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In the first weeks of the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) lost some of its best fighter jets in significant numbers, as it underestimated Ukraines air power, said the top spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force.

Yuri Ihnat, the spokesman for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said in a recent interview that the Ukrainian Air Force is six times smaller than Russias VKS; therefore, the Russians believed they would not face much resistance and were not careful.

I want to note that the Russian planes shot down in the first weeks of the war were among the best. These included Su-34, Su-30, Su-35, and many helicopters, said Ihnat.

Russian aviation suffered losses at first. When they underestimated our aviation, when they believed their propaganda that everything had already been destroyed here, that a walk in the sky would be easy for them, he continued.

He further said that the Russians enjoyed a significant advantage in technology and numbers to show off the Ukrainian Air Forces resilience in countering the Russian Air Force.

The Russians had such an advantage. And if you add more technology that you invested in Russian aircraft. That is, the modernization of the Su-27 into the Su-30, then the Su-34 appeared, the Su-35, Ihnat noted.

Perhaps Ihnat is correct in asserting that despite the overwhelming technological and numerical superiority of the Russian Aerospace Forces, the Ukrainian military did manage to keep Ukraines airspace contested.

However, it is not Ukraines air superiority that has kept the Russian military from establishing complete control over the Ukrainian airspace, but rather the Ukrainian surface-to-air missile systems which denied airspace to Russian combat aviation assets.

As EurAsian Times has discussed in extensive detail, advanced Russian fighters, like the Su-30SM and Su-35S, have remained very effective and lethal against Ukrainian aircraft throughout the war.

Additionally, the Ukrainian Air Force is outnumbered by the VKS. There have also been instances where the VKS has deployed around 10-12 fighter jets against one Ukrainian fighter.

This is evident even from the documented losses of air defense assets on both sides, where Ukraines losses are much steeper than Russias.

Ukraines pre-war inventory of fighters comprised around 30 Su-27s and roughly 50 MiG-29s which can also be used for air-to-ground operations.

So far, Ukraine has lost up to 17 MiG-29s and nine Su-27s, according to the latest figures compiled by the military tracking blog Oryx based on visual confirmations. Of these, one MiG-29 and one Su-27 were destroyed on the ground.

Of the 16 MiG-29s shot down from the skies, 12 losses were documented between February and April 2022. Likewise, in the case of eight Su-27s shot down, five of them were documented in the same timeframe.

Russias losses so far comprise only two Su-35S and eleven Su-30SMs, of which five Su-30s have been destroyed on the ground, as documented by Oryx. Of these losses, only five Su-30s and one Su-35S were lost between February and April 2022.

This means that from February to April 2022, the Russian Air Force suffered only six documented losses of its multi-role and air superiority fighters, as opposed to the 17 losses of the similar aircraft type sustained by the Ukrainian Air Force.

Russia has lost many Su-34 and Su-25 strike aircraft, but even those losses cannot simply be attributed to Ukraines air superiority.

Ukraine fielded medium and long-range air defenses, like the S-300s and Buk-M1s, which forced the Russian fighter jets to fly at altitudes below 4500 meters, right into the range of the man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) that have accounted for a significant number of shoot-downs of Russian aircraft.

This has been admitted by a retired-Russian fighter pilot in a previous interview with EurAsian Times, wherein he described the effectiveness of Ukrainian MANPADS against advanced Russian fighter jets.

Most of our Su-35s, Su-24s, and Su-34s have been hit while flying at low altitudes, the retired Russian pilot told EurAsian Times on condition of anonymity in October 2022.

Therefore, since the onset of the war in February, thousands of MANPADS of different types from several countries have been supplied to the Ukrainian forces across the country, with more on their way.

In the case of Su-34, a strike aircraft, the significant losses suffered by this aircraft type can be attributed to its wide deployment for ground attacks using tactics requiring fighter pilots to fly their aircraft dangerously close to the ground.

While the Su-34 Fullback is highly equipped to conduct precision air-to-surface strikes from standoff ranges, as EurAsian Times discussed earlier, the aircraft is mainly employed for old-fashioned seek-and-destroy missions involving the plane going to the target area, visually acquiring the target, and then attacking.

The severe depletion of its inventory of precision-guided munitions has prompted the Russian military to rely heavily on unguided bombs. The Russian fighters must fly low to deliver these, making them vulnerable to the Ukrainian MANPADS.

Ukraines air denial strategy worked for a while, but then the Russian military adapted to the circumstances and began employing heavy-duty dumb bombs modified with aerial guidance wing kits.

