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Many buildings, including some that are uninhabited, have been damaged in the village of Golovtsino in Belgorod province, during a bombardment by the Ukrainian army, which however caused no civilian casualties, Vyacheslav Gladkov, a local official, announced today via the Telegram platform, without providing any evidence of this.
A few hours earlier, Gladkov said two civilians were wounded in a Ukrainian shelling of another village, Zuravlievka.
He did not specify whether the strikes were carried out by artillery, mortars, rockets, or from the air.
Mr. Gladkov had already announced a bombing of Golovtsino on April 19, giving a toll of three wounded and extensive property damage.
The Reuters news agency was unable to independently verify the information given by the Russian official.
Meanwhile, the Russian Defence Ministry said last night that precision missiles had destroyed six facilities feeding the railway lines used to transport foreign weapons to Ukrainian forces in Donbass.
Earlier, Ukraine's military command said that Russia was trying to bomb the railway infrastructure to disrupt the supply of Ukrainian soldiers with weapons from foreign countries.
According to Moscow, Russian forces also destroyed an arms depot near Slavyansk, in the Donetsk region, in addition to other military facilities hit today.
In addition, four people, including two children, were killed yesterday in Donbass, eastern Ukraine, where Russia is continuing its military operations, the governor of the region, Pavlo Kirilenko, said. Moscow denies targeting civilians. According to Kirilenko's Telegram post, the four victims included a 9-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy.
In addition, Poland has sent tanks to Ukraine, Prime Minister Mateusz Moraviecki said, without giving further details.
The United States is also likely to impose new economic sanctions on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
The spokeswoman noted that no one is immune from U.S. sanctions. But she declined to comment specifically on a Wall Street Journal report that the alleged mother of three of the Russian president's children has so far not been sanctioned to avoid angering Vladimir Putin.
Russia wants to rule out the threat of nuclear conflict, despite the high risks that currently exist, and wants to limit all possibilities of "artificially" increasing those risks, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview broadcast last night on Russian television.
"This is our basic position, on which we base everything. The risks now are significant," the head of Russian diplomacy said, according to the ministry's website.
"I would not like to artificially increase these risks. Many would like to. The risk is serious, real. And we should not underestimate it," he added."
The weapons deliveries from the West to Ukraine mean that NATO "actually engaged in a war with Russia" and Moscow considers these weapons legitimate military targets, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during an interview.
"These weapons are a legitimate target for Russia's armed forces in the context of the special military operation" in Ukraine, Lavrov told state television.
"Storage facilities in western Ukraine have already been targeted more than once" by Russian armed forces and "could not be otherwise," he continued. "NATO, in essence, engaged in a war with Russia through an intermediary and is arming that intermediary. War means war," he added."
The British government estimates Russia's casualties to be around 15,000 troops since its forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, Ben Wallace, the Tory government's defence secretary, speaking before the House of Commons on Monday, said.
According to sources cited by the British Defence Secretary, more than 2,000 armoured vehicles, including at least 530 tanks, have been destroyed or fallen into the hands of Ukrainian forces. According to Ben Wallace, Russia has also lost over 60 fighter jets and helicopters.
In Boris Johnson's view, Russia has achieved almost none of the objectives that London believes the Kremlin had set for Ukraine.
Furthermore, he said that of the 120 Russian battalions deployed ahead of the invasion, which according to him account for 65% of the Russian infantry, 25% are no longer combat-ready.
German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall has submitted an offer to sell 88 used Leopard I main battle tanks to Ukraine, documents obtained by the German agency confirm.
The offer includes training of their crews in Germany, training of mechanics who will maintain them, spare parts, equipment for setting up a maintenance base and ammunition.
The potential sale was first reported by the German conservative newspaper Die Welt. According to this publication, a request for approval of the potential sale was submitted to the Ministry of Finance last week.
The German government received another request from Reinmetall for permission to sell 100 Marder armored personnel carriers to Ukraine. German government spokesman Stephen Hempestreit said a decision on the matter would be made soon.
Velt also said that the Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) arms industry plans to supply Ukraine with 100 self-propelled guns. The Netherlands also intends to supply the Ukrainian armed forces with such guns, which can hit targets up to 40 kilometers away.
So far, the federal government has only promised Ukraine operator training and ammunition for them.
The direct delivery of tanks from Germany to Ukraine is causing friction in the coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Direct deliveries by the German arms industry of such systems to the Ukrainian armed forces are currently ruled out, said Saskia Esken, the head of the SPD. She explained that the Ukrainian military is not familiar with them and will need to be trained before the Leopards are put into service. They also need spare parts and training of mechanics in their maintenance, Ms. Esken added.
The training of the Ukrainian military in their use could be completed very quickly, however, Reinmetal assured a few days ago.
Source: CNA
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