June 23, 2022

1. Armed Forces of Ukraine suffered heavy losses

Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) that started to attack Donbass daily from April 2014 continue to shell indiscriminately civilians living in that Russian-speaking area.

Over the past two days, according to information from the DPR, (AFU) fired more than 400 shells from Uragan, BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers, 155mm, 152mm and 122mm barrel artillery, as well as 120mm mortars.

The shelling occurred in the areas of thirteen settlements of the Republic. As a result of the shelling, one civilian was killed and thirteen were wounded, of whom three were children. Twenty-nine residential houses, seven civilian infrastructure and one vehicle were damaged.

At the same time, Russian troops reported on the progress of the special military operation conducted in Ukraine with the aim to defend civilians in Donbass.

AFU suffer considerable losses.

On June 21, an attack launched by high-precision armament of Russian Aerospace Forces resulted in the elimination of up to 500 servicemen of the 59th Mechanised Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), as well as their armament y military equipment deployed in the workshops of Okean (Ocean) shipyard located in Nikolayev.

Servicemen of a battalion from the 57th Mechanised Infantry Brigade that had been defending near Gorskoye, Podlesnoye, Vrubovka (Lugansk People's Republic) refused to obey the order of their command and abandoned all their positions after losing more than 60 per cent of personnel.

Operational-tactical and army aviation have eliminated: 5 munitions depots of the AFU near Sidorovo, Verkhnyaya Kamenka (the DPR) and Miropolye (Sumy Region), one Buk-M1 air defence missile system near Kurakhovo (the DPR), as well as manpower and military equipment in 151 areas.

Missile troops and artillery have neutralised 253 manpower and military equipment concentration areas of the AFU, as well as 6 munitions depots near Lisichansk, Verkhnekamenka, Mirnaya Dolina, Loskutovka and Podlesnoye (the LPR).

A fuel terminal that provided the AFU military equipment with fuel has been destroyed in Nikolayev.

Within the counter-battery warfare, 13 Ukrainian multiple rocket launcher plattoons have been neutralised near Ostroye, Gornyak, Kodema, Dzerzhinsk, Kalinovo, Zoryanoye, Dmitrov, Novolugansk, Novgorodskoye, Leninskoye, as well as 10 cannon artillery plattoons at their firing positions near Stepnaya Dolina (Nikolayev Region), Spartak, Podgornoye, Nikolayevka, Leninskoye, Zaytsevo, Semigorye and Dzerzhinsk.

 A U.S.-manufactured AN-TPQ artillery reconnaissance station has been destroyed near Nikolskoye (the DPR).

Attacks launched by aviation, missile troops and artillery have resulted in the elimination of more than 620 nationalists, 24 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, as well as 27 special vehicles.

Russian air defence means have show down 1 Su-25 of the Ukrainian Air Force near Barmashevo (Nikolayev region) and 1 MiG-29 near Apostolovo (Dnepropetrovsk region). In addition, 16 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles have been show down near Bolshiye Prokhody, Malaya Kamyshevakha, Novodmitrovskoye, Vesyoloye, Belyayevkam Brazhkovka, Chervonoye, Dolgenkoye, Suligovka, Yasinovatoye and Zmeiniy (Snake) Island. 3 Ukrainian Tochka-U ballistic missiles have been intercepted near Pashkovo (Kharkov Region) and Novaya Kakhovka (Kherson Region), as well as 14 projectiles of a multiple rocket launcher near Snake Island, Yasinovataya (the DPRl), Novosyolovka (the LPR) and Suligovka (Kharkov Region).

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have launched attacks at the positions of M777 155-mm howitzers delivered from USA and European countries to Ukrainian nationalists. Russian artillery reconnaissance units have determined the coordinates of the positions where U.S.-manufactured howitzers were deployed.  The precise impact has resulted in the elimination of two platoons of the U.S.-manufactured howitzers and its munitions.

Over the past 24 hours, within the counter-battery warfare, Russian artillery units have destroyed 15 M777 howitzers delivered from USA and European countries to Ukrainian nationalists.

A batch of seven German 155-millimeter self-propelled PzH 2000 howitzers have arrived in Ukraine, the FRG defense minister confirmed to lawmakers on June 21. They will be destroyed as well.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Reznikov announced that some MLRS M142 HIMARS arrived to Ukraine.

It is one more proof that the USA is a direct aggressor versus Donbass and declared an undeclared war against Russia, because these systems will be used vs it.

Russia’s MoD will monitor how Ukraine’s Armed Forces use the weapons being delivered from Germany and the USA, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on June 23. The statement came after Peskov was asked if Moscow was willing to trust Ukraine’s promises to Western countries that it will not use the weapons it is being provided to carry out attacks on Russia. “We carefully record all episodes of the use of these weapons,” the spokesperson replied. “So, if any of these weapons reach the front lines and are not destroyed by our military, we will track how they are being used.”

Meanwhile, the defeated 34th Battalion of the 57th Mechanised Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) has lost over 150 persons killed and about 450 persons wounded near Mirnaya Dolina (Lugansk People's Republic).

There are no more than 15-20 soldiers left in each company of this battalion. Junior commanders have abandoned their personnel and deserted from the operations area.

Units of the 30th Mechanised Brigade of the AFU near Klinovoye (Donetsk People's Republic) have been left with less than 50% of personnel as a result of attacks launched by the Russian Armed Forces. More than 170 other critically wounded soldiers and officers have been evacuated by their command from the operations area.

On June 22, high-precision armament of Russian Aerospace Forces eliminated 49 fuel storage facilities designed for AFU military equipment, as well as up to 50 combat vehicles with multiple rocket launchers in hangars, including foreign-manufactured ones.

High-precision armament of Russian Aerospace Forces has also neutralised 3 armoured vehicle reparation bases near Nikolayev, 4 command posts, manpower and military equipment at 18 areas.

Operational-tactical and army aviation has eliminated manpower and military equipment at 96 areas and 1 radar post near Konstantinovka (Kharkov Region).

Missile troops and artillery has neutralised 26 command posts, AFU manpower and military equipment at 364 areas, as well as Ukrainian artillery units at 58 areas, including 1 platoon of M-777 155-mm howitzers on Kubansky island and 1 platoon of Smerch MLRS near Novopokrovskoye (Donetsk People's Republic). Three unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) mobile control posts have been destroyed near Zhovtnevaya, Kiselyovka and Barmashovo (Nikolayev Region).

Within the counter-battery warfare towards Donetsk, high-precision armament of Russian Aerospace Forces, missile troops and artillery have neutralised: 8 Ukrainian platoons of Uragan MRLS near Avdeyevka, Vesyoloye, Dzerzhinsk, Novoluganskoye and Kurdyumovka, as well as 11 AFU cannon artillery platoons at their firing positions near Novopokrovskoye, Galitsinovka, Artