Russia will launch its spring military conscription campaign on Monday. Russian strikes seriously damaged three Ukrainian thermal power plants overnight...
Le Figaro
takes stock of the situation this Friday March 29.
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Ukrainian army commander says some troops have 'little or no' ammo
“The defense forces are carrying out tasks along the vast front line with little or no weapons or ammunition
,” Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky said in a rare interview with the Ukrainian news agency. Ukrinform and broadcast on Friday.
“A few days ago, the enemy's advantage in terms of ammunition fired was 6 to 1
,” he added, judging that the situation was
“tense”
in places. He affirmed that Russia had
“significantly increased the activity of its aviation”
, notably using guided aerial bombs
“which destroy our positions”
.
According to the commander-in-chief, the
“constant bombings”
and the lack of ammunition forced his men to withdraw from Avdiivka, a fortress town recently conquered by the Russians in the Donetsk region (east). With more weapons and air defense systems, Ukraine
"without a doubt"
could have kept some of the positions it lost, he assured. Echoing the comments of other Ukrainian officials, he called on Western allies to deliver ammunition and weapons
“faster and in sufficient quantities”
.
Russia to launch spring military conscription campaign
Russia will launch its spring military conscription campaign on Monday which will involve tens of thousands of young people aged 18 to 30, the Russian General Staff announced on Friday. The army assures that these new recruits will not be sent to Ukraine, but the campaign, which is organized twice a year, comes at a time when many Russians fear a new mobilization.
“The spring military conscription campaign will begin on April 1
,” a senior General Staff official, Vice Admiral Vladimir Tsimlianski, said at a briefing. According to him, all conscripts will serve their service, lasting one year, on
“the territory of the Russian Federation”
. They
“will not be sent to the deployment posts of the armed forces in the new Russian regions”
, namely the four Ukrainian regions (those of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia) annexed by Russia in 2022, and
“will not participate in the
Russian special military operation, assured Tsimlianski. He did not specify how many young Russians were targeted by the spring campaign this year.
Russia again 'massively' hits Ukraine's energy network
Russian strikes
“severely”
damaged three Ukrainian thermal power plants overnight from Thursday to Friday and caused power outages in certain regions, Ukrainian authorities said, accusing Moscow of
“barbaric”
attacks against their energy network. A separate drone attack caused the death of a civilian and injured a man in the town of Myrivska, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region (south-center), Serguii Lyssak, later said.
In its daily report, the Russian army confirmed having targeted energy infrastructure during the night, but also Ukrainian
“anti-aircraft defenses”
with missiles, particularly hypersonic ones, and drones. A total of ten regions across the country were targeted and six people, including a child, were injured in the strikes, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said.
Paris denounces Russian strikes against Ukrainian thermal power plants
France denounced the Russian strikes on Friday, saying they were
“potentially constituting war crimes”
.
“The Russian strikes targeting energy production sites in the oblasts of Dnipropetrovsk,
Poltava
, and Cherkassy confirm that Moscow is not deviating from its strategy of terror
,” reacted the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“We salute Ukraine's resilience
,” the Quai d'Orsay also underlined, repeating that France and its partners will continue to support Ukraine.
Discovery of drone fragments in Romania
Drone fragments have again been found on the Romanian side near the border with Ukraine after a new Russian bombing campaign targeting this neighboring country, according to the Romanian government.
“Fragments appearing to come from an aerial vehicle (drone) were identified”
Thursday evening
“on the agricultural land”
of a Danube island, the Romanian Ministry of Defense said in a statement on Friday. The casualty incident remains under investigation, the ministry added. According to local media, it occurred around twenty kilometers from the border (east).