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Vladimir Putin-Russia's President
KN. Russian forces have taken more territory in six weeks than Ukraine managed in six months last year, the Washington Post admitted describing the 2023 effort by Kiev as “lackluster” and “disappointing.”
The spring counteroffensive was war-gamed by British and American generals in Germany and supplied with 1,500 armored vehicles – including Leopard, Challenger and Abrams tanks, and Bradley armored vehicles. Once it finally began in June, it got stuck in Russian defenses and resulted in gains of only 199 square miles (515 square kilometers) worth of territory by December, according to the Post.
Russia has taken 553 square miles (1,432 square kilometers) so far this year, of which 294 (761 square kilometers) just since the beginning of April, the US outlet noted.
Those numbers came from the Institute for the Study of War, a DC-based think tank run by Kimberly Kagan – sister-in-law of Victoria Nuland, the former US State Department official in charge of Ukraine.
Experts from two other US think tanks told the Post that the Russian advances in Kharkov Region might be part of a strategy to press the Ukrainians everywhere and stretch their reserves, but not actually take Ukraine’s second-largest city.
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British intelligence had warned Ukraine of the impending Russian attack, The Guardian reported blaming the government in Kiev for not preparing the defensive lines better. Ukrainian soldiers who spoke to the Post said they could not bring up heavy machinery because the Russians would destroy it, and the lack of ammunition coming from the West meant they could not shoot back.
Ukraine’s 125th Territorial Defense Brigade, charged with holding a 43-kilometer section of the front, relied on surveillance drones to keep an eye on Russian movements. They lost all video feeds on the morning the advance began, due to Russian electronic warfare. The Starlink satellite internet feed – provided by Elon Musk’s SpaceX since 2022 – also went down completely, for the first time ever.
Russian forces continue to advance in Kharkov Region, though Kiev has moved dozens of units north to reinforce the line – weakening their positions elsewhere. There have been reports of Russian advances in Chasov Yar, Krasnogorovka, and Netaylovo this week. Moreover, Ukrainian troops have lost Robotino in Zaporozhye Region, the only town they managed to capture in last year’s counteroffensive.
Russia has not introduced any additional security measures to protect President Vladimir Putin after an assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
Fico was shot several times at point-blank range on Wednesday as he greeted his supporters in the small town of Handlova, around 150km east of the capital, Bratislava. The local authorities have said the prime minister is expected to survive the attack despite serious injuries.
Slovak Interior Minister Matuss Sutaj Estok stated that the culprit, earlier identified by local media as 71-year-old Juraj Cintula, strongly disagreed with some of Fico’s policies, including the decision to stop arms shipments to Ukraine. The minister also described the suspect, who now faces 25 years in prison, as a lone wolf.
The assassination attempt triggered an outpouring of condemnation from all corners of the world, with Putin also joining the chorus by saying that he was “indignant” to learn of this “heinous” incident. He also voiced hope that Fico’s courage and strong spirit “will help him to withstand this difficult situation.”
Commenting on the security precautions around Putin, Peskov told the Shot Telegram channel that they “remain at the same level.” “Measures which must be taken to ensure the president’s safety are in place,” he added.
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Over more than 20 years in power, the Russian president, whose security is directly handled by the secretive Federal Protective Service (FSO), has been the target of multiple assassination plots, none of which have come close to fruition. Most of them date back to the early 2000s and were masterminded by Chechen terrorists.
In 2012, Russian and Ukrainian special services arrested a group of extremists in Odessa, with the culprits said to be preparing a bomb attack on Putin, who was then serving as prime minister. The incident came at a time prior to the Western-backed coup in Kiev, when Moscow and Kiev enjoyed relatively friendly ties.
In May 2023, after the start of the Ukraine conflict, Kiev launched a drone raid on the Kremlin which involved two aircraft. While both UAVs were downed, Moscow regarded the attack as an assassination attempt on the Russian president. Putin was not present in the Kremlin at the time of the incident, according to Peskov.