Putin battalion apparently suffers severe loss while crossing a river - Ukraine publishes new figures
Created: 05/12/2022, 2:40 p.m
By: Patrick Mayer, Bedrettin Bölükbasi
Russia's losses are said to be in the tens of thousands.
In eastern Ukraine, a Russian unit came under heavy fire.
The news ticker on the military battles.
Ukraine conflict: Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops is shifting to eastern Ukraine.
Russian troops
pushed back in Kharkiv
region
: After the advance of the Ukrainian army, Kharkiv seems to be no longer within the range of Russian attacks.
Russia
attacks
northeast Ukraine
: The Russian military continues to fly airstrikes in the northeast of the neighboring country.
This
news ticker on the military battles in the Russia-Ukraine war
is continuously updated.
Update from May 12, 12:15 p.m .: Combat
operations between Russian and Ukrainian troops are increasing in northeastern Ukraine.
According to Ukrainian information, more and more villages are coming under Russian fire.
In the village of Novi Vykriy, one person died after Russian artillery attacks, the US broadcaster CNN reported, citing Ukrainian authorities in the city of Sumy.
According to this, artillery attacks by the Russian military are also increasing in the Luhansk Oblast.
The situation at the front has "significantly deteriorated," the region's military governor, Serhiy Hajdaj, was quoted as saying by CNN.
The shelling would increase along the entire front line and Russian troops would have "completely destroyed" captured towns in Luhansk.
There was heavy fighting around the strategically important city of Sievjerodonetsk.
According to Hadai, Russia's troops would follow "scorched earth" tactics.
Ukraine war: Russia attacks north-east Ukraine - at least three dead after airstrike
Update from May 12, 11:30 a.m .:
According to Ukrainian information, at least three people were killed and twelve others injured in a Russian air raid in northeastern Ukraine.
According to the local emergency services, the attack was aimed at the city of Novhorod-Siwerskyj shortly after midnight.
The airstrike was probably carried out with a Su-30SM fighter jet, the Ukrainian army announced.
The governor of the region, Vyacheslav Tschaus, said that schools, administrative buildings and houses had been hit.
The rescue workers are on duty.
War in Ukraine: Kiev's general staff reports new figures on Russian losses
Update from May 12, 11:25 a.m .:
The Ukrainian General Staff has published new figures on Russian losses in Ukraine.
According to this, around 26,650 Russian soldiers have been killed so far.
The General Staff also claimed the destruction of 1,195 tanks, 2,873 armored personnel carriers, 534 artillery systems and 191 multiple rocket launchers.
In addition, 87 air defense systems, 199 aircraft, 161 helicopters, 398 drones, 94 cruise missiles and 13 boats of the Russian army were destroyed.
The information cannot be independently verified.
Ukraine war: HRW reports use of cluster munitions - apparently hundreds of civilians dead
Update from May 12, 8:59 a.m
.: The Russian armed forces have used internationally banned cluster munitions in Ukraine.
The human rights organization Human Rights Watch reports this Thursday in Geneva.
Hundreds of civilians were killed by the ammunition.
The Ukrainian army also used such ammunition at least once.
There is an international treaty that has banned the use, stockpiling, trade and production of cluster munitions since 2010 (Cluster Munitions Convention).
Strictly speaking, however, only the 110 contracting states are bound by it - Russia and Ukraine are not among them.
Nonetheless, the widespread condemnation of so many countries has made the use of these weapons internationally outlawed.
Ukraine War News: Russian troops suffer heavy casualties in eastern Ukraine
Update from May 12, 7:21 a.m
.: Putin's troops in eastern Ukraine suffered heavy losses when crossing a river.
This is what current US media reports say.
The battalion wanted to build a poton bridge over the Donetsk River near the village of Bilohorivka and came under heavy artillery fire from the Ukrainian fighters.
According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, the bridge was destroyed.
The business
magazine Forbes
writes that the Russian unit consisted of 50 armored vehicles and up to 1,000 soldiers.
Many of the vehicles were destroyed.
It is still unclear how many Russian soldiers were killed in the incident.
"But it is clear that no battalion can lose three quarters of its vehicles and then continue to operate," said
Forbes
.
All of the information could not initially be checked independently.
Picture from May 8: Ukrainian soldiers in eastern Ukraine © Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP
Ukraine War News: Klitschko fears new Russian attacks on Kyiv
Update from May 12, 7:03 a.m
.: Putin's troops had announced their withdrawal from the Kiev region.
But Kiev's Mayor Vitali Klitschko fears a new attack on the Ukrainian capital "at any time".
