The situation at the front
Russia has moved most of its troops from the Kremennaya area to Avdiivka and Vuhledar, with the Russian offensive in Bakhmut "entering its final phase," Professor Michael Clarke, former director of Britain's Royal United Defense Research Institute (RUSI), told Sky News.
According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), on April 9 and 10, Russian forces tried to make territorial gains in and around Bakhmut, but continued to suffer significant losses. The commander of the Ukrainian ground forces, Colonel-General Alexander Syrsky, stated that the Ukrainian forces had so exhausted the forces of the Wagner PMC that the Russian military command was forced to send special forces and airborne units to Bakhmut. Also, the Russian Federation continues to carry out ground attacks along the Avdiivka-Donetsk line, ISW notes. According to the General Staff of Ukraine, Ukrainian forces are repelling Russian attacks in the area of Avdiivka, Novokalinovo, Pervomaisky, Vodyanoye and Marinka.
One of the founders of PMC Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that 80% of Bakhmut had been liberated (he, like the Russian Armed Forces, calls the city Artemovsk), including the main industrial and administrative facilities. Now PMC Wagner is focused on "cleansing the city", the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to defend in the western quarters. The Russian Defense Ministry reported that the main efforts of the RF Armed Forces in combat operations are concentrated in the Bakhmut area. According to the War Mapper project, there have been no significant changes in this direction over the past day.
The Russian Armed Forces are handing over heavy flamethrower systems (TOS-1A) "Sun" to the airborne troops (VDV), UK intelligence has found out. Previously, TOS-1A belonged to the troops of radiation, chemical and biological protection (RHBZ). As suggested by the British department, the transfer of the "Solntsepekov" to the Airborne Forces shows that the Russian airborne troops will be assigned the role of the main assault units.
As the Military Review notes, the TOS-1A Solntsepek was created on the basis of the TOS-1 Pinocchio product and entered service with the ground forces in the 2000s, dozens of systems were delivered to the RKhBZ unit. TOS-1A flamethrower units from different military districts participated in the war in Donbass and have been taking part in the war with Ukraine since the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation. "Solntsepek" uses specially designed 220-mm unguided rockets of several modifications with a thermobaric warhead. Modern missiles of this family have a firing range of up to 6 km.
Over the past two months, reconnaissance aircraft and drones from NATO countries and Sweden have made a large number of flights near Ukraine and along the borders of Russia, according to Orion Intel. The map shows flights from January 20 to March 20, 2023. Analysts also published a video showing the flight paths.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation mentioned the Wagner PMC for the third time in its official communications. Earlier, the department wrote about PMCs in January, while using the wording "assault squad volunteers."
The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) notes in a summary that the Russian Foreign Ministry also for the first time directly responded to Yevgeny Prigozhin's criticism. Prigozhin criticized the work of the Russian Foreign Ministry in Africa and the program for the period of Russia's chairmanship of the UN Security Council, saying that the department is doing "absolutely nothing" and that the Wagner PMC faces "enormous difficulties" in interacting with the Foreign Ministry and other government agencies in the region. According to the response of the Foreign Ministry, the department is ready to cooperate with Russian enterprises and entrepreneurs to promote Russian business abroad, and a number of upcoming events under the Russian chairmanship of the UN Security Council are dedicated to African topics. After that, Prigozhin questioned the ability of the Foreign Ministry to solve problems through the UN Security Council, and published a list of 15 issues that, in his opinion, require urgent discussion in the Security Council. Most of them concern support for Russia's actions in Ukraine and Africa.
ISW claims that the Russian Foreign Ministry's attack on Prigozhin is a continuation of the Kremlin's efforts to discredit Prigozhin. So the authorities try to stop his attempts to enlist public or political support.
Electronic agendas
On April 11, the State Duma immediately adopted in the second and third readings a bill on electronic "notifications" (summons), new measures of responsibility for "avoiding" conscripts, as well as the creation of a unified register of those liable for military service. Now the bill must be approved in the Federation Council, after which it must be signed by the President of Russia. Then the bill will come into force. Now the subpoenas will not only be delivered to homes and handed out on the streets, they will be able to be sent electronically and by registered mail.
A unified register of persons liable for military service will also be created, so even the absence of an account on the State Services will not help to avoid receiving a summons: the sent summons is considered automatically delivered after seven days. Those liable for military service, subject to conscription and working abroad, are advised to take a vacation for a year and return to Russia for military service, said Andrey Kartapolov, head of the State Duma Defense Committee. The main part of the new law is in the analysis of The Insider.
shelling
A Ukrainian drone crashed into the fence of the Shukhov airport in Belgorod (closed since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine), explosives detonated, the fence and the airport signaling cable were damaged. According to the Telegram channel Baza, an aircraft-type UAV with an unknown explosive device fell near the airport fence and exploded. There are no victims or injured.
Two civilians in the city of Alyoshki in the Kherson region were killed as a result of shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a representative of the Investigative Committee of Russia, quoted by TASS, said. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not comment on the information.
The Telegram channel of the “People’s Militia of the DPR” published a video of the shelling of the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine by Russian troops. The description says that the artillerymen of the 114th brigade of the 1st Donetsk Army Corps “burn out the positions” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the dump of the Avdiivka Coke Plant using incendiary shells for MLRS.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine also publishes a video of the destruction of Russian equipment. According to the Ukrainian military, soldiers of the 43rd Separate Artillery Brigade destroyed two Russian tanks while trying to attack Ukrainian positions.
Losses
Seven cemeteries were found in Russia and in the territories of Ukraine occupied by the country, at least 995 people who could take part in the war in Ukraine as part of the Wagner PMC were buried there. As the Russian service of the BBC found out, there are mass graves in the Krasnodar Territory, in Novosibirsk and Irkutsk, as well as in the Samara, Sverdlovsk and Moscow regions. Also found one cemetery near Lugansk. Many of the dead were convicts who had not served their terms in the colonies, and their relatives did not know about the death. According to these data, at least 23 thousand prisoners of Russian colonies were sent to war with the participation of PMC Wagner in September and October 2022 alone, Mediazona emphasizes.
The Ukraine Weapons Tracker project reported that a captured T-80BVM tank from the Ukrainian 93rd Mechanized Brigade was lost in Bakhmut (image and video geolocated by a GeoConfirmed volunteer). The tank was captured in March last year on the outskirts of Kharkov and received the call sign "Bunny". During his career in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, "Bunny", according to the crew, destroyed at least six Russian tanks, including the T-80UM2, which exists in a single copy. However, during the battles for Bakhmut, the tank, which Ukraine Weapons Tracker calls “the most famous trophy tank of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” came under fire from a Russian 2S4 Tyulpan 240-mm mortar, and the commander decided to burn it down due to the impossibility of evacuation.
A video of the destruction of the Russian self-propelled firing system 9A310M1-2 from the Buk-M1-2 air defense system in Panteleymonovka, Donetsk region, has been published online.
Arms supplies to Ukraine
The Danish Ministry of Defense promised Ukraine 19 CAESAR self-propelled guns; According to the agency, they will arrive in Ukraine before the end of May. Now the Armed Forces of Ukraine are training on them. Also, 100 repaired Leopard 1A5 tanks, which were promised by Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, will be delivered to Kyiv within six months.
At the same time, Denmark refused to independently transfer F-16 fighters to Ukraine. This was stated by Danish Acting Minister of Defense Troels Lund Poulsen during a visit to Ukraine, adding that the Western countries would make a joint decision before the summer. Discussions take time, he said, because countries must act together.
“We will have to do this together with other countries. We will have a dialogue with the Americans on this subject. But, according to my estimates, in the short term we will be able to come to a decision.”
Germany has updated data on military assistance to Ukraine, the number of ARVs transferred from 3 to 4, Zetros trucks from 52 to 60, mobile antenna systems from 34 to 42, reconnaissance drones from 26 to 34, 40 mm ammunition from 60 to 83.5 thousand.
About the main events of the war for April 10 – in the previous report of The Insider: "Syrian" tactics of scorched earth in Bakhmut, Russian propaganda strike on a bridge in the Chernihiv region. What's going on at the front .