DAccording to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Russian side’s announced capture of the heavily contested small town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine is a propaganda maneuver. “The front in the Donetsk region is holding,” said Zelenskyy in his daily video address on Wednesday evening. “Fighting continues and we are doing everything we can to strengthen Ukraine’s defences.”
“Now the terror state and its propagandists are trying to pretend that part of our city of Soledar – a city that was almost completely destroyed by the invaders – is some kind of property of Russia,” Zelenskyy said. With these claims of supposed success, Russia is trying to deceive its population and “support the mobilization”. In addition, the “proponents of aggression” should be given further hope.
The Ukrainian general staff had also denied Russian reports about the conquest of Soledar. “Fighting continues,” it said in a statement.
On Tuesday, the head of the Russian Wagner mercenary force, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed that the small town in the Donetsk region was almost captured and that around 500 Ukrainian soldiers were trapped. The Russian military leadership remained silent. In an interview with the Interfax news agency, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov only mentioned “positive dynamics in terms of progress”.
Ukraine has been defending itself against the Russian war of aggression since the end of February 2022. Most recently, Moscow’s troops reportedly gained ground near Soledar and neighboring Bakhmut. Both cities are of strategic importance because they are part of the Ukrainian defensive wall in front of the conurbation between Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
Zelenskyj pleased with Leopard offer
Zelenskyi welcomed Poland’s initiative to provide his country with Leopard main battle tanks. “Thank you to President Duda, the Polish government and all our Polish friends,” said Zelenskyj in his video address on the outcome of his meeting with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda and Lithuanian head of state Gitanas Nauseda in Lviv. Western-made tanks are “the work of our entire anti-war coalition and a new level of our potential.”
After the meeting, Duda said his country had made the decision to provide the Ukrainians with Leopard main battle tanks for a company as part of a coalition with allies. In Poland, as in Germany, a Leopard company is usually equipped with 14 main battle tanks. Duda went on to say that the prerequisite was, on the one hand, “a whole series of formal requirements and approvals”. On the other hand, Poland wanted an international coalition to be formed to which other countries would also contribute battle tanks. For his part, Nauseda had stated that Lithuania wanted to supply more anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine.
Medvedev: Western tanks will soon be rusty scrap metal
Western tanks in Ukraine will soon be “rusty scrap metal,” according to former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The armored vehicles will not save the crumbling “artificial state” of Ukraine, commented the Vice-Chairman of Russia’s National Security Council. At the meeting in Lviv, which Medvedev believes will soon return to Poland as Lemberg, tanks such as the Leopard, modernized T-72s and even British tanks were “adored”. “But all this iron will definitely soon turn into rusty scrap metal,” Medvedev said.
Medvedev was considered a moderate politician during his time as President of Russia. Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, he has tried to make a name for himself with extreme positions.
Russia changes commander again
Around ten and a half months after the start of the war, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu appointed Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov as the new commander of the Russian troops in Ukraine. The previous commander, Sergei Surovikin, who only took over the post last October, should become Gerasimov’s deputy, the ministry said in Moscow on Wednesday.
Shoigu also appointed two other deputies, General Oleg Salyukov and Colonel-General Alexei Kim. Moscow justified the realignment with an “expansion of the scope of the tasks to be solved” and the need for closer cooperation between the individual parts of the army.
SPD in the Bundestag relies on diplomacy
The SPD parliamentary group relies on diplomatic initiatives to reach a peace agreement in the Ukraine war. “Because we know that wars are not usually ended on the battlefield,” says a draft for a position paper by the largest government faction, which is to be decided at the annual meeting beginning this Thursday. “Even if, for understandable reasons, there is no longer any trust in the current Russian leadership, diplomatic talks must remain possible.” That is why Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin are right and necessary.
What will be important on Thursday
After Poland’s advance, the international discussion about the delivery of heavy battle tanks to Ukraine will certainly continue on Thursday.