These bombs enable the Russian aircraft to drop the bombs from a standoff range at a relatively low cost, allowing the Russian pilots to stay outside the areas covered by Ukrainian air defense systems.

As per reports, since October 2022, Russian fighter jets have been employing guided bombs, particularly the modified FAB-500M-62 bombs, believed to have been equipped with an aerial guidance kit called Modul Planirovaniya I Korrektsi (MPK), or gliding and correction module.

For four months now, bombers, fighters, and long-range aircraft have been operating with guided weapons from distances inaccessible to enemy air defense, the pro-Russian Fighter-bomber Telegram channel reportedly said on February 22, 2023.

Separately, I clarify our JDAM [Joint Direct Attack Munition], which we call UMPC. It is used almost every day, many times a day, and not one bomb at a time. Hundreds of bombs have already been dropped from the UMPC, the Fighter-bomber channel said.

Because FAB-500 is an unguided air-dropped bomb, to begin with, and it is equipped with a high explosive warhead, it is designed to have a broad area effect through blast overpressure and fragmentation of the casing.

Therefore, this weapon would be most effective against area targets such as Ukrainian trench lines, other fortification networks, and areas with large concentrations of Ukrainian forces.

These new types of bombs have emerged as a formidable challenge for the Ukrainian Air Force, as is evident from recent remarks made by Ihnat after Russian Su-35 jets attacked Ukraines northeastern Sumy Oblast with 11 guided bombs on March 24.

It is an extremely big threat when guided air bombs, gliding bombs, can fly far and the aircraft do not enter the kill zone of our air defenses, said Ihnat shortly after this attack.

The Russian military has a large stockpile of the FAB-500 bombs, which makes it possible to equip them with wing kits in large numbers at a fraction of the cost that goes into making other advanced precision-guided munitions.

Some recent unconfirmed Russian media reports have said that Russia plans to increase the production of these guided bombs because of their extremely high efficiency on the Ukrainian battlefield.

Link:
Ukraine Shot Down Russias Best Fighter Jets, Inc. Su-35, Su-34, In The Initial Weeks Of War Ukrainian Air Force - EurAsian Times

4 Mins Ago

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testifies before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on President Biden's proposed budget request for the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 28, 2023.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

U.S. officials have identified the person suspected of leaking classified government documents as 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, NBC News reported.

Officials speaking on condition of anonymity said they have been tracking Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, for some time and that an arrest is imminent. The New York Times first identified Teixeira as the suspect on Thursday.

Chelsey Cox

57 Mins Ago

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov delivers a speech during a session of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, in Moscow, Russia February 15, 2023.

Russian State Duma | Reuters

Russia's Ambassador to the United States called on the State Department to process the visa request of Russian Foreign Minister SergeiLavrov ahead of a meeting at the United Nations in New York.

Lavrov is slated to chair several UN Security Council meetings during the last week of April. Russia currently holds the one-month rotating presidency of the UN Security Council.

Anatoly Antonov said the visa request was submitted to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow at the end of March. "However, not a single entry permission has been granted so far," Antonov said, adding that the embassy canceled a visa appointment on March 31 without providing an explanation.

"We urge Washington to immediately issue visas for our delegation, as well as for our journalists. Failure to do that is a violation of the United States' obligations as the host country of the UN headquarters," he said.

Antonov added that the U.S. must also grant flight permissions for the Russian delegation "without any conditions or restrictions."

Amanda Macias

An Hour Ago

A U.S. Air Force Raptor F22, F16 fighter jets and MIG-29 of the Polish Air Force take part in a NATO Air Force military drill on October 12, 2022 in Lask, Poland.

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Germany approved Poland's request to transfer five Soviet-designed MiG 29 fighter jets Germany previously owned to Ukraine, the Associated Press reported.

Polish President Andrzej Duda said his country already had provided four MiG-29 jets to Ukraine, with four more in the process of getting handed over and another six being prepared, according to the AP report.

Germany itself has not supplied Ukraine with jets.

Melodie Warner

2 Hours Ago

The European Union will launch an 11th wave of sanctions on Russia and seek to crack down on efforts to evade economic penalties introduced in the wake of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a top EU official told CNBC Thursday.

"Europe has rolled out 10 packages of sanctions. We will have another package," Mairead McGuinness, EU commissioner for financial stability, financial services and capital markets union, told CNBC's Joumanna Bercetche at the International Monetary Fund's spring meeting in Washington, D.C.

EU countrieshave been in talksabout drawing up a fresh round of sanctions against Russia in recent weeks and McGuinness confirmed an 11th package of measures is on its way.

