Ukraine Russia war latest news: Wagner chief warns frontline ‘will collapse’ amid weapons shortage

Russian mercenary group Wagner’s chief has warned that his forces capturing your complete mining city of Bakhmut had been being disadvantaged of arms and ammunition, including that in the event that they had been compelled to retreat, your complete entrance gained within the war to this point would collapse.

“If Wagner retreats from Bakhmut now, the entire entrance will collapse,” Yevgeny Prigozhin mentioned over the weekend, talking from a bunker-like area.

“The scenario won’t be candy for all navy formations defending Russian pursuits,” he warned.

He added that his troopers are frightened that Moscow wished to set them up as doable scapegoats if Russia misplaced the war.

“If we retreat, then we are going to go down in historical past eternally as individuals who have taken the principle step in direction of shedding the war,” the mercenary group’s boss mentioned in a virtually four-minute video.

“That is precisely the issue with ammunition starvation.”

No less than one particular person was wounded within the southern Russian area of Belgorod on Monday after Russian forces shot down three missiles, the governor of the area bordering Ukraine mentioned.

The falling particles had additionally introduced down some energy traces close to the city of Novy Oskol however the full scope of the harm was not instantly identified, the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, mentioned on the Telegram messaging app.

“It’s identified about one wounded, a person with shrapnel wounds to his hand,” Gladkov mentioned.

He didn’t say who he thought had fired the missiles however previously he has accused Ukrainian forces on the opposite aspect of the close by border of comparable assaults.

Belgorod borders Ukraine‘s Kharkiv area and has repeatedly come beneath hearth because the starting of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine a 12 months in the past.

Ukraine nearly by no means publicly claims accountability for assaults inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.

The Institute for the Examine of War, a Washington-based suppose tank, assessed final week that Kyiv’s actions might level to a looming pullout from elements of the town of Bakhmut.

It mentioned Ukrainian troops might “conduct a restricted and managed withdrawal from notably troublesome sections of jap Bakhmut,” whereas searching for to inhibit Russian motion there and restrict exit routes to the west.

Capturing Bakhmut wouldn’t solely give Russian fighters a uncommon battlefield achieve after months of setbacks however would possibly rupture Ukraine’s provide traces and permit the Kremlin’s forces to press on towards different Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk province.

The Russian navy has continued to reply to heavy armoured automobile losses by deploying 60-year-old T-62 important battle tanks (MBT), in response to the intelligence by the British defence ministry.

“There’s a sensible risk that even items of the first Guards Tank Military (1 GTA), supposedly Russia’s premier tank pressure, shall be re-equipped with T-62s to make up for earlier losses,” the ministry mentioned in its latest intelligence replace.

It added that 1 GTA had beforehand been on account of obtain the next-generation T-14 Armata MBT from 2021.

“In current days, Russian BTR-50 armoured personnel carriers, first fielded in 1954, have additionally been recognized [as] deployed in Ukraine for the primary time,” the MoD mentioned.

“Since summer time 2022, roughly 800 T-62s have been taken from storage and a few have acquired upgraded sighting techniques which is able to extremely doubtless enhance their effectiveness at night time,” the ministry mentioned.

Nonetheless, it added that, each these classic automobile sorts will current many vulnerabilities on the fashionable battlefield, together with the absence of contemporary explosive reactive armour.

Senior officers of Russia’s one hundred and fifty fifth Brigade, which Kyiv says suffered heavy current losses, had been refusing to obey orders to assault close to Vuhledar, southwest of the Russian-occupied metropolis of Donetsk, in response to the Ukrainian navy officers.

“The leaders of the brigade and senior officers are refusing to proceed with a brand new mindless assault as demanded by their unskilled commanders – to storm well-defended Ukrainian positions with little safety or preparation,” Ukraine‘s navy mentioned in an announcement.

Army analyst Oleh Zhdanov mentioned two “Cossack” Russian items generally known as Steppe and Tiger had expressed frustration with their commanders and refused to participate in any new offensive on the hilltop city.

British pilots are set to conduct joint air policing missions in Estonia alongside the German air pressure for the primary time.

It comes because the UK prepares take over from Germany to guide the Nato mission in Estonia, which borders Russia.

Royal Air Power and German Air Power Hurricane jets will participate within the first of their type “built-in” missions, because the Defence Secretary praised the demonstration of Nato “unity”.

The Ministry of Defence mentioned that round 300 RAF personnel will quickly arrive in Estonia, with the UK set to guide the Nato air policing mission for 4 months from April.

Volodymyr Nazarenko, a commander of Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut, mentioned that there had been no order to retreat and “the defence is holding” in grim situations.

“The scenario in Bakhmut and round it is extremely a lot hell-like, as it’s on your complete jap entrance,” the highest commander mentioned in a video posted on Telegram.

Ukrainian forces have repelled 95 Russian assaults within the Bakhmut space previously 24 hours, the war-torn nation’s navy mentioned earlier immediately.

“The scenario in Bakhmut will be described as important,” Ukrainian navy analyst Oleh Zhdanov mentioned in a video commentary.

In a grinding battle for territorial achieve, a Russian victory in Bakhmut, with a pre-war inhabitants of about 70,000, would give it the primary main prize in a expensive winter offensive.

Russia says it might be a stepping stone to finishing the seize of the Donbas industrial area, considered one of its most essential targets, even when the city has little strategic worth.

Volodymyr Zelensky has mentioned that his administration is engaged on punishing all Russian officers and forces for sustaining the war towards Ukraine after he held a convention with attorneys from Kyiv, Europe and different nations.

“All Russian murderers, each organiser of this aggression, everybody who in any method sustains the war towards our nation and terror towards our individuals have to be punished. And this isn’t only a dream of justice. That is work that’s already underway,” he mentioned in his nightly handle.

The war-time president added that his administration is already reaching these agreements.

“These are agreements that we’re already reaching. These are establishments which are already working and can work even tougher to revive justice, to punish these answerable for aggression,” he mentioned.

Ukraine has vowed to defend its “fortress” Bakhmut as intense combating towards Russian troopers continued within the streets this weekend.

However Russian navy supply has claimed the battle is “near its finish”.

Ukrainian navy officers mentioned makes an attempt had been persevering with by Vladimir Putin’s troops to encircle the town.

Two civilians had been killed over the previous day in Bakhmut, governor Pavlo Kyrylenko mentioned.

Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned Ukraine was enduring a “painful and troublesome” battle within the jap Donbas area, which incorporates Bakhmut.

The loss of life toll of an assault on a excessive rise constructing on Thursday has now risen to 13 as one other particular person has died.

A rocket hit a five-floor residential block in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on Thursday.

Anatoliy Kurtiev, secretary of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Council, mentioned on Sunday: “Sadly, the quantity of people that died on account of the rocket assault on March 2 has already elevated to 13. Amongst them is a really small little one.”

Ukrainian authorities mentioned a pregnant lady was amongst these rescued from the constructing on Thursday.