guided bombs on the positions of Ukrainian troops.

11:48 Defense forces in the Eastern direction destroyed two more Russian aircraft - a Su-34 fighter-bomber and a Su-35S fighter, said Air Force Commander Nikolai Oleshchuk.

11:01 Public accounts write about an attack on an oil depot in occupied Makeyevka.

10:53 Ukraine has been preparing to repel Russian aggression for five months, commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces Alexander Pavlyuk told Radio Liberty. According to him, back in the fall of 2021 he was aware of the very high probability that there would be a full-scale war. Even then, there were all signs that Ukrainian troops would meet the enemy not only from the “LPR” and “DPR”, but also from Russian territory.

“And for the month of February, we did everything possible to meet the enemy with dignity: all positions were strengthened as much as possible, all possible options of action were calculated, all reserves were moved - we conducted full-scale training at least twice, and a lot of local training was carried out.”, - said Pavlyuk.

10:36 In the Zaporozhye direction, the Defense Forces are disrupting the enemy’s offensive for the second day in a row, the Zahid operational command reported. That night, the Russians again tried to repeat the offensive and storm the Ukrainian positions, but were unsuccessful. Equipment and personnel were destroyed.

10:14 Advisor to the mayor of Mariupol Pyotr Andryushchenko reported the fall of a burning plane or aircraft-type UAV over the Primorsky district in the direction of the village. Rybatskoe. Before this, two explosions occurred. It is not yet possible to determine the exact location of the crash; the area is cordoned off.

09:49 At the Munich Security Conference, representatives of NATO member countries in private conversations discussed the need to prepare for a possible Russian attack on one of them amid doubts about the US role in protecting Europe, Bloomberg writes. Compared with the determination of previous meetings, there was uncertainty this year in Munich, one official said.

09:03 Russia is advancing in five directions at once - this is the most dangerous situation since the beginning of the war, writes The New York Times. We are talking about Avdeevsky, Maryinsky, Rabotinsky, Kremensky and Bakhmutsky directions. The Russian Federation has accumulated up to 40 thousand troops in the Mariupol area and about 110 thousand in the Kupyansk and Liman areas. Thus, Russia is trying to return the territories that the Ukrainian Armed Forces liberated during counter-offensives in 2022 and 2023.

08:42 The General Staff announced the estimated losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of February 19:

personnel - about 403,720 (+1290) people,

tanks - 6498 (+11),

armored combat vehicles - 12,232 (+34),

artillery systems - 9733 (+24),

MLRS - 986 (+2),

air defense systems - 674 (+0),

aircraft - 336 (+1),

helicopters - 325 (+0),

UAV of operational-tactical level - 7460 (+11),

cruise missiles - 1898 (+0),

ships/boats - 25 (+0),

submarines - 1 (+0),

automotive equipment and tank trucks - 12,767 (+31),

special equipment - 1545 (+5).

08:15 Over the past 24 hours, 80 military clashes took place at the front, the General Staff reported in its morning report. In the Avdeevsky direction, the Defense Forces repelled five enemy attacks near Novobakhmutovka, Lastochkino and Pervomaisky, Donetsk region, in Maryinsky - 18 attacks in the Georgievka, Pobeda, Novomikhailovka areas of the Donetsk region.

In the Kupyansky direction, two attacks were repelled in the Tabaevka area of the Kharkov region; on Limansky - ten attacks near Belogorivka, Lugansk region, Ternov and southeast of Vyemka, Donetsk region; on Bakhmutsky - eight attacks near Ivanovsky, Kleshcheevka, Andreevka, Donetsk region; in Zaporozhye - ten attacks in the Rabotino area of the Zaporozhye region. In the Kherson direction, the Defense Forces hold their positions and repelled 16 assaults by Russian troops.

07:38 At night, the Defense Forces destroyed all four Shahed-type attack UAVs that Russia launched in the direction of the Kharkov region from the Belgorod region, the Air Force reported.

06:31 The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that the Russians were able to launch offensive operations on several sectors of the front at once due to delays in Western aid to Ukraine. According to analysts, Russian troops are conducting at least three offensive operations: along the border of the Kharkov and Lugansk regions, in particular, in the direction of Kupyansk and Liman; in Avdeevka and around it; near Rabotino in the west of the Zaporozhye region. Moreover, the Russian army began its offensive in the western part of the Zaporozhye region over the past 48 hours.

ISW believes this Russian offensive could prevent Ukrainian forces from preparing personnel and equipment to resume counter-offensive operations. At the same time, Ukraine will suffer if it simply digs in and tries to defend itself until the end of 2024, as some Western states and analysts propose, ISW notes.

05:25 The Japanese-Ukrainian conference on economic development and reconstruction, which is jointly held by the governments of both countries, has started in Tokyo. As noted by the Japanese Foreign Ministry, the purpose of the event is to promote dialogue between government officials and business sectors of both countries, to explore the potential of public-private cooperation for the economic reconstruction of Ukraine.

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