In an interview with the US broadcaster CNN on Thursday night, Klitschko did not even rule out the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
Kyiv remains the main target of the Russian military.
"And as long as there is war in Ukraine, we cannot give a Ukrainian any guarantees," said the former world boxing champion.
"Right now, safety is our top priority," he said.
Although the country is being defended by “our warriors”, the risk remains.
"And without our partners, without the US and the European states, we cannot survive."
Ukraine War News: Mariupol commander seeks help from Tesla boss Musk
Update from May 12, 5:53 a.m
.: A Ukrainian military commander has made a desperate appeal to Elon Musk: "Help us get from Azov steel to a mediator country.
If not you, then who?” Serhiy Volyna tweeted on Wednesday, according to the AFP news agency.
He is the commander of the 36th Marine Brigade and is currently in Mariupol.
Musk is considered the richest man in the world.
Wolyna explained that he set up a Twitter account specifically to reach Musk.
"They say you come from another planet to teach people to believe in the impossible," he wrote to Musk.
"Our planets are next to each other as I live where it is almost impossible to survive." He called on "every human being on planet earth" to help Musk heed his appeal.
Musk had previously challenged Putin to a "one-on-one" over Ukraine on Twitter.
The Tesla and SpaceX founder has also sent equipment for his Starlink satellite internet service to Ukraine to provide internet to areas affected by Russian military attacks.
Ukraine war news: Mariupol commander reports on ZDF about "heavy losses"
Update from May 11, 10:55 p.m .:
ZDF shows photos of severely injured Ukrainian fighters from Mariupol in the “heute journal” while the Russian attacks on the steel mill continue.
The commander reports on the dramatic situation of the marines and national guards entrenched there.
Around half of the 1,000 trapped fighters are said to be injured and/or wounded.
Illia Samoilenko: Lieutenant of the Ukrainian fighters entrenched in the Mariupol Steel Plant.
© Screenshot/ZDF
Russia-Ukraine War: Warehouse in Lozova town destroyed by bombardment
Update from May 11, 9:55 p.m .: According to the Ukrainian online medium
The Kyiv Independent
, a civilian was killed
in a suspected Russian missile attack in Kharkiv Oblast this Wednesday evening .
According to Mayor Serhiy Zelensky, an agricultural warehouse in the city of Lozova was destroyed by the bombardment.
Update from May 11, 8:55 p.m .:
The Czech Republic has given around 100 citizens the green light to participate in the Ukraine war.
President Milos Zeman signed an order on Wednesday allowing 103 volunteer fighters to join Ukrainian troops, according to his spokesman.
Zeman was once a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
After Russian troops invaded Ukraine, however, he called the head of state in Moscow a "madman".
After an appeal for help by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, volunteers from Poland, Belarus, Canada, the USA and Great Britain had already joined the Ukrainian armed forces.
A Czech law actually forbids the Czechs from participating in war operations abroad.
However, Zeman and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala decided in March not to punish Czechs who go to war with Ukrainian troops.
Ukraine War: Allegedly Russian troops pushed out of village north of Kharkiv
Update from May 11, 7:55 p.m .:
According to the General Staff in Kiev, Ukrainian forces have pushed out Russian troops from the village of Pytomnyk, around 25 kilometers north of the center of Kharkiv.
The two-lane road E105 leads past the said village directly into the city.
It is a correspondingly important line of communication in the battles.
A counter-offensive is running successfully, it said.
As the ARD "Tagesschau" reported in the evening, Vladimir Putin's invasion troops in Kharkiv Oblast were pushed back up to ten kilometers to the Russian border.
The Ukrainian armed forces had previously reported the recapture of several villages around the city of Kharkiv.
ZDF had reported that the metropolis was now out of reach of Russian artillery.
Ukraine War: Russian forces pushed back in Kharkiv region
Update from May 11, 7:15 p.m .:
As ZDF’s “heute journal” reports in the evening, the city of Kharkiv with its approximately 1.4 million inhabitants is out of the range of Russian artillery after the Ukrainian armed forces have advanced in the northeast.
There was no shelling this Wednesday, the article said.
The Russian army would instead focus on attacks in Donbass in south-eastern Ukraine, it is reported.
Most recently, the Ukrainian general staff had declared that several villages around Kharkiv could be recaptured.
Mine squads would get through these currently, whether to turn off any booby traps.
There should be some of these.
Russia-Ukraine War: No prospect of liberation of fighters at Mariupol Steelworks
Update from May 11, 6:20 p.m.:
The Ukrainian military leadership has dampened hopes of freeing the fighters trapped in the Mariupol steelworks with an offensive.
