June 25, 2022
1. Just imagine: Could civilians in Donbass survive without Russian SMO?
According to official data of the Joint Coordination Center of the DPR, since the beginning of the escalation of Ukrainian third armed aggression against Donbass that started on February 14, 2022 and intensified on February 17, 2022, till June 25, 929 civilians, including 69 children, were injured in the territory within the borders existed before the beginning of the Russian Special Military Operation or SMO.
1,440 civilians, including 78 children, were injured in the territory liberated during the SMO.
The total number of people injured is 2,369, including 147 children.
In total, AFU fired 42,048 munitions of various calibers against Donbass, including 7,494 missiles fired from three types of MLRS, like Smertch, Hurricane and Grad.
4906 residential buildings, 1062 civil infrastructure facilities, including 64 medical institutions, 202 educational facilities, 378 social centers, 30 critical infrastructure facilities, 388 electric, water and gas supply assets, 577 vehicles were damaged.
Correspondents in the liberated areas report that almost no one wants to be evacuated by AFU or live under Kiev’s cruel rule. Only Russians are expected as liberators.
One resident said: "It's the Ukrainian army that is shelling us, it is killing our children!" The other one note: "I want to see how the Russians will win and establish their power here." One person adds: "We want to unite with the Russians! They are our friends, not the Germans or Europe."
Just days after announcing a new billion-dollar weapons shipment to Kiev, the White House announced $450 million more.
The U.S. has already delivered four M142 HIMARS to Ukraine (four have been sent earlier). The new package pushes the total value of munitions, anti-tank weapons, helicopters, vehicles and protective gear donated by the United States to Ukraine since February 2022 past $6.1 billion (see this PPT in normal size at: Defence One website, dated June 15, 2022// https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2022/06/us-pledges-more-weapons-ukraine-milley-warns-numbers-clearly-favor-russians/368229
French President Emmanuel Macron pretending to act as a peace-maker also delivered to Ukraine 18 Caesar self-propelled howitzers to kill more people in Donbass.
A Russian factory which is currently studying the seized French weapons also sarcastically thanked Macron for the "gifted" artillery, asking him to send more for disassembly.
French politician and far-right National Rally candidate for the 2022 general election, Jean-Michel Cadenas, has criticized the Ukrainian military for abandoning two Paris-originated Caesar self-propelled howitzers on the battlefield. Cadenas also blasted French President Macron for sending them in the first place.
The Kremlin stressed that these shipments unnecessarily prolong the conflict in Ukraine and added that it shows how the West wants to fight "until the last Ukrainian standing" to oppose the Russian SMO. Moscow also has repeatedly advised Western countries against sending weapons to Ukraine, warning that Kiev might not exercise control over where they end up, possibly including in the hands of third-party terrorists looking to compromise European security.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on June 25 that he feared Ukraine could face pressure to agree a peace deal with Russia that was not in its interests, due to the economic consequences of the war in Europe. "Too many countries are saying this is a European war that is unnecessary ... and so the pressure will grow to encourage - coerce, maybe - the Ukrainians to a bad peace," he told broadcasters in the Rwandan capital Kigali, where he was attending a Commonwealth summit. He also admitted that the consequences of Russian President being able to get his way in Ukraine would be "a long-term economic disaster".
If so, Boris, why to wait for a peace deal? Zelensky is your pal. Always says to your demands: “Ready, I ready”.
2. AFU suffered heavy losses. Lisichansk is cauldroned, two key cities liberated
Russian troops blocked Lisichansk from the south and by evening June 25th entered the city after having breached the defensive line of Ukrainian troops. Cauldron has been created. No chances to escape.
Within five days, Russian Armed Forces have liberated eleven settlements, including the largest ones: Loskutovka, Mirnaya Dolina and Ustinovka. 600 Ukrainian soldiers have surrended near Lisichansk, the LPR leaders reported.
At the same time, the Southern group of Russian troops has defeated the encircled group of Ukrainian troops in Gorskoye and have liberated Gorskoye and Zolotoye.
High-precision attacks launched by Russian Aerospace Forces at Megateks zinc plant facilities in Konstantinovka (Donetsk People's Republic) has resulted in the elimination of up to 80 Polish mercenaries, 20 armoured combat vehicles and 8 Grad MLRS. Over 300 Ukrainian servicemen and foreign mercenaries, as well as 35 units of equipment have been eliminated near Nikolayev.
Refusals to fulfil assigned tasks continue to occur in Ukrainian army and territorial defence units. Personnel of 64th Battalion from 103rd Territorial Defence Brigade located in Lvov has refused to redeploy to operations area in Donbass due to being manned by untrained reservists and lack of heavy armament.
Operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery have neutralised manpower and military equipment in 284 areas, 2 munitions, missiles and artillery armament depots near Volcheyarovka (the LPR), as well as artillery and mortar units in 43 areas.