Read the full report here.

Ryan Browne

3 Hours Ago

The Biden administration is looking at expanding how it monitors social media sites and chatrooms after U.S. intelligence agencies failed to spotclassified Pentagon documents circulating online for weeks, according to a senior administration official and a congressional official briefed on the matter.

The possible change in the intelligence-gathering process is just one potential shift as officials scramble to determine not onlyhow the documents leakedbut also how to prevent another damaging incident.

President Joe Biden and other officials were dismayed when they learned the documents had been online for at least a month. Some documents may have appeared as early as January, according to Bellingcat, the open-source investigative group.

Read the full report here.

NBC News

2 Hours Ago

Among the latest revelations from leaked Pentagon documents that have been circulating on social media are details of infighting in the Russian government, the New York Times reported.

NBC has not independently verified the report, and the Times concedes that it has not been able to authenticate the documents in question. NBC's reporting on the previous batch of documents that appeared online suggested that some of them may have been altered.

"The depth of the infighting inside the Russian government appears broader and deeper than previously understood, judging from a newly discovered cache of classified intelligence documents that has been leaked online," the Times wrote.

Natasha Turak

3 Hours Ago

Aerial view of the Pentagon building photographed on Sept. 24, 2017.

Bill Clark | CQ-Roll Call Group | Getty Images

The Department of Defense is moving to further restrict access to sensitive information following a massive intelligence leak that's disclosed classified U.S. government planning and assessments on Ukraine and a number of other countries.

"The Department of Defense say they have taken steps to further restrict access to sensitive information," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters in response to reporting from the Washington Post that the leaks were disseminated in an online chat platform.

"Look, we are certainly reviewing the national security implications of the disclosure and I can add that to mitigate the impact the release of these documents have on our U.S. national security and also on our allies and partners as well, so this is something we are taking very seriously," she said. "There is an ongoing investigation. DOD has taken steps to restrict access to these documents and definitely don't want don't want to get ahead of what is happening."

Natasha Turak

4 Hours Ago

The source behind the trove of classified documents leaked to social media that have become the biggest U.S. intelligence breach since Edward Snowden worked on a U.S. military base, according to reporting by the Washington Post.

NBC has not independently verified the report, whose main source is a minor who was granted anonymity by the Washington Post. The Post said it also reviewed approximately 300 photos of classified documents, most of which have not been made public.

The minor communicated with the leaker for years on an invite-only group chat on the online gaming platform Discord, whose members, the Post wrote, were "united by their mutual love of guns, military gear and God."

The Post reports that the leaker shared "what appeared to be near-verbatim transcripts of classified intelligence documents that [he] indicated he had brought home from his job on a 'military base'," the location of which he did not disclose.

The White House responded to the reporting, saying the Department of Defense has taken steps to further restrict access to sensitive information and that an investigation is ongoing.

Natasha Turak

5 Hours Ago

Wholesale food market in Moscow.

Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Russia's headline inflation fell to 3.5% in March, down by 7.5% from the previous year, with the large contrast mainly due to Russia's post invasion inflation spike in March of 2022, Goldman Sachs said.

Last month's figure is below the Russian central bank's long-run target of 4%, but Goldman analysts believe this level is temporary and will rise to approach 7% by the end of 2023.

"Looking forward, we think inflation is near its trough and that it will remain near 4% in Q2-2023. However, we expect base effects to slowly fade going forward ... Adding to this are exchange rate pressures stemming from the weakening of the Ruble since November, which has depreciated more than 10% against the USD and around 12% vis--vis the RMB year-to-date," Goldman wrote in a note Thursday.

"We forecast the weaker Ruble to eventually pass-through consumer prices, specifically the mostly imported non-food goods in Russia. From H2-2023 on, therefore, we forecast inflation to re-rise and stand close to 7% by year-end."

Natasha Turak

6 Hours Ago

Ukrainian state gas company Naftogaz said Russia has been ordered to pay it $5 billion in compensation for illegally seizing its assets in Crimea in 2014. The order came from The Hague's Arbitration Tribunal in the Netherlands.

The ruling is a "key victory on the energy front," Naftogaz CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov said of the news. He added that he expects more wins for Ukraine. Russia illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014.

"Despite Russia's attempts to obstruct justice, the Arbitration Tribunal ordered Russia to compensate Naftogaz for losses of $5 billion," Naftogaz said in a statement. "Russia must now comply with this decision in accordance with its obligations under international law."

