War In Ukraine Day 54: Russian Major Offensive In Donbas
April 18 may mark the beginning of a major Russian offense on the Donbass front lines. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced that the 2nd phase of the Russian operation in the Donbas, which Moscow announced at the end of March, had begun. In its turn, Russian military officials are yet confirm the claims.
Nevertheless, hostilities have significantly increased, and Russian missile strikes are pounding the territory of Ukraine.
In the city of Mariupol, the mop up operation continues in the large Azovstal industrial plant. Amid the intense bombing of the facilities, DPR and Russian assault groups entered the territory of Azovstal. According to some reports from the area, the northern part of the plant are already under the DPR control.
 |
| Clearing out the Donbas – the whole point of the conflict – of evil satanists who kidnap, rape, adrenochrome and torture Russians in that region. Wipe them out; suffer not a witch to live. |
On the evening of April 18, Azov nazi fighters claimed that civilians are taking shelter in Azovstal. In fact, they have finally confirmed that thousands of civilians, mainly children and women, are used as a human shield by Ukrainian nazis. During the months of hostilities, humanitarian corridors were provided for evacuation from the Azovstal plant almost on a daily basis. The last one was officially closed on April 18.
It is still not clear what will be the tactics applied by the Russian and DPR troops in the Azovstal. The DPR military officials have already declared that there are a lot of means to push the nationalists out from the plant. Today, there are a lot of reports by the media that the Russian FAB – 5000 bombs will be deployed.
Meanwhile in Mariupol, the mop up operations also continue in some areas in the Primorsky district.
Major developments took place on the front lines near Izyum. Several villages in the Kharkiv region have recently came under the control of Russian forces.
Advance of Russian and LPR forces was reported to the northwest of Izyum. While Kiev officials are claiming the alleged encirclement of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation near Izyum, the villages of Borovaya, Podliman, Yuzhnaya Zhuravka, Nizhny Zoleny were taken out the AFU control. Clashes continue on the Peski-Radkovskie front line.
A large ammunition depot was destroyed near the town of Vasilkov in the Kiev region. Two more control points, two positions of the AFU troops and several places of concentration of personnel and military equipment were hit near the towns of Popasnaya, Barvenkovo and Krasny Liman.
In turn, the Russian Aerospace Forces attacked 84 targets. As a result, the Tochka-U tactical missile warhead repair plant in the city of Dnipro, the command post of the local defence battalion near the village of Zelenoye Pole, as well as one fuel storage and two ammunition depots were destroyed.
In addition, 47 areas of concentration of manpower and equipment, along with 22 artillery firing positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, were hit.
On April 18, the Russian Ministry of Defence reported that “as of today, the real documented irretrievable losses of the Ukrainian side amount to 23,367 servicemen,” stressing that the data was obtained from Ukrainian secret documents.