The British see "significant problems" with Putin's army in the Ukraine war: auxiliary troops and Mariupol frustration

Created: 05/18/2022Updated: 05/18/2022 09:43

By: Bedrettin Bölükbasi, Katharina Haase, Fabian Müller

In the Ukraine war, Russia's ruler Putin is apparently heavily involved in the fighting.

The first region around Cherson will soon be connected to Russia.

The news ticker.

• Escalated Ukraine conflict:

  Russia continues to try to make progress in Donbass.

• Putin intervenes in battles

  : Apparently, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin makes tactical decisions - and accuses the West of "war".

• Losses in Russia's army

  : EU foreign policy officer speaks of "world record".

• This

  news ticker on the military situation in the Ukraine war

  is continuously updated.

Update from May 18, 9:18 a.m

.: According to British findings, the Russian army has major problems with supplies and troop reinforcements in the Ukraine war.

The Ministry of Defense in London said on Wednesday that Russia would have to deploy many auxiliary troops to break down the Ukrainian resistance - including thousands of fighters from the autonomous republic of Chechnya.

"The combat deployment of such diverse personnel demonstrates Russia's significant resource problems in Ukraine and likely contributes to a patchy command that continues to impede Russian operations."

Although Russian troops had encircled the strategically important port city of Mariupol for more than a decade, fierce Ukrainian resistance prevented full Russian control.

This led to frustration and high losses for Russian troops, it said, citing intelligence information.

The steelworks in the conquered port city of Mariupol has become a symbol of resistance.

The Chechen forces would primarily be deployed around the embattled port city of Mariupol and in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk.

They are likely to be made up of both volunteers and National Guard units otherwise used to protect ruler Ramzan Kadyrov.

War in Ukraine: Situation in Mariupol remains unclear - 260 soldiers from steel works in Russian captivity

Update from May 18, 6:19 a.m .:

After the evacuation of a good 260 Ukrainian soldiers from the Azov steel plant in Mariupol, the location of the city’s remaining defenders in the huge industrial plant remains unclear.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyj said on Wednesday night that influential international mediators were involved in the efforts to rescue them.

Fighting continues in eastern Ukraine, while Russian airstrikes are taking place in other regions.

The 260 soldiers who left the Azovstal plant on Tuesday night went into Russian captivity.

Kyiv hopes to be exchanged for Russian prisoners of war at a later date, but the Russian military initially left such a step open.

Moscow released a video purporting to show the Ukrainians being arrested, receiving medical treatment and the evacuation of the injured.

A good 50 of the soldiers are said to be seriously wounded.

Russian deputy head of government in the occupied Cherson region - connection to Russia planned

Russia is determined to tie the occupied Cherson region in southern Ukraine to itself.

The region around the port city will have a "worthy place in our Russian family," said Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Marat Chusnullin during a visit to Cherson on Tuesday.

The Russian state agency Ria Novosti quoted him as saying that people will live and work together in the future.

The Ukrainian government, on the other hand, is convinced that a Russification of the Cherson region will fail.

According to the authorities, seven civilians were killed on Tuesday in the Donetsk region, which was fought over by Russian and Ukrainian troops.

Six others were injured, Ukrainian military governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told the Telegram news service.

He accused Russian troops of killing the people.

Zelenskyi listed rocket attacks and bombardments in the Lviv, Sumy, Chernihiv and Luhansk regions.

The Russian military wants to compensate for the failures in the east and south.

According to Ukrainian sources, a disused gypsum factory belonging to the German company Knauf was bombed by the Russian air force in eastern Ukraine.

"The air strikes damaged business premises and a fire broke out," military governor of Donetsk region Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote in the Telegram news service.

Nobody was injured.

Knauf shut down the plant shortly after the Russian invasion.

The company confirmed on Tuesday evening that the plant in Soledor in the Donbass was hit by a rocket and set on fire.

Update from May 17, 9:25 p.m .:

Russian authorities in two regions reported shelling from Ukrainian territory on Tuesday in the Ukraine war.

One person in a village in the Belgorod region was slightly injured, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, according to the TASS news agency.

A border post was shot at in the Kursk region.

According to the first findings, no one was injured, said the Governor of Kursk, Roman Starowoit.

The border post has been fired at for the fourth time since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.

Russia has repeatedly reported attacks from Ukraine in border areas, including on oil infrastructure.

At the time, Ukrainian authorities would neither confirm nor deny that their military was behind the attacks.

Ukraine war: EU foreign policy chief reports "world record casualties" in the Russian army

Update from May 17, 8:42 p.m .:

According to their own statements, the Ukrainian military was able to push back Russian soldiers in front of the city of Sievjerodonetsk in the east of the country.

The General Staff stated in its situation report: "Near the village of Syrotyne, the Russian conquerors suffered losses and retreated."

There were also military successes in the Luhansk region.

The governor Serhiy Hajdaj said that several houses in Girske and Zolotoye had been destroyed by artillery fire, but the Russians had had to withdraw from there.

"Enemy casualties are high," Hajdaj wrote on his Telegram channel.

The information could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile, the Russian side is reporting numerous rocket attacks on various parts of Ukraine.

The targets were Ukrainian reservists and foreign military technology, and arms shipments from the United States and Europe were destroyed, according to a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry.

More than 470 Ukrainian militants have been killed in the past 24 hours.

Again, this information cannot be independently verified.

Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is reporting "impressive losses" by the Russian army.

"If it's true that Russia has lost 15 percent of its troops since the war began, that's a world record for casualties for an army invading a country," Borrell said after a meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels.

He does not dare to hypothesize how long Russia can sustain such losses.

The EU foreign policy representative Josep Borrell speaks of a "world record" in losses on the Russian side.

© Jean-Francois Badias / dpa

Prisoner swap fails?

Russian negotiator calls for death penalty for Azov militants

Update from May 17, 4:28 p.m .:

The Ukrainian government plans to exchange captured soldiers.

Among them are said to be around 260 soldiers from the Azowstal steelworks.

More than 50 of them, some seriously wounded, have been taken to Novoazovsk, about 40 kilometers east of Mariupol, according to Russian sources.

There their wounds are to be treated.

200 more fighters were brought to Olenivka.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized in his daily video address that Ukraine needs its heroes back alive.

But the Russian side is apparently not going into the plans.

There are reports of a ban on prisoner exchanges, and even the death penalty is openly debated in the country.

The speaker of the Russian parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, announced during a session of the parliament that the Ukrainian "Nazi criminals" should not be exchanged for captured Russians and that a corresponding decision should be prepared.

Volodin subsequently became even clearer: "These are war criminals and we must do everything we can to bring them to justice."

Meanwhile, the Russian negotiator Leonid Slutski is said to have demanded the death penalty for the Ukrainian prisoners.

According to Slutski, the Azov fighters have no right to life.

"They do not deserve to live in the face of the monstrous human rights crimes they have committed and continue to commit against our prisoners," said the negotiator, who is negotiating on behalf of Russia with Ukraine.

The death penalty is not currently used in Russia, but former President Dmitry Medvedev brought it back into play after Russia's war of aggression began.

Ukraine-Russia-News: Deal in Mariupol is under way - Putin accuses the West of "war".

Update from May 17, 2:00 p.m.:

It is the last bastion in Mariupol: the Azovstal steelworks.

Ukrainian soldiers have been holding out in the industrial area for weeks, and now the last of them are to be rescued.

"We are working on further stages of the humanitarian operation," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram on Tuesday.

Apparently there is a deal between Kyiv and Moscow for the evacuation.

The 52 seriously injured people who were brought out of the steel mill on Monday would soon be exchanged for Russian prisoners of war, she said.

There was no further confirmation from the Russian side.

The day before, a total of around 260 Ukrainians who had previously holed up on the factory premises surrendered.

The Ministry of Defense in Kyiv justified the step with the "completion of combat tasks".

This photo, distributed by the Russian Defense Ministry, shows the rescue of Ukrainian soldiers from the Azovstal Steel Works.

© IMAGO/Russian Defense Ministry

Ukraine-Russia-News: Putin accuses the West of "war".

Update from May 17, 11:45 a.m

.: The Ukraine war has been raging for 82 days.

Russia prefers to speak of a "military special operation", but has now also used the word "war".

However, in a different context.

The Kremlin accuses the West of

waging war

“They are enemy states.

Because what they are doing is war," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday at an education conference near Moscow.

President Vladimir Putin had previously spoken of an economic “lightning war” in view of the Western sanctions.

Peskov said the West was waging a diplomatic, economic and political war against his country.

Russia must show that it is able to protect its interests.

“But every war ends in peace.

And that peace will be such that our voice is heard where we are comfortable and safe and standing firmly on our feet.”

Ukraine-Russia-News: Putin like a general - the head of the Kremlin now apparently intervenes directly

First report:

Munich – In the Ukraine war, the heavy clashes between the Ukrainian military and Russian troops continue.

This map shows where the Ukraine war is raging.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine hit Russia hard.

So far, Russian troops have been unsuccessful in encircling the outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers while Ukrainian units are advancing in Kharkiv.

In addition, Russia loses an extremely large number of soldiers and military equipment, for example in an attempt to cross the Severskyi Donets River, which ended in a debacle.

Aerial photographs from the area showed more than 70 destroyed Russian military vehicles in almost one spot.

The great success in the Donbass expected by Moscow has not materialized so far.

Ukraine war: Putin intervenes in fighting - "Decisions like colonel or brigadier general"

A report in the British newspaper

now suggests that the cause of the Russian army's military disaster may lie squarely within the Kremlin itself.

Accordingly, the Russian ruler Vladimir Putin is personally heavily involved in the fighting and even makes tactical decisions that dictate the movement of Russian soldiers in the field, the British newspaper reported, citing anonymous Western sources.

Putin is involved in this process together with the chief of staff Valeriy Gerasimov.

"We think Putin and Gerasimov are involved in tactical decision-making at a level that we would normally expect from a colonel or brigadier general," a Western military source told

.

The Russian military does not actually operate in such a way, the newspaper wrote.

But the faltering invasion of Ukraine, for example, has forced the Russian military to send generals closer to the front line.

According to the Ukrainian military, 12 Russian generals have been killed in combat so far.

In addition, Putin's intervention is not said to be particularly helpful.

Military expert Ben Barry told the

: "A head of government should have better things to do than make military decisions.

He should set the political strategy instead of getting bogged down in day-to-day business."

Vladimir Putin apparently makes tactical decisions in the Ukraine war.

© Sergey Guneev/Imago Images

War in Ukraine: Evacuation from Azovstal - Russia and Ukraine want to exchange soldiers

Meanwhile, more than 260 Ukrainian soldiers were evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, which had been under Russian siege for weeks, and taken to Russian-controlled territory.

53 seriously injured were taken to Novoazovsk and 211 other soldiers to Olenivka for treatment, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said.

Efforts to evacuate the remaining soldiers should continue, according to Ukrainian sources on Tuesday

.

Novoazovsk and Olenivka are in areas under Russian military control.

The soldiers are to be “exchanged” at a later date, as Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maljar said in a video message.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, Kyiv and Moscow have already made several prisoner exchanges.

The Russian Defense Ministry earlier on Monday announced a ceasefire in Mariupol to get injured Ukrainian soldiers out of the Azov-Stahl group's steel mill.

Moscow had named "medical facilities" in Novoazovsk as the target of the evacuation operation.