It's not clear how Russia's payment will be enforced, and the Russian government did not immediately respond to the ruling. But if Russia refuses to pay, Naftogaz said it could launch a "process of recognition and admission to enforce the award in the territory of those states where assets of the Russian Federation are located."

Natasha Turak

8 Hours Ago

Russia announced that it would cut oil production by 500,000 barrels per day in March after the West slapped price caps on Russian oil and oil products.

Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

The Group of Seven advanced economies is not expected to update its price cap on Russian oil in the coming weeks amid contrasting views on whether the policy is truly denting the Kremlin's revenues.

The G-7, alongside the European Union and Australia, decided late last year to impose a cap of $60 a barrel on Russian oil in an effort to ratchet up the pressure on Moscow. As part of the agreement, they said they would review this cap in mid-March.

However, despite calls to do so from several countries in Europe, the threshold was not revised last month even as oil prices fell from the levels seen in the two months prior to mid-March. If a revision had taken place, the $60 barrel level would likely have been reduced.

Read the full story here.

Silvia Amaro

8 Hours Ago

The grain harvester collects wheat on the field near the village of Zgurivka in the Kyiv region, while Russia continues the war against Ukraine. August 9, 2022.

Maxym Marusenko | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Ukraine's gross domestic product dropped by nearly a third in 2022, which was dominated by Russia's full-scale invasion that began on Feb. 24 of that year.

The GDP of the war-battered country fell by 29.1%, Ukraine's state statistics service reported, although this was just slightly better than the government's forecast of a 30% drop.

More than 8 million people have fled Ukraine as refugees, amounting to around 20% of the country's population. Russia's war has killed tens of thousands of people, devastated industries and destroyed and damaged vital energy infrastructure around the country.

Russia's naval blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports has also throttled the majority of Ukraine's vital grain and produce exports, which comprise a significant portion of the world's supply of soft commodities such as grain, corn, and sunflower seeds. Exports as a whole were down 35% in 2022 from the year before, Ukraine's economy ministry said.

Still, Kyiv says GDP may grow 1% in 2023 due to improvements in the retail, transportation and construction sectors.

Natasha Turak

9 Hours Ago

The European Commissioner for the economy, Paolo Gentiloni, has hailed the EU's swift transition away from its dependency on Russian gas and said next winter will be less challenging.

"We were expecting a terrible winter, a winter of recession and problems with energy supplies, blackouts," he told CNBC's Joumanna Bercetche in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. "We didn't have recession and we were able to go out from dependency from Russian gas in eight months. I think, amazing results."

Asked whether he believed the energy crisis was over, he said: "I think it will be a challenge also for next winter, maybe a less dramatic challenge than it has been in the past winter, because we should remember we had a more than 40% dependency from Russian fossil fuels, and this is now down around 7%."

He said the EU would be refiling storage from the end of April without Russian gas and said it was important to diversify pipelines, noting increased Chinese demand following its lockdown reopening may bring liquefied gas prices up.

"More optimistically, the big, big challenge was last winter, next winter will also be challenging but we already know we were able to do something amazing," Gentiloni said.

Jenni Reid

10 Hours Ago

Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal attends a news conference, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine March 3, 2023.

Stringer | Reuters

Ukraine secured a $200 million World Bank grant to fund the restoration of its energy sector.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the funds will go toward rebuilding the power grid and heat supply systems in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy and cities in the Chernihiv region.

Russia has targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure in waves of air strikes, causing power outages for millions of people.

"Energy infrastructure has suffered $11 billion in damages over the last year and is one of the most critical areas whereUkraine needs urgent support," World Bank Managing Director of Operations Anna Bjerde said in a statement."We are grateful for strong partnership with Ukraine and development partners to support this critical sector and act fast."

Shmyhal previously named energy as one of Ukraine's key sectors for rebuilding the economy.

He added that Ukraine and the World Bank will intensify three projects in energy, transport infrastructure and health care as part of reconstruction.

More:
Ukraine war live updates: U.S. officials identify leaked documents suspect as 21-year-old Air National Guardsman; Germany approves Polands transfer of...

The Russian Prosecutor-General's Office said on Thursday that it would openan investigation into a video that allegedly shows a Ukrainian prisoner of war being beheaded.

The footage, which lasts one minute and 40 seconds, appears to show a Russian soldier holding down a screaming Ukrainian soldier and decapitating him.

The victim is seen with a Ukrainian trident on his uniform.

"In order to assess the reliability of these materials and make an appropriate decision, they were sent to the investigating authorities to organize a probe," the Russian authorities said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov had previously calledthe video "horrific"but said it must be verified.

