The next setback for Moscow's ruler Vladimir Putin? Russian soldiers are said to be fleeing from the front line in Ukraine, according to a report.
Munich/Zaporizhzhia - Is the Ukrainian counteroffensive already underway? In a pincer movement on the one hand in the Donbass and on the other in the south in front of Zaporizhzhia?
Ukraine war: Soldiers flee disguised as civilians
The Russian army is now also said to be recruiting men from Mariupol on the Sea of Azov because of the high losses, reports The Kyiv Independent in the Ukraine war. This cannot be independently verified. A confidant of Moscow's ruler Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, is even proposing a nuclear response by Russia because of the counteroffensive.
Europe's largest nuclear power plant (NPP) is located near Zaporizhzhia (around 750,000 inhabitants), directly on the Dnieper River on the outskirts of the small town of Enerhodar. Russian soldiers are now said to be trying to flee the Zaporizhzhia region disguised as civilians. This is what the exiled Ukrainian mayor of Zaporizhzhia, Ivan Fedorov, claims.
Do parts of the Russian army no longer want to fight in Ukraine? Moscow ruler Vladimir Putin on May 2, 2023. © IMAGO / ZUMA Wire
The US magazine Newsweek reports on Fedorov's statements with reference to the online edition of Ukrainska Pravda, which quotes from a TV interview of Fedorov in the program "Around the Clock".
Zaporizhzhia Oblast: Russian occupiers initiate evacuations
The situation in the Zaporizhzhia region is highly tense at the beginning of May. According to the British Ministry of Defense, the Russian occupiers have set up defensive positions on the roofs of the nuclear power plant, while the Ukrainian army is on the opposite side of the Dnieper, around the city of Nikopol (about 115,000 inhabitants).
On Friday (5 May), Yevhen Balytskyi, the Moscow-appointed governor of the partially occupied region, ordered the evacuation of civilians from 18 villages and towns in the region. The next day, the head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned that they were "extremely concerned about the very real safety risks" caused by the fighting around the nuclear power plant. A suspected nuclear power plant engineer, named in the report, told Der Spiegel that banks and the hospital were allegedly looted in Enerhodar. "Officially, however, it says that there is no panic, these are preventive measures and everyone will return home in two weeks," Ihor is quoted as saying.
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Ukraine counteroffensive: Are Russian soldiers leaving the Zaporizhzhia region?
"Unfortunately, today we can only talk about the evacuation of local residents from more than half of the temporarily occupied territory of the Zaporizhzhia region. And on the contrary, the enemy troops are moving more and more to the front of Zaporizhzhia," Fedorov said, according to Ukrainska Pravda. According to the report, he also told of allegedly fleeing Russian soldiers: "But there are some military personnel who are trying to flee from the temporarily occupied territories. That is why our residents report frequent cases when Russian military personnel put on civilian clothes."
For months, Fedorov has confirmed his best contacts with alleged sources in his homeland, which cannot be independently verified. Fedorov further explained: "Therefore, now another filtering has been added for leaving the temporarily occupied territory." Thus, the Russian army would "check all civilians in cars and try to prevent Russian military personnel from being camouflaged."
April 15, 2023: Russian soldiers wait for the Ukrainian counteroffensive in a dugout in the Zaporizhzhia region. © IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
Ukraine counteroffensive: Huge defenses in Zaporizhzhia region
Escape scenes because Ukraine can bring up superior Western weapons for its counterstrike? According to the Western defense alliance, NATO countries and their partners had delivered more than 230 main battle tanks to Kyiv in recent months, including modern Leopard 2A6s from Germany and powerful Challenger 2s from Great Britain. In addition, according to NATO, there are 1550 armored vehicles such as infantry fighting vehicles, for example US Bradleys.
Meanwhile, ZDF reported intensive fortification work by the Russian army in the Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk regions. According to satellite images, hundreds of kilometers of trenches have been dug. Only a 70-kilometer-long trench is to secure the occupied Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region, writes the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) with reference to the "Center for Journalistic Investigations". Is the long-awaited counteroffensive now getting underway? (pm)