"As of today, such a deblocking operation would require a significant number of troops because Ukrainian forces are 150-200 kilometers from Mariupol," Deputy Chief of General Staff Oleksiy Hromov said on Wednesday.
Because the Russian troops have also built powerful defense systems in the meantime, such an operation costs many victims.
The port city of Mariupol in south-eastern Ukraine has been under siege by Russian troops for more than two months.
The last Ukrainian fighters, in addition to marines and units of the nationalist Azov regiment, have entrenched themselves in the Azovstal steelworks there.
They are calling on Kyiv and the international community to use either diplomatic or military means to save them.
In the past few weeks, around 500 civilians who were also staying at the steelworks have been rescued via refugee corridors.
Russia rejects a free withdrawal of the fighters.
They should lay down their arms and go into captivity.
According to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Wereshchuk, around 1,000 defenders are still in the factory, half of whom are injured.
According to Russian information, 2,500 Ukrainian fighters and foreign mercenaries are said to have holed up in the steelworks.
Russia-Ukraine war: 501 Ukrainian national guards killed so far, according to Kyiv
Update from May 11, 5:45 p.m .:
501 Ukrainian national guards have been killed in battles with the Russian invasion troops.
This was announced by Oleksii Nadtochyi, head of operations at the main directorate of the National Guard, according to
The Kyiv Independent
on Wednesday.
According to him, another 1,697 soldiers were injured in the fighting.
The National Guard supports the regular army and reports to the Interior Ministry in Kyiv.
War in Ukraine: Russian troops in Kharkiv region probably repulsed by a wide margin
Update from May 11, 5:15 p.m .:
The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleg Synegubow, said that the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine was “relatively quiet thanks to the successful actions of the Ukrainian armed forces and the liberation of some towns”.
However, the governor was quoted as saying by The Guardian
that one must remain "vigilant" and not take to the streets unnecessarily
.
It is also dangerous to return to towns recently liberated by Russian troops, as the area is full of mines.
Russian troops also laid mines in schools, kindergartens and private households, Synegubov explained.
Special units are currently busy removing the mines.
The Kyiv had previously reported the liberation of four towns around the city of Kharkiv (about 1.4 million inhabitants).
Ukraine War: According to British analysts, Russia could lose up to 60,000 soldiers
Update from May 11, 4:30 p.m .:
According to information from the Ukrainian general staff this Wednesday, the losses among Russian soldiers are now said to amount to more than 26,350 soldiers killed, wounded or missing.
However, Moscow's losses could be much higher, according to UK analysts.
As Justin Bronk of the independent research institute Royal United Services Institute told the British
Daily Mail
, the number could be "up to three to four times" as high.
Analyst Bronk believes that the number "after two more weeks of fierce fighting could well be 50,000 to 60,000 victims".
Russia-Ukraine War: Moscow probably lost control of Snake Island after the sinking of the "Moskva".
First report from May 11th:
Munich/Kiev - A radio message went around the world: When Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24th, the Russian missile cruiser "Moskva" and the "Vasily Bykov" in the Black Sea made their way to to conquer the tiny little snake island off the coast of Romania.
The few Ukrainian border guards on the island answered the Moskva's call to surrender with the announcement: "Russian warship, f... you!" Nevertheless, they had to surrender.
The Snake Island is so important because from here the airspace on the coasts of southern Ukraine around Odessa can be monitored.
But: According to British findings, Ukrainian drone attacks in the Black Sea recently prevented Russian troops from dominating the country.
Russia is always trying to strengthen its forces on the strategically important Snake Island near the port city of Odessa, the Ministry of Defense in London reported this Wednesday (May 11), citing British secret services.
Since the sinking of the guided missile cruiser "Moskva" and the withdrawal of the navy to the annexed Crimean peninsula, the Russian supply ships have had little protection.
"The Moskva" had controlled the airspace in this area of the Black Sea with its S-300 air defense.
War in Ukraine: Bayraktar TB-2 combat drone causes problems for Russian troops
"Russia's current efforts to strengthen its forces on Snake Island give Ukraine more opportunities to attack Russian troops and destroy materiel," the UK ministry said.
Ukraine has successfully deployed Bayraktar (TB-2 drone) combat drones.
However, if Russia manages to consolidate its position with strategic air defense and cruise missiles for coastal defense, this could change the situation.
Reports from both sides had recently suggested heavy fighting around Snake Island, which is 35 kilometers from the coast just off the Danube Delta in the Odessa region.
(pm)