"First of all, we live in a world of fakes and therefore we have to check the authenticity of the footage."

Former Wagner mercenary commander Andrey Medvedev, who fled to Norway months ago and is currently imprisoned in Sweden, reportedly identified the men in the footage as his former comrades.

"He has listened to and watched it carefully several times and he clearly recognizes his former colleagues there, fighters from the mercenary Wagner troop," said Vladimir Osechkin, founder of the Russian rights organization Gulagu.net.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin denied the accusations.

"This is complete nonsense. It does not correspond to reality," he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his outrage on Wednesday after the video surfaced, saying "We won't forget anything, nor will we forgive murderers."

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The video has sparked international condemnation with the UN Human Rights office in Ukraine saying it was "appalled."

"Regrettably this is not an isolated incident," a spokesperson added.

The European Union said that, if confirmed, the footage was "yet another brutal reminder about the inhumane nature of the Russian aggression". It pledged to hold anyperpetrators accountable for war crimes.

France called the footage "barbaric" while Czech President Petr Pavel that if the video is authentic, "then Russian soldiers have placed themselves in line with [the so-called 'Islamic State'group]."

Here are some of the other notable developments concerning Russia's war in Ukraine on Thursday, April 13:

Russian forces said on Thursday that they have blocked the routes used by Ukrainian forces to reach their positions in the highly contested frontline city of Bakhmut.

Russian Defense Minister Igor Konashenkov said that mercenaries from the Wagner Group were involved in "high-intensity fighting to drive the enemy from the central parts of Artemovsk city," using the Russian name for the city.

"Airborne troops are providing support to advancing assault troops, blocking the transfer of Ukrainian army reserves to the city and the possibility of retreat for enemy units," the Russian defense ministry also said.

However, Ukraine has disputed the claim. "This does not correspond to reality," Sergiy Cherevaty, spokesman for Ukraine's eastern forces told AFP, adding that Ukrainian forces were still able to "deliver provisions, ammunition, and medicines."

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group also contested the claim by the Russian defense ministry, saying it was "too early" to announce the encirclement of the city.

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Ukraine and Russia have repeatedly traded claims and accusations over the city, which has been a focal point of Moscow's attempt to advance through eastern Ukraine.

Earlier, Ukraine's military said it controls "considerably" more than 20% of the city, refuting Russian entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin's claim that his Wagner mercenary group had seized more than 80% of Bakhmut.

However, Russia's Defense Ministry responded by stating that Wagner forces had captured three city blocks and that Russian forces had struck Ukrainian army reserves trying to break through.

Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern military command, dismissed Prigozhin's latest 80% claim in a comment to Reuters news agency.

The Norwegian Foreign Ministry has said that it is expelling 15 officials who had been working Russian embassy in Norway.

There are some 40 Russian diplomats currently accredited in Oslo. Another three were expelled in April last year.

"Their activities pose a threat to Norway," Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt told a news conference. "We have followed their activities over time. They have increased since the invasion of Ukraine."

Norway, a NATO member state, is also a member of the Arctic Council. Moscow currently holds the council's rotating chairmanship, but its due to hand this over to Oslo in May.

Huitfeldt said she could not say whether the expulsions would have any impact on the transition of the Arctic Council chair.

Poland has applied for formal approval from Berlin to deliver several MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, Germany's Defense Ministry confirmed on Thursday.

The Soviet-era planes formerly belonged to East Germany and were transferred to Poland in 2002.

Poland first announced it would deliver the fighter jets to Ukraine in March.

Polish President Andrzej Duda recently confirmed that eight MiG-29s had already been delivered. Those jets did not require German permission to be exported because they were not former East German stock.

Janet Yellen, the Treasury Secretary of the United States, called upon the international community to continue supporting Ukraine in meeting its financial needs during Russia's ongoing war.

She was speaking at a meeting with top representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to discuss assistance for Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who participated in the meetingvia video link, appealed for a concrete mechanism to be established to use Moscow's frozen assets to compensate for the damage caused by Russia.

In March, the World Bank, alongwith the Ukrainian government and the European Commission, estimated that at least 411 billion ($451 billion) would be needed for Ukraine's reconstruction and recovery over the next 10years.

Ukraine requires 14 billion for urgent reconstruction investments this year alone, with a financing gap of around 11 billion, according tothe World Bank.

The institutionalsoannounced aplanto provide $200 millionto help Ukraine repair its energy and heating infrastructure, while other partnerswill contribute an additional $300 million as the project expands.

