(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Ukraine Invasion Day 403: Russian forces were ordered to seize the Donbas by March [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-01 Combat continues, but the resources are still coming in for the vaunted counter-offensive. (January) Russian President Vladimir Putin is ordering Russian forces to seize the Donbas in eastern Ukraine by March, according to Andrei Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense. “Still, we can talk about the priority direction for the Rashists—this is the Donbas,” Yusov said Tuesday. “This is the goal of capturing Donbas and the formation of a certain security zone there, already before March.” The alleged orders come just days after Putin called on Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who previously led Russia’s forces in Ukraine in the early days of the war last year, and promoted him to command Russia’s troops once again. The decision has raised questions about whether Putin is interested in standing up a new offensive operation. www.thedailybeast.com/... Ukraine War Update: The war in Ukraine goes on. On day 402 of the conflict, the Russian military is still looking for a breakthrough while the Ukrainian forces are preparing for their large-scale counteroffensive . x Miniature loitering munition Switchblade 300 taking a group photo of Russian troops 📷Special Operations Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces pic.twitter.com/0vpOte6BEd — Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) April 2, 2023 Ukraine’s defence forces repelled over 50 Russian assaults on Saturday, 1 April, with the most fierce fighting still taking place in Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka. Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, information as of 18:00 on 1 April 2023 Quote: "The enemy is focusing their main efforts on conducting offensive operations on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka fronts. Over the course of today, units of Ukraine’s defence forces repelled over 50 enemy assaults. The most fierce fighting is still taking place in and around Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Marinka." Details: Over the course of the day, Russian forces carried out 2 missile strikes and 25 airstrikes, and deployed multiple-launch rocket launchers (MLRS) to conduct 6 further attacks. In the absence of battlefield successes, Russia continues to ruthlessly target civilians. On Saturday, 1 April, Russian forces carried out missile strikes on civilian facilities in Druzhkivka (Donetsk Oblast) and other locations; ballistic missiles were deployed in these attacks. Several civilians sustained injuries. There is a high likelihood of further missile and air strikes across Ukraine. www.pravda.com.ua/... A top Ukrainian official has criticised the “symbolic blow” of Russia assuming the rotating presidency. Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, wrote: “It’s not just a shame. It is another symbolic blow to the rules-based system of international relations.” The Kremlin has said it will “exercise all its rights” in the role. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will chair the meeting when Russia assumes the council presidency . “As of 1 April, they’re taking the level of absurdity to a new level,” said Sergiy Kyslytsya, Kyiv’s permanent representative. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said it was a “stark reminder that something is wrong with the way international security architecture is functioning”. An intelligence update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) says the performance of the Russian chief of the general staff, General Valery Gerasimov, is “pushing the limits of how far Russia’s political leadership will tolerate failure”. It adds: “Gerasimov’s tenure has been characterised by an effort to launch a general winter offensive with the aim of extending Russian control over the whole of the Donbas region. Eighty days on, it is increasingly apparent that this project has failed.” Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has promised to increase the supply of munitions to Russian forces during a visit to the headquarters of Moscow’s troops fighting in Ukraine, according to footage published by the defence ministry. The International Monetary Fund’s executive board has approved a four-year $15.6bn loan programme for Ukraine, part of a global $115bn package of economic support. The decision clears the way for an immediate disbursement of about $2.7bn to Kyiv, and requires Ukraine to carry out ambitious reforms, especially in the energy sector, the fund has said. The top US general, Mark Milley, has said Ukraine is unlikely to expel all Russian troops from its territory this year, the Kyiv Independent reports, citing an interview with Defense One. Milley said: “I don’t think it’s likely to be done in the near-term for this year.” At least five people, including a baby, have been killed in Ukraine in the past 24 hours , according to the Kyiv Independent. Prosecutors have asked a court to put the abbot of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery, Metropolitan Pavel, under house arrest. He is accused of supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and inciting religious hatred. Pavel denies wrongdoing. Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote online that he had talks with France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, to discuss “defence interaction” and “further steps to implement #PeaceFormula”. Russia has lost at least six Zoopark-1M counter-battery radar and will struggle to regenerate them because of sanctions , the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said. The MoD added: “Regenerating counter-battery radar fleets is likely a key priority for both sides, but Russia will likely struggle because the systems rely on supplies of high-tech electronics which have been disrupted by sanctions.” Vladimir Putin has signed off on a new Russian foreign policy strategy aimed at curtailing western “dominance” and identifying China and India as key partners for the future. The document cements the deep cold war-style rupture between Russia and the west over Moscow’s war on Ukraine. www.theguardian.com/… Russia assumed charge of the UN security council on Saturday – causing fury inside Ukraine with its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, labelling the situation “absurd and destructive … It’s hard to imagine anything that proves more the total bankruptcy of such institutions.” In his daily video address, Zelenskiy pointed out that Russian shelling had killed a five-month-old boy on Friday, and said it was time for a general overhaul of global institutions. President Vladimir Putin now rules Russia virtually unchallenged. Many of the critical voices that once spoke out have since been forced into exile, while other opponents have been jailed - or in some cases killed. By the time he launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, more than two decades of stamping out dissent had all but annihilated opposition in Russia. At the very start of President Putin's rule, he brought to heel Russia's powerful oligarchs - immensely rich people with political ambitions. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once head of the Russian oil giant Yukos, was arrested in 2003 and spent 10 years in prison for tax evasion and theft after funding opposition parties. Upon his release, he left Russia. Boris Berezovsky, another oligarch who even helped bring Putin to power - fell out with him later and died in exile in the UK in 2013, reportedly by suicide. All key media in Russia gradually fell under the control of the state or toed the official Kremlin line. www.bbc.com/... Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a new Russian Foreign Policy Concept on March 31 that likely aims to support the Kremlin’s attempts to promote a potential anti-Western coalition. The new Foreign Policy Concept paints the West as an anti-Russian and internationally destabilizing force to a far greater extent than Russia’s previous 2016 Foreign Policy Concept and explicitly states that the US and its “satellites” have unleashed a hybrid war aimed at weakening Russia. The new document also heavily stresses Russia's goal of creating a multipolar world order and subordinates under that goal Russia’s broad foreign policy objectives, which include ending the United States’ supposed dominance in world affairs. The document asserts that most of humanity is interested in constructive relations with Russia and that a desired multi-polar world will give opportunities to non-Western world powers and regional leading countries. Putin previously used meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping on March 20 through 22 to increase attempts to rhetorically rally the rest of the world against the West, and the new document likely aims to support the Kremlin’s attempts to intensify proposals to non-aligned countries to form a more coherent anti-Western bloc. ISW assessed that Putin’s proposal to form an anti-Western bloc during Xi’s visit to Moscow was not positively received as Xi refused to align China with Putin’s envisioned geopolitical conflict with the West. Russia’s declining economic power and degraded military effort in Ukraine continue to offer little incentive to countries to express serious interest in the proposal. The Kremlin likely decided to release the new Foreign Policy Concept on the eve of assuming the presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in order to set informational conditions for future rhetorical efforts at the UN aimed at forming an anti-Western coalition. ISW previously assessed that Russia will likely weaponize its presidency of the UNSC as a method of Russian power projection. www.understandingwar.org x ⚡️ WAR IN #UKRAINE - APR 1 No additions from Oryx today VISUALLY CONFIRMED: 3.16x losses to date ➡ 2.82x since 🇺🇦 counteroffensive (Aug 29) ➡ 3.95x 30-day average ➡ 📈 https://t.co/S9nrcGYUD6 pic.twitter.com/juHtEa3jFi — Ragnar Gudmundsson 🇮🇸🇺🇦 ragnarbjartur@masto.ai (@ragnarbjartur) April 1, 2023 x UK @defencehq says Russian Army-Gen. Gerasimov's winter offensive to extend control over the Donbas has failed, leading to tens of thousands of casualties and possibly raising Russian leadership's concerns about his future as Chief of the General Staff.https://t.co/4PARWkdwTI — Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) April 1, 2023 x Also CNN in 2014, on President Poroshenko's bombing of his own Ukrainian people in Donetsk. After 2500 Russian people in Donetzk were already killed. And people in strange struggle till some month ago. Proroshenko's Russian people in Ukraine. Thread 2/2 pic.twitter.com/2eORbR9HB7 — Hawkeye1812 (@Hawkeye1745) January 3, 2023 [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/1/2161517/-Ukraine-Invasion-Day-403-Russian-forces-were-ordered-to-seize-the-Donbas-by-March Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/