And It Begins
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Russian TV reporters say Ukrainian counter offensive has begun with Kiev troops using chemical weapons on the day UK announced Storm Shadow cruise missile supply
Ukrainian forces have reportedly breached Russian defenses north-west of the city of Artyomovsk in the Donbass, Russian war correspondent, Evgeny Poddubny said on Thursday, citing his sources and calling it the start of Kiev’s much-touted spring offensive.
Kiev’s forces appear to have launched a series of simultaneous strikes north and south of Artyomovsk, also known as Bakhmut in Ukraine, several Russian war correspondents said. The city has been at the center of intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops for months.
Ukraine’s forces reportedly used tanks to strike the city of Soledar. Located northeast of Artyomovosk, it was captured by Russian troops after heavy fighting in January.
Ukrainian forces have used chemical weapons, which caused loss of consciousness after inhalation, during an attack in the Orekhov sector, military correspondent Alexander Kots reported on Thursday.
The use of substances banned by international conventions appear to be part of the much-anticipated Ukrainian offensive, said the reporter for the outlet KP.
In late February, the Russian military warned that the Ukrainian forces in Kramatorsk had received 16 containers with riot control agents CS (chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile) and CR (dibenzoxazepine), as well as the incapacitating agent BZ (3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate), accompanied by “citizens of foreign countries.” Moscow suggested the US might be planning a “false flag” attack in the Donbass.
Chemical warfare is forbidden under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), an international treaty that took effect in 1997 and to which both Ukraine and Russia are signatories.
According to Kots, Western-supplied tanks have been spotted outside of Kharkov, while Ukrainian troops have launched attacks on Russian positions north and south of Artyomovsk, which they call Bakhmut.
Multiple Western officials have said over the past week that all the weapons, ammunition and supplies required for Ukraine’s grand counter-offensive had already been delivered. On Thursday, the UK confirmed it had supplied Kiev with long-range ‘Storm Shadow’ missiles. The missiles cost £2 million a piece and about a 1,000 pieces in London’s arsenal.
A Russian expert, editor of the Arsenal Otechestva magazine Alexey Leonkovhas downplayed its effectiveness against Russian anti missile systems like the Tor and Buk.
“Our missile systems first faced them during an attack on Damascus on April 14, 2018. Those missiles were downed then,” the expert noted. “The technology that the missile is based on is called ‘fire-and-forget:’ it follows the route that is laid for it. The route cannot be changed, nor can the missile be programmed to self-destruct. It reaches its target and hits it. However, our Buk and Tor systems deployed in Syria detected and downed it,” Leonkov said.
Russian BUK and TOR antimissile systems
In preparation for the counter offensive, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, decided against attending a high-profile NATO meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.
The reason for Zaluzhny’s decision was the “complex operational situation” in Ukraine’s ongoing conflict against Russia, the NATO official explained.
Ukraine has been planning a large-scale counteroffensive against the Russian forces for months, but has delayed the launch of the operation, with Kiev officials complaining about bad weather, a lack of ammunition, and the reluctance of the West to supply warplanes.
Russian Su-25 cockpit. Pilot carries out an air strike in the special operation zone
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, however, claimed he needed more time and more armored vehicles before he could launch the assault, in order to avoid casualties. In the same interview, Zelensky claimed Ukraine had nothing to do with the drones that attacked the Kremlin last week.
The Kremlin explained its slow advances Wednesday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian was carrying out a military operation and not a war.
“Of course, it is very difficult to compare military potentials of Russia and Ukraine. And you may ask, why do the Russians act so slowly? Because the Russians are not waging war,” he said in an interview for Republika Srpska’s ATV
“We are not waging a war. It is a totally different thing to wage a war: it is total destruction of infrastructure, it is total destruction of cities,” Peskov explained. “We are not doing that. We seek to preserve the infrastructure, we seek to preserve human lives,” he underscored.
The Russian Defense Ministry has also not yet commented on the reports of the alleged Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The long-awaited attack was originally expected to start in the spring – even as early as late winter – but has been repeatedly postponed by Kiev, which cited unfavorable weather conditions and the need to stockpile more Western weapons and equipment before the operation.
Earlier this week, German Armed Forces chief General Carsten Breuer also said that the conditions for a massive operation in Ukraine were “not in place.”
Source TASS/Telegram/RT
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