The funds will be used for emergency repairs to Ukraine's transition transformers, mobile heat boilers, and other critical equipment, saidthe statement released by the World Bank.

The country'senergy infrastructure has incurred $11 billion in damage over the past year, making it one of the most critical areas in need of urgent support, according to Anna Bjerde, Managing Director of Operations at the World Bank. Power outages resulting from the damage to the infrastructure have contributed to food, heating, and water shortages.

The reality of war in Ukraine could posea serious challenge for Russian authoritiesahead of Victory Day parades next month, according to the British Ministry of Defense.

Victory Day celebrates theSoviet Union's World War II victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

"Leaders of several Russian regions bordering Ukraine, as well as occupied Crimea, have announced that their usually high-profileVictory Day military parades will be canceled," the ministry said in its daily intelligence update on Thursday.

However, Victory Day parades in cities further away from Ukraine are still set to go ahead.

"The different approaches highlight a sensitive communications challenge for the Kremlin," the ministry said.

The ministry saidRussia's recent military shortcomings in Ukraineare at odds with the sentiment of Victory Day.

"Putin couches the special military operation in the spirit of the Soviet experience in World War Two," the intelligence update read.

"The message risks sitting increasingly uneasily with the many Russians who have immediate insights into the mismanaged and failing campaign in Ukraine."

"Honoring the fallen of previous generations could easily blur into exposing the scope of the recent losses, which the Kremlin attempts to cover up."

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The United States imposed sanctions on more than 120 targets to put pressure on Russia for its aggression againstUkraine.

The sanctions target entities linked to state-held energy company Rosatom and firms based in partner nations like Turkey, as well as a Russian private military company, a China-based firm, and a Russian-owned bank in Hungary.

The Treasury and State departments, in concert with Britain, imposed the sanctions on entities and individuals in over 20 nations, including Russian financial facilitators and sanctions evaders around the world.

One of the main targets was Russian billionaire businessman Alisher Usmanov, described by the Treasury as having "at his disposal a wide network of businesses in financial safe havens and family members through which to conduct financial transactions, enabling him to potentially circumvent sanctions."

British Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt announced that Britain is prepared to provide an additional $500 million (455million) in loan guarantees to Ukraine, bringing the total amount this year to $1 billion.

According to Hunt, the British loan guarantees were crucial in supporting a larger $15.6 billion(14.2billion) four-year package of assistance for Ukraine from the IMF.

"This funding will enhance Ukraine's economic resilience and strengthen its resistance against Russia," Hunt said in a statement.

US officials are investigating after 50 documents, many of whichwere marked as secret and relate to the war in Ukraine, were leaked on social media.Here's what we know so far.

A Ukrainian video game studio is releasing a game created entirely during the Russian invasion. DW looked at how the development of the game wasimpacted by wartime experiences.

ab, zc, tg/nm (dpa, AFP, Reuters)

Read the original:
Ukraine updates: UK says war reality sinking in for Russians - DW

Updated 10 April 2023

The documents include detailed accounts of the training being provided to Ukraine by foreign powers

What to make of the dozens of classified US Defence Department documents - maps, charts and photographs - now circulating on the internet?

Complete with timelines and dozens of impenetrable military acronyms, the documents, some of them marked "top secret", paint a detailed picture of the war in Ukraine.

They tell of the casualties suffered on both sides, the military vulnerabilities of each and, crucially, what their relative strengths are likely to be when Ukraine decides to launch its much-anticipated spring offensive.

How real are these printed pages, unfolded and photographed, possibly on someone's dining room table? And what do they tell us, or the Kremlin, that we did not already know?

First things first: this is the biggest leak of secret American information on the war in Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion 14 months ago. Some of the documents are as much as six weeks old, but the implications are huge.

Pentagon officials are quoted as saying the documents are real.

Information on at least one of them appears to have been crudely altered in a later version, but out of a dump of as many as 100 documents, that seems a relatively minor detail.

BBC News has reviewed more than 20 of the documents. They include detailed accounts of the training and equipment being provided to Ukraine as it puts together a dozen new brigades for an offensive that could begin within weeks.

But it notes that "equipment delivery times will impact training and readiness".

Ukrainian soldiers fire a German howitzer Panzerhaubitze 2000

One map includes a "mud-frozen ground timeline", assessing ground conditions across eastern Ukraine as spring progresses.

After a winter that has tested Ukraine's air defences to the limit, there's also a sobering analysis of Kyiv's diminishing air defence capability, as it seeks to balance its limited resources to protect civilians, critical infrastructure and its frontline troops.

