Attrition tactics of Putin?
According to experts, Russia is launching militarily meaningless counterattacks
Created: 09/18/2022Updated: 09/18/2022 11:52 am
By: Franziska Schwarz
More than 440 graves with corpses have been found in Izyum.
Selenskyj speaks of "Nazi practices" in the Russian army.
News ticker on the military situation in the Ukraine war.
US military experts
on
Izyum
: mass grave not an isolated case
Torture
in the
Ukraine war
: Selenskyj speaks of "Russian fascism"
Mass grave
in
Isjum
: Lambrecht calls for clarification
This
news ticker
on the military situation in the
Ukraine war
is continuously updated.
Update from September 18, 11:39 a.m
.: According to British intelligence services, Russia has significantly increased its attacks on civilian Ukrainian targets with long-range missiles in the past seven days.
This includes, for example, the attack on a dam in the central Ukrainian industrial city of Kryvyi Rih, according to the latest short report by the Ministry of Defense in London.
However, these goals offer no immediate military gain.
It is likely that given the setbacks on the front line, Moscow will continue to use such attacks to undermine the morale of the Ukrainian people and their government.
Ukraine-News: Zelenskyj announces liberation of all occupied territories
Update from September 18, 10:19
a.m .: In his most recent video message, Selenksyj also announced that the Cherson, Luhansk, Donetsk areas, including the city of Mariupol there, but also Bedyansk in the Zaporizhia region and Crimea should be liberated.
The Ukrainian flag will be flying everywhere again, stressed the Ukrainian President.
"But we still need time for that."
Above all, Ukraine is relying on Western heavy weapons to force the Russian occupiers out of the country.
At the same time, the debate about deliveries of German battle tanks, for example, continues.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) continues to reject this.
Image from September 17: A mass grave with alleged war victims on the outskirts of Isjum © Juan Barreto/AFP
US military experts on Izyum: mass grave not an isolated case
Update from September 18, 9:19 a.m.:
According to US military experts, the newly discovered mass grave and the torture chambers in Izyum are not isolated cases, but are part of the method used by Putin's army.
This is the assessment of the Institute for the Study of the War (ISW) in its September 17 situation analysis.
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The Ukrainian Resistance Center also warned on its website the day before that the Russian army was planning covert operations against Ukrainian civilians for several days in an attempt to distract from its defeats in Ukraine's counter-offensive, according to the ISW.
Because of such - in military language - "false flag" actions, it warned the population of public places.
The information could not be checked independently.
After the war began, the Ukrainian special forces set up the Ukrainian Resistane Center to coordinate volunteer fighters.
The ISW is a think tank in Washington that regularly publishes analyzes of the fighting in Ukraine.
Ukraine-News: Zelenskyj accuses Moscow of "Nazi" practices
First report from September 18
: Kiev - Volodymyr Zelenskyj accuses Moscow of "Nazi practices".
In his recent video address, the Ukrainian President compared the actions of the Russian occupiers in his country with the atrocities of World War II.
There is cruel torture, deportations, burnt cities, bottomless hatred and nothing alive anymore under the Russian occupation, said Zelenskyj.
Unlike the Nazis, the Russians under Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin would not make soap from the killed Ukrainians - or lampshades from their skin.
"But the principle is the same," said the head of state.
Torture in the Ukraine war: Selenskyj speaks of "Russian fascism"
Zelenskyy called the occupiers who fled the Kharkiv region "racists" and said that the "Nazis" behaved in the same way.
"Racism" combines the words Russia and fascism and is used by many Ukrainians as a term for "Russian fascism".
"We will determine the identities of everyone who tortured and abused, who brought these atrocities from Russia here to Ukrainian territory," said the 44-year-old.
When they fled, the occupiers left torture devices behind.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities released photos purporting to show torture chambers and equipment.
"Torture was a widespread practice in the occupied territory," Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine war: President Zelenskyj addresses the world via video
View photo gallery
At the end of March, hundreds of dead civilians were also found in the Kiev suburb of Bucha after Russian troops withdrew - since then, the atrocities in Bucha have been considered a symbol of the most serious war crimes in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Mass grave in Isjum: Lambrecht calls for clarification
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht called for the investigation of possible war crimes.
"These terrible crimes must be cleared up - preferably by the United Nations," said the SPD politician to the
Funke
newspapers.
The UN should be given access as soon as possible so that evidence could be secured.
(frs with dpa material)