2023-05-24 16:07:29
24/5/2023–|Last update: 5/24/202307:15 PM (Mecca Time)
The Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, ruled out Ukraine’s joining the alliance during the war, stressing that this matter is not on the agenda. This comes as the Russian Ministry of Defense said that Ukraine attacked a Russian naval warship with marching boats near the Bosphorus, stressing that its forces managed to destroy all the boats that attacked the ship. Russian media also reported that the commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valery Zaluzhny, was wounded in the head by a Russian missile strike near Kherson.
Stoltenberg said – during a forum in the Belgian capital, Brussels – that everyone realized that granting membership to Ukraine in the midst of the war is not on the table… The issue is what will happen when the war ends.
For his part, confirmed British Defense Minister Ben Wallace – during talks with Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov in Kiev – that the support of the Western allies of Kiev will remain constant.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense quoted Wallace as saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin “must realize that he will not be able to win the war he started,” considering that Moscow has come to realize that Ukraine’s allies “will be with it in its right to self-defense, and will assist it with all possible types of weapons.” missiles, tanks, and F-16 fighters.
Firm response
In response to the attacks in the Russian border province of Belgorod, Moscow said it would respond “very firmly” to any future armed incursions into its borders.
“We will continue to respond quickly and very firmly to such actions,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said today – during a meeting with senior military officials, noting that Russian forces killed “more than 70 Ukrainian terrorists” and destroyed armed vehicles during the clashes, as he put it.
The White House also confirmed that it was “clear” with Ukraine that the US administration does not support the use of US military equipment to launch attacks inside Russia, apparently in response to reports of the use of US-made armored vehicles in the attack on Belgorod.
⚡️⚡️ Russian Defense: Kiev tried unsuccessfully, through three drone boats, to attack the “Ivan Khors” ship of the Black Sea Fleet, which protects the gas lines to #Turkey
All enemy boats were destroyed by ship fire #Russian 140 km northeast #Bosphorus _ Strait pic.twitter.com/vQLUzWoQgl
— Sputnik Arabic (@sputnik_ar) May 24, 2023
targeting a ship
On the ground, the Russian defense announced that Ukraine had attacked the ship “Ivan Khors” of the Russian Navy with drone boats in the Bosphorus Strait, noting that the ship’s crew successfully repelled the attack.
The ministry added, “The Ukrainian forces made a failed attempt, using three speedboats, to attack the Ivan Khors ship of the Black Sea Fleet, which is carrying out tasks to ensure the safety of the operation of the gas pipeline.”
The ministry confirmed that the Russian ship managed to destroy all the drones with regular weapons fire and is now continuing to perform its duties.
The “Ivan Khors” is a medium reconnaissance ship designed to provide communications, fleet monitoring, electronic intelligence and electronic warfare management. Its cargo is regarding four thousand tons, and its length is regarding 100 meters, with a sailing range of more than eight thousand nautical miles, and it joined the Black Sea Fleet in 2018.
On the other hand, Russian media reported today, Wednesday, that the commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny, was wounded in the head by a Russian missile strike.
The agency quoted an unnamed informed source as saying that Zaluzhny was hit in the head by a missile strike on a Ukrainian command center near the city of Kherson in early May.
The source indicated that Zaluzhny is undergoing head surgery following being injured in the Russian missile strike, and that he will not be able to continue his service as a result of the injury, while there was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian side.
Belgorod attacks
Regarding the attack on the Russian province of Belgorod, the governor of the province, Vyacheslav Gladkov, announced that the region bordering Ukraine was subjected to “numerous” attacks by drones during the night, following an armed incursion from Ukrainian territory.
“The night was not completely quiet. There were a large number of drone attacks. Most of them were dealt with by air defense systems… The most important thing is that there were no casualties,” Gladkov said on Telegram.
He added that the attacks damaged vehicles, houses and public buildings in the area, and that nine civilians were wounded and still in hospital, and that more than 550 civilians fled the area because of the fighting.
And the Russian army announced yesterday, Tuesday, that it had “crushed” with its air force and artillery the group that attacked the region the day before, in the largest incursion into Russian territory since the start of the war in Ukraine.
On the other hand, the commander of the Wagner Armed Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that regarding 10,000 prisoners recruited by Wagner from Russian prisons to fight in Ukraine were killed on the front line in the bloody battle of Bakhmut.
Prigozhin said – in an interview published by pro-Kremlin blogger Konstantin Dolgov on Tuesday evening – “I chose 50,000 detainees, 20% of whom were killed,” noting that a similar percentage of his professional fighters also died in the fighting, without specifying their exact number.
He also reported that the Ukrainian losses are much greater, saying, “The number of dead is three times lower, and the number of wounded is twice as high.”
This is the first time that Prigozhin has spoken publicly regarding the size of his group’s losses, while the Russian side seeks to maintain secrecy regarding the number of dead and wounded it has as a result of the ongoing war since February 2022.
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