Ukraine Updates: Russia Gaining Ground In Bakhmut, Says UK

In a Friday intelligence brief, the UK’s Ministry of Defense (MOD) claimed that “Russian forces had regained some momentum in the battle for Bakhmut” in recent days.

As Russian forces try to take control of the vitally crucial location, the eastern Ukrainian city is still at the center of a grueling fight of attrition.

On Friday, a military spokesman from Ukraine informed Reuters that Bakhmut is still being held by Kyiv’s forces. Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesman for the Eastern Military Command, agreed that the situation the Ukrainian troops were in was “tough.”

Russia had made significant progress, according to the MOD’s most recent intelligence report, and “has now extremely probable moved into the town center.”

A crucial Ukrainian supply route to the west of the city was “certainly severely threatened,” the ministry said, noting that Russian soldiers had taken control of the west bank of the Bakhmuta River.

According to the MOD, it seemed likely that Russian regular forces, which most likely included airborne components, had strengthened the region and were making better use of Russian artillery there.

The briefing also stated that there was a “realistic chance” that the Wagner Group leadership and Russian military commanders had managed to put an end to their ongoing conflict and increase collaboration.

Although Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had raised the possibility of a potential withdrawal should defending forces come in danger of being encircled by Russian forces, Yevgeny Progozhin of the Wagner Group said on Thursday that there was no indication that Ukrainian forces were about to leave the city of Bakhmut.

inside Bakhmut’s hospitals and trenches
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05:08
On Friday, April 7, the following significant developments about Russia’s conflict in Ukraine also occurred:

Kyiv rejects Brazil’s offer to transfer Crimea in exchange for a peace agreement
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil presented a peace offering, but it was rejected by the government of Ukraine.

As part of a peace agreement with Russia, the chief of state of Brazil has offered that Ukraine give up the Crimean peninsula.

Oleh Nikolenko, the spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, posted on Twitter, “There is no reason why Ukraine should give up even a centimeter of its land.

The full restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and respect for its sovereignty must be the cornerstones of any mediation attempts to bring about peace, according to him.

The status of Crimea could be debated during negotiations for peace, according to Lula. He argued that Russia ought to stop occupying other regions of Ukraine.

Crimea was seized by Russia in 2014. It claims to have seized the southern and eastern Ukrainian provinces of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk in September of last year, while the territory is still partially disputed militarily.

Russian officials have formally accused a US journalist of espionage.
According to state news agency TASS, Russian investigators have officially accused American journalist Evan Gershkovich of espionage.

Gershkovich vehemently refuted all allegations and asserted that he was working as a journalist in Russia, according to TASS.

A unusual bipartisan statement denouncing Russia’s incarceration of Gershkovich was released on the same day by the Democratic and Republican leaders of the US Senate.

Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a statement saying, “We strongly condemn the unlawful incarceration of US citizen and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and demand his release.”

China and France pledge to support peace in Ukraine, and Xi calls on all parties to “meet halfway.”
In a joint statement, China and France stated that their nations support all efforts to bring about peace in Ukraine in accordance with international law and the UN Charter. This information was provided by the official Xinhua news agency.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a political solution to end the conflict in Ukraine in a separate statement released by Beijing’s Foreign Ministry. According to the ministry, he further stated that in order to create the conditions for the resolution, the sides to the conflict should meet each other “halfway.”

In a joint statement, China and France reiterated their commitment to advancing nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation, and peaceful nuclear energy.

Both nations declared their willingness to work together to address the financial difficulties facing developing economies. They stressed their support for the World Trade Organization’s multilateral trading system, which is based on rules.

According to the statement, China will go to a climate summit in Paris in June, and France would go to China’s third Belt and Road Forum.

On the last day of French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Beijing, the French aerospace giant Airbus also declared that it had signed an agreement with a Chinese company to supply 50 helicopters.

As the conflict in Ukraine continues, Macron and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, arrived in Beijing earlier this week for discussions with Xi and Chinese officials.

While Xi said he was eager to cooperate with France and the international community to “avoid adopting acts that would further deepen the issue or cause it to spiral out of control,” Macron said he was “convinced that China has a big role to play in creating peace.”

China, in Macron’s view, will help Russia “come to its senses.”
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02:10
Cyprus will provide Ukraine with mine-clearance training as part of its humanitarian aid, according to Defense Minister Michalis Georgallas of Cyprus.

The de-mining and mine detecting personnel would be housed here, Georgallas assured Cyprus network Sigma TV.

Oleksii Reznikov, the defense minister of Ukraine, is visiting the island and will soon visit the sites where the training will be conducted.

Since Turkish troops invaded the north of Cyprus in 1974 in retaliation for a coup staged by proponents of a union with Greece, Cyprus has remained divided.

When the two sides started minefield clearance operations during the previous decade with support from the UN, Cyprus’ 180-kilometer (116-mile) dividing line was littered with minefields.

Several crimes connected to the conflict in Ukraine have been reported in Germany.
According to the German newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, German authorities have filed almost 6,000 criminal offenses connected to the conflict in Ukraine.

According to data from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), offences such as property damage, insults, threats, and physical assaults were committed.

According to the publication, the majority of crimes committed during the first two weeks of the war were in opposition to Russia’s invasion. Nonetheless, most reported incidents during the last two months had “anti-Ukrainian intentions.”

According to the publication, professing sympathy for a belligerent party was one of the recorded infractions in cases of property damage where graffiti was spray-painted on walls. Also included were crimes that reflected anti-war sentiment.

Plans for a secret NATO-US spring offensive were revealed, according to reports.
According to a New York Times investigation, top-secret documents outlining US and NATO intentions to help Ukraine get ready for a spring onslaught have leaked on social media.

The US Defense Department is looking into the reports of social media posts, according to deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh.

The documents were circulated on Twitter and Telegram, according to the American daily. These apparently held critical information, including information about weapon delivery and the size of certain battalions.

One of the documents was at least five weeks old, and the most recent was dated March 1, according to the report.

NATO countries have pledged to provide Ukraine with weaponry, ammunition, and training in the event of a Russian invasion.

Information on the Ukraine conflict
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and French President Emmanuel Macron have both visited China in an effort to persuade Beijing to invite Russia to the bargaining table. These initiatives are described.