Not only do the leaked documents say a lot about the state of Ukraine's military - they also talk about some of Washington's other allies. From Israel to South Korea, the documents reveal internal debates those countries are having about Ukraine and other sensitive issues.

Some of the documents are marked top secret, others to be shared only with America's closest intelligence allies.

How much of this is new?

A lot of the detail here is familiar. There's just a lot more of it, and it's all in one place.

Take casualty figures. It comes as little surprise to learn that the US estimates that between 189,500 and 223,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded.

The equivalent figure for Ukraine's losses - between 124,500 and 131,000 - is also in line with ballpark figures briefed to journalists in recent weeks.

In both cases, the Pentagon says it has "low confidence" in the figures, due to gaps in information, operational security and deliberate attempts, probably by both sides, to mislead.

Tellingly, this is the one place where attempts have been made to alter the documents to make it look as if Ukraine is experiencing the worst casualties.

A version which appeared on a pro-Russian Telegram site took the number of Ukrainians "killed in action" ("16k-17.5k") and put those on the Russian ledger, while flipping the numbers on the Ukrainian side so they read "61k - 71.5k".

All of which brings us to the question of who leaked the documents, and why?

'Here, have some leaked documents'

The story of how the documents found their way from the messaging platform Discord, to 4Chan and Telegram, has already been told by Aric Toler of the investigative open source intelligence group Bellingcat.

Mr Toler says it has not yet been possible to uncover the original source of the leaks, but charts their appearance on a messaging platform popular with gamers in early March.

On 4 March, following an argument about the war in Ukraine on a Discord server frequented by players of the computer game Minecraft, one user wrote "here, have some leaked documents", before posting 10 of them.

It is an unusual, but hardly unique form of leak.

In 2019, ahead of the UK general election, documents relating to US-UK trade relations appeared on Reddit, 4Chan and other sites.

At the time, Reddit said the unredacted documents had originated in Russia.

In another case, last year, players of the online game War Thunder repeatedly posted sensitive military documents, apparently in an effort to win arguments among themselves.

The latest leak is more sensitive, and potentially damaging.

Ukraine has zealously guarded its "operational security" and cannot be happy that such sensitive material has appeared at such a critical moment.

Ukraine's spring offensive could represent a make-or-break moment for the Zelensky government to alter dynamics on the battlefield and set conditions for peace talks later.

In Kyiv, officials have spoken about a possible disinformation campaign by Russia.

Other military bloggers have suggested the opposite: that it is all part of a Western plot to mislead Russian commanders.

Crucially, there is nothing in the documents leaked so far that points to the direction or thrust of Ukraine's counter-offensive.

The Kremlin ought to have a pretty good idea already of the scope of Ukraine's preparations (although Moscow's intelligence failures have been much in evidence throughout the war), but Kyiv needs to keep its enemy guessing about how the campaign will unfold, in order to maximise the chances of success.

Additional reporting by Benedict Garman and Olga Robinson

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Ukraine war: Who leaked top secret US documents - and why? - BBC

Ukraine

Frontline drone operators say Russia is close to countering their most popular models setting off a race to find replacements

Mon 10 Apr 2023 09.07 EDT

Crouching in a freezing basement or risking it all on top of a nine-storey building, the drone squads in the war zone of Bakhmut are ubiquitous. Some are forced to lurk a few hundred metres from, or even on, the frontline. Without them, Ukraines efforts to hold on to the embattled city would be much harder, perhaps impossible.

But the concern for Ukraine, according to three frontline drone operators deployed in the city over the winter, is that the Russians are close to countering the most popular models in operation, those made by the Chinese manufacturer DJI. Theyre adept and they are manufacturing these special jamming systems, said Yaroslav, 31.

So actually, I believe like in three, four months, DJI will not be usable, the drone specialist said. It means a scramble has been going on to look for replacements, prompting countless Ukrainian initiatives in probably the most dynamic aspect of the near 14-month war, a conflict in which drones have so far largely helped defenders.

Yaroslav and Maksym, both from Kharkiv, met on the steps of a recruiting office in the days after the war began. Neither had any military experience, but after moving their families to safety farther west in the country, the two men were recruited into Ukraines 63rd brigade, operating in the summer around Mykolaiv to the south before switching to the hot zone of Bakhmut in December and January.

Their day in Bakhmut would typically start before dawn, where working in a group of two or three, the men would have brought at least a pair of drones to their forward position, most likely a simple DJI Mavic 3 quadcopter (which costs 1,399 in the UK) or perhaps a more advanced DJI Matrice 30T (12,098) and a pile of 20 to 30 batteries, because in winter, the battery life is about half an hour, said Maksym.

