The decision may Europeans and Americans send dozens tanks last generation in Ukraine cause a wave of excitement Kyiv, but in the first year this development results in even denser bombardments in the rear and successive waves of heavy attacks on the front lines. The Ukrainian leadership and its Western allies believe that the Russians are rushing to secure their positions on the ground before the German Leopard tanks and American Abrams tanks arrive and enter service, although the Americans, in particular, warned the Ukrainians that their own tanks they will not be in the expected violent clashes next spring.

In the last 24 hours, the Russian army launched successive waves of attacks not only in the eastern province Donetsktheater of the most violent clashes in the past two months, but also on the northeastern front Kharkov, which became active again. The Ukrainian governor of Donetsk, Pavel Kirilenko, said heavy Russian artillery shelling hit the towns of Volendar and Avdovka, where marines and infantry are attacking, as well as a battle for control of the town of Bakhmut, where the Russian army is working with mercenaries. Wagner company, Evgeny Prikozin.

Sanctions against Wagner

The US Treasury Department has sanctioned the Wagner Group, calling it an international criminal organization under scrutiny for widespread human rights violations. At the same time, it imposed sanctions on the Chinese company Spacety China, which is accused of supplying the Wagner Group with satellite photographs of the positions of Ukrainian forces. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced the “demonization” of the Russian group by Washington. The British Ministry of Defense estimates that 50,000 of Prigozhin’s men, mostly ex-prisoners, are fighting alongside the Russian army in Ukraine.

At the diplomatic level, the uproar continues over the recent stance of German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock, who, speaking (in English) at a Council of Europe event in Strasbourg, said that “we are at war with Russia, not with others.” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova demanded an explanation from the German ambassador, while Russian media cited Bourbock’s position to justify the West’s military narrative aimed at destroying Russia. A spokesman for the German foreign ministry attributed the uproar to “Russian propaganda” and said that Burbock had repeatedly made it clear that NATO should not be involved in the war in Ukraine.

Moscow’s harsh reaction to German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock’s statement that “we are at war with Russia.”

Orban’s veto

Yesterday, Viktor Orban put a brake on Kyiv’s hopes for European sanctions against Russia that would extend to nuclear energy as well. In an interview he gave, the Hungarian prime minister warned that if such an issue was raised at the EU level, his country would use a veto. Hungary has a Russian-made nuclear power plant, which it even seeks to modernize.

In the same interview, Viktor Orban argued that Germany’s decision to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine was indicative of the West’s growing involvement in the war. “We started with the fact that the Germans sent only helmets and no lethal weapons so as not to get involved in the war. Tanks are being sent now, and we have already started talking about aircraft,” he said. Stefanos Saninos, Secretary General of the EU Agency for Foreign Affairs, took a diametrically opposite view and justified the deployment of heavy weapons in Ukraine by accusing Russia of “taking the war to a higher level” with massive attacks on civilian infrastructure. civilians.