Within counter-battery warfare towards Donetsk, high-precision attacks launched by Russian Aerospace Forces have neutralised: 8 Uragan MLRS platoons near Kurakhovo, Ukrainsk, Novosyolovka Vtoraya, Vozdvizhenka and two artillery platoons near Ukrainsk and Yasnobrodovka that had been shelling Donetsk and other settlements in the DPR.
Attacks launched by aviation, missile troops and artillery have resulted in the elimination of over 780 nationalists, 8 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 3 Uragan MLRS, 10 field artillery cannons and mortars, 13 special vehicles.
Russian air defence have destroyed 21 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles near 18 populated areas in several Regions.
One Tochka-U ballistic missile has been intercepted near Molodyozhnoye (Kherson Rregion) and 16 MLRS projectiles near Brazhkovka, Glinskoye, Dolgenkoye (Kharkov region), Avdeyevka (the DPR) and near Zmeiny( Snake) Island.
In total, 213 airplanes and 132 helicopters, 1,355 unmanned aerial vehicles, 350 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,797 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 670 combat vehicles equipped with multiple rocket-launching systems, 3,012 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 3,848 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.
3. Humanitarian situation
AFU continue to use the civilian infrastructure for military purposes and hiding behind civilians as ‘human shield’:
a) in Kharkov, in the vocational high school №33 (Vladislava Zubenko Street), AFU and Territorial Defence units have deployed their manpower, as well as hardware and artillery near the educational institution;
b) in Yasnogorsk, Donetsk People's Republic, in the schools №21 (Levoberezhnaya Street) and №30 (Volkhovskaya Street), neo-Nazis have deployed strongpoints and MLRS, while residents of the nearby buildings remain retained in the educational institutions;
c) in Ugledar, the DPR, in the densely populated areas (13-i Desantnikov Street. and Molodyozhnaya Street), militants of Aidar, Right Sector and Azov nationalist battalions have deployed fortifications, strongpoints, armament and munitions depots, as well as mortars mounted on the roofs of multi-storey residential buildings that periodically attack the nearby settlements. Residents are forbidden to leave their flats, while any attempts of civilians to evacuate to safe areas are severely suppressed;
d) in Odessa, on the upper floors of residential buildings (Lanzheronovskaya Street ), nationalists have deployed their firing and sniper positions. Local residents have not been evacuated from their flats and are being used by nationalists as human shields.
It has been reliably elicited that the 83rd Centre for Information and Psychological Operations of the AFU is preparing another cynical provocation in order to accuse the Russian Armed Forces (RAF) of launching attacks at potentially dangerous facilities that can cause hundreds of victims among the civilian population in Odessa in case of its implementation. With this purpose, at the territory of the cemetery for victims of the plague in XIX century (Privoza District, Chumka Hill, Vodoprovodnaya Street), AFU militants are concentrating foreign-manufactured large-calibre artillery and MLRS. In case of an attack launched by RAF at the AFU equipment concentration in this area, the Ukrainian side intends to spread information in mass media about a destruction of burials and biologic hazard allegedly caused by Russian servicemen.
These facts show the indifference of the Ukrainian authorities to the civilian population and their total disregard to the international humanitarian law. It occurs with the tacit consent of the so-called civilized Western countries that continue turning a blind eye to the numerous war crimes of the Kiev regime.
Demining detachments of the Russian Armed Forces and the EMERCOM of Russia are carrying out land and facility clearance tasks in the DPR and LPR.
A total of 3,541.68 hectares were explored (including 22.89 hectares over the past 24 hours), 35 buildings (including 13 socially important facilities), 2 bridges and 9.64 km of roads. 32,465 explosive remnants have been detected and neutralised, including 1,307 over the past 24 hours.
Since March 2nd, 35,908.7 tonnes of humanitarian cargo have already been delivered by the Russian Federation to Ukraine, 1,211 humanitarian campaigns have been carried out, including 6 campaigns in the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, the Kharkov and Kherson regions, during which 853.4 tonnes of humanitarian aid were distributed to the civilian population of the liberated areas.
4. Situation in the Black Sea
Kiev refuses to demine the Black Sea areas filled with its own sea mines in order to release foreign merchant ships from its seaports and to begin export of Ukrainian grain abroad that constitute less than one percent of the total world grain production.
According Reuters report dated June 24, Ukraine will need at least a decade to clear all the mines and explosives from its land and territorial waters once its war with Russia is over, Oleksandr Khorunzhiy, spokesperson for Ukraine's State Emergency Service, said on June 24. In his words, The first priority is to demine infrastructure, residential areas and roads, but it will take longer to clear woods, rivers and the coastline, he confessed. If so, why to put a blame for Russia who has never activated Ukrainian sea mines near Ukrainian coast?
The latest situation in the Black Sea is reflected in Report # 86. “Kiev intensified shelling of civilian areas in Donbass”, released on June 20, 2022 (item 3).
Written by Vladimir P. Kozin