To say the work in Bakhmut, scene of the heaviest fighting in the war, is intense is an understatement. Maksym described watching a Russian attack that lasted seven hours, with wave after wave of attackers coming at Ukrainian positions in small groups from the morning until about 3pm, each being sought out from above to give Ukrainian soldiers a chance to stop them.

It is terrifying and dehumanising, watching the violence from overhead and dropping bombs down below. When you are watching movies, you think you must feel something when you are killing people. But in the war, there are no emotions, you just totally do what you need to do, said Yaroslav, although both admitted the three-week break they have had from the frontline had not been long enough.

Drone operators such as Maksym and Yaroslav, embedded within frontline battalions, are asked to conduct reconnaissance, monitoring enemy attacks, or search for higher-value targets such as artillery pieces, although in Bakhmut the Russians only briefly fire these about 3 miles (5km) behind enemy lines. You only have a couple of minutes to catch and destroy them, Yaroslav said. They also help Ukrainian gunners correct their aim, and occasionally use armed drones if required.

Hundreds of war videos filmed from above demonstrate the military capability of drones. They are used as propaganda vehicles by both sides, and in Ukraine it is common for brigades or battalions to have a videographer to help produce such content. Images of the detail of the devastation of Bakhmut illustrate what can be seen.

In theory, DJI drones were banned in Ukraine and Russia by the company nearly a year ago, with DJI saying it abhors any use of our drones to cause harm. But in practice they are bought in large numbers by donors from Europe and the US the Star Wars actor Mark Hamill fronts one fundraising campaign and shipped across the border, because they have proved the most effective for local-level reconnaissance and can be easily modified to carry grenades to bomb from above.

But the drone operators report the DJI craft are gradually becoming less effective, as Russian electronic warfare techniques diminish their range. The environment in Bakhmut, where sight lines are restricted by the remaining buildings, is also often more difficult, as was the winter weather, but a frontline drone squad may only cover a few hundred metres, whereas before their effective range was 10 or 20 times more.

In Mykolaiv we had 15km to cover, and in Bakhmut only 500 metres and even for these 500 metres it was tough to cover with two drones, Yaroslav said, adding that on the southern front in the autumn it was possible to cross 6km (3.7 miles) beyond the frontline, but in Bakhmut 1km maximum, sometimes it was not possible to cross the border.

Combat losses are also considerable, with friendly fire a particular problem, as nervous infantry on the ground know the presence of a drone loitering for a moment above can be a prelude to accurate incoming artillery. Sometimes a drone does not last a day, other times it can be preserved for several months. Operators are considered key targets; Maxsym has shrapnel embedded in his right arm from a shell that landed near him while on duty in Bakhmut.

Yevhen, 38, another drone operator from Kharkiv, is a friend of Maksym and Yaroslav, and like them was deployed in Bakhmut for three months over the winter. Like them, he believes the days of the frontline DJI drone are numbered. Frankly speaking for me, Mavics are already starting to die. In December we were able to fly 3km, so we were not working from the zero point [the frontline]. Now the guys are saying they cannot fly further than 500 metres, he said.

As a result, Yevhen, a computer programmer before the war, has moved away from frontline work to help develop new types of drones to overcome what is likely to be a looming battlefield problem. He is involved in testing a longer-range Ukrainian-made Windhover drone with the countrys army, although the three-pronged six-rotor device has been in development since before the war one of many homegrown drone projects taking place around the country.

Yevhen predicts that replacing DJIs in the frontline will require a mixture of longer-range but more expensive fixed-wing reconnaissance drones operating from further in the rear, such as the Leleka-100, which costs about $50,000 (40,000) and has a range of up to 100km, combined with FPV (first person view) kamikaze drones: light, high-speed racing drones with bombs attached, often controlled via headsets. Ukraine has sought 1,000, although their effectiveness in volume is not yet proven.

Samuel Bendett, a drone expert with the US Center for Naval Analyses, says the likely change in technology could favour Ukraine. The Russians are very concerned that Ukrainians have the advantage when it comes to the FPV drones, worried that a large number will be used to support a Ukrainian counteroffensive, and that Moscow may not have enough pilots or technological know-how to keep up.

This is a technology race not just between the militaries, but also between the volunteers with their own technology arsenals, he added.

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Excerpt from:
Theyre starting to die: fears Ukraines drone supremacy may soon be over - The Guardian