The situation at the front
The fiercest fighting is now going on in Bakhmut. According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, during the day the Armed Forces of Ukraine repelled 20 attacks by Russians in the Bakhmut direction. War Gonzo reports that, southwest of Bakhmut, Wagner PMCs launched an offensive against Ivanovskoye. The Wagnerites failed to reach the settlement. In Bakhmut itself, after massive artillery and air strikes, they pushed through the defenses of the Ukrainian garrison in the southern part and are conducting assault operations in the city center.
The founder of PMC Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, planted a flag on the ruins of the Bakhmut city council building. This was confirmed on the air of the telethon by the representative of the Eastern Group of Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Sergey Cherevaty. “Sets flags on buildings that have not physically existed for a long time. That is, this building, as he says, of the city administration – it was simply destroyed, ”he said.
The fact of planting a flag on the ruins of the Bakhmut City Council building was confirmed by the Ukrainian project DeepState, which geolocated the place. This can also be seen in the video from the drone, which was posted by the "war correspondent" Alexander Simonov.
In the Ugledar direction, the Russian Aerospace Forces are conducting airstrikes on Ukrainian positions using adjustable bombs.
Earlier, the speaker of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Yuri Ignat spoke about the use of such bombs by the Russians.
“This is a new threat that has appeared before us: without flying into the zone of destruction of our air defense, they drop these bombs. Bombs fly tens of kilometers, 500 kg each, let me remind you that this bomb has a warhead, something needs to be done about it. Not only the air defense systems that we are waiting for, but still increase pressure and work with Western partners to create an aviation coalition and provide fighter jets to Ukraine, ”he noted.
According to Ignat, the Russians use up to 20 guided bombs per day.
“The enemy uses planning bombs that can fly tens of kilometers (up to 70 km) – up to 20 bombs per day along the entire demarcation line. They launch from Su-35 and Su-34 aircraft, which are not included in the zone of destruction of our air defense, and this is a threat for us, to which there is nothing to respond to yet, ”he said.
shelling
On the night of April 4, the Russian army attacked the south of Ukraine with kamikaze drones. According to the command of the Ukrainian Air Force, 14 Shahed-136/131 drones were shot down by air defense forces. According to the Ukrainian military, the Russians released up to 17 drones.
The speaker of the Odessa Regional Military Administration, Sergei Bratchuk, said that one of the drones hit one of the enterprises in the Odessa region, which caused a fire. By the morning it was eliminated, the victims were avoided. 13 of the 14 drones were shot down over the Odessa region, and one more over the Mykolaiv region, Bratchuk added.
Arms deliveries
The United States will send another package of military aid to Ukraine, according to the Pentagon website. The Joe Biden administration decided to give Kyiv ammunition for the HIMARS MLRS, missiles for the Patriot and NASAMS air defense systems, small arms and heavy equipment for $ 500 million, as well as anti-tank systems. The cost of the supplied equipment and weapons will be about $2.6 billion, the report says. Also, the military assistance package will include air defense systems, mortar systems, artillery and tank ammunition.
This is the thirty-fifth tranche of equipment from the US Department of Defense stocks for Ukraine, which the Biden administration has authorized since August 2021. The Pentagon notes that most of the package (worth $ 2.1 billion) is supplied under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which does not involve supplies from US stocks, but orders for the production of equipment, which can take quite a long time.
What will the US give to Ukraine:
- additional ammunition for the Patriot air defense system
- additional ammunition for NASAMS air defense systems
- additional ammunition for MLRS HIMARS
- 155 mm and 105 mm artillery ammunition
- 120 mm mines
- 120 mm and 105 mm tank ammunition
- 25 mm ammunition
- about 400 grenade launchers and 200 thousand rounds of ammunition
- 30 mm and 23 mm anti-aircraft ammunition
- 130 mm and 122 mm artillery shells
- 122-mm rockets "Grad"
- rocket launchers and ammunition
- 120 mm and 81 mm mortar systems
- 120mm, 81mm and 60mm mines
- 600 small arms and more than 23 million rounds of ammunition for it
- 11 tactical recovery vehicles
- 61 tankers
- 10 trucks and 10 trailers for transporting heavy equipment
- four logistics vehicles
- secure communications equipment
- satellite communication terminals and services SATCOM
- funding for training, maintenance and support
- seven tactical vehicles for the evacuation of equipment
- eight heavy oil trucks and 105 conventional
- tank bridge layers
- ATGM TOW
- Javelin anti-tank systems and missiles for them
- nine truck-based 30 mm anti-aircraft anti-UAV artillery systems
- 10 C-UAS mobile missile systems with laser guidance
- three air surveillance radars
- corrected aviation ammunition JDAM.
Russian military expert Ilya Kramnik writes that, in combination with the already accumulated stock and the two previous March packages, which, in addition to ammunition, included engineer-sapper equipment, this transfer is similar to preparing for a counteroffensive.
According to U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith, Washington and NATO allies expect the Ukrainian Armed Forces to launch a spring offensive against Russian forces “in the coming weeks,” but leave to Ukraine not only the timing but also the tactics of a possible offensive.
The Australian company EOS Defense System announced a contract with the Ukrainian state company Spetstechnoexport worth up to $80 million for the supply of 100 unnamed remote-controlled weapon stations. Probably, we are talking about the R400S-MK2-D-HD combat module, which is already on some of the armored vehicles delivered to the armed forces of Ukraine – Bushmaster and Inkas Titan-S.
The ordered modules are planned to be installed on combat vehicles expected to be transferred to Ukraine, possibly on Polish Rosomak armored personnel carriers, which are also ordered by Ukraine in the amount of 100 pieces.
Shoigu called the number of destroyed foreign equipment
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that since the beginning of this year, 14 launchers of American HIMARS MLRS, 59 M777 howitzers and 13 Paladin self-propelled guns, 30 self-propelled artillery mounts from Poland, Germany, France and the Czech Republic have been destroyed.
It should be noted that the M109A6 Paladin is not yet at the front. The United States announced the shipment of these installations, but evidence of their use in the public domain did not appear. Most likely, the information presented to Shoigu refers to earlier modifications of the 155-mm M109 self-propelled artillery mounts (some of which were actually lost).
Finland officially became a member of NATO
Finland joined NATO at a ceremony held on 4 April at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. Finland became the 31st member of NATO. Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto completed the accession process by presenting an official document to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
As a result, the common NATO border with Russia is more than doubling, from the current 1,215 kilometers to 2,555 kilometers, and the distance from a NATO country to St. Petersburg is now only a couple of hundred kilometers.
The entry of Sweden, which applied along with Finland in May 2022, is being delayed due to objections from Turkey.
About the main events of the war on April 3 – in the previous report: “ Prigozhin “legally took” Bakhmut, the investigation into the murder of Tatarsky, Poland sent the first fighters to Kiev. What's going on at the front ."