Russia conducts exercises with mobile intercontinental missiles “Yars”
The Russian Strategic Forces carry out exercises with mobile intercontinental missile systems “Yars” in the Ivanovo region, regarding 200 kilometers northeast of Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry reported today.
The Yars systems “maneuver intensely” during the exercises, the ministry said in a statement collected by the Interfax agency, which specified that nearly 1,000 soldiers and a hundred different types of vehicles participate in them.
“The members of the Strategic Forces rehearse the deployment of missile systems in field positions, displacements of up to 100 kilometers, changes of positions, masking and defense of these,” Defense added.
The “Yars” missiles, of which there are mobile and silo versions, have a range of up to 12,000 kilometers and can carry up to four nuclear warheads.
Denmark votes to opt out of the EU’s common defense and security policy
Denmark is holding a referendum on Wednesday on the exception to the common defense and security policy in the European Union (EU) that it has maintained for three decades, called in response to Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine.
Denmark rejected the Maastricht treaty in a referendum in 1992, although it approved it a year later in a new consultation that included exceptions in four areas: monetary and economic union, defense, police and legal cooperation, and citizenship, although the latter is considered inconsequential following the Treaty of Amsterdam.
The exception in defense means that Denmark cannot participate in military missions of the EU – but civil – nor in discussions or negotiations related to that area, and prevents it from belonging to the European Defense Agency and Permanent Structured Cooperation (CEP).
Zelenski says that there are between 60 and 100 Ukrainian soldiers killed every day
The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, has recognized that the situation in his country, especially in Donbass, is “very difficult” and that “between 60 and 100 soldiers die in action per day and another 500 people are injured”.
In a statement to the US website Newsmax, which is also collected by Ukrainian agencies, the Ukrainian president reiterated that his country is the “defensive perimeter” once morest Russia and that “it is a physical barrier formed by our people.” “We have to realize who the dark power is: it is Russia,” Zelensky declared. “And Russia will not stop at Ukraine, for sure.”
In his speech this morning, the Ukrainian president said that the situation has to be addressed in a “comprehensive manner”, not by an area “where the most difficult situation is and that attracts the most attention, but by the entire front line”.
“The situation in the Donbass direction is very difficult. Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Kurakhove are now in the epicenter of the confrontation. Given the presence of a large-scale chemical production plant in Severodonetsk, the Russian army’s attacks in the area, including aerial bombardments, are just crazy,” he said.
Russia warns of the risk of a direct confrontation with the US over military aid to Ukraine
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday that Ukraine’s growing supplies of weapons, including long-range weapons, increase the risk of a direct clash between Russia and the United States.
“All the supplies of weapons, which continue and are increasing, increase the risks of such a development,” Riabkov replied, quoted by the RIA Nóvosti agency, when asked if Washington’s decision to provide kyiv with missile systems increases the risk of a direct clash between Russia and the United States.
The deputy minister criticized the new package of US military aid to Ukraine worth 700 million dollars, which, according to US government sources, includes the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), High Mobility Artillery Rocket systems.
“We value this in a totally negative way, because the attempts to present this decision as containing ‘restrictions’ are worthless,” he stressed, alluding to the words of the US president, Joe Biden, regarding his country it does not encourage or allow Ukraine to attack beyond its borders.
The United States will send more advanced missile systems to Ukraine
US President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that the United States will send more advanced missile systems to Ukraine to launch strikes with greater precision. “I have decided that we will provide the Ukrainians with more advanced missile and ammunition systems that will enable them to strike key targets with greater precision on the battlefield,” Biden wrote in a late-night op-ed in The New York Times.
A government official explained in a media call that the United States will provide a long-range missile system as part of a new $700 million weapons package.
According to the source, the new shipment of weapons will include the so-called “High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems” (HIMARS) High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, which will allow more precise attacks on targets from a greater distance.
In this sense, the official specified that this system will be used once morest Russian systems and that they will not be used within Russian territory.
Russian troops gain a foothold in Severodonetsk
Russian troops are gaining a foothold in the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, in the eastern region of Lugansk, according to the latest part of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
According to the report, in the direction of Donetsk, the Russian units, with the support of the air force, focus their efforts on different offensive operations, including the use of MLRS rocket launchers.
According to the latest report from the Institute for the Study of War (USA), Russia’s decision to concentrate forces in eastern Ukraine to capture new territories, such as Severodonetsk and Donbas in general, “creates the conditions to intensify the counterattacks of the Ukrainian forces in the Kherson region, where Russian troops are increasingly “more vulnerable”.
Pope Francis demanded that wheat not be used as a “weapon of war” and asked to release the grains in Ukraine
Pope Francis today called for Ukraine’s grain exports to be unblocked and demanded that the power supply not be used “as a weapon of war.”
“The blockade of grain exports from Ukraine, on which the lives of millions of people depend, especially in the poorest countries, causes great concern,” the pontiff said during the General Audience he led in St. Peter’s Square.
In this framework, Jorge Bergoglio made “a sincere call for every effort to be made to resolve this and guarantee the universal human right to nourish oneself.”
“Please, don’t use grain, a staple food, as a weapon of war,” he finally asked, amid the global rise in the prices of raw materials due to the war involving Russia and Ukraine, two of the largest global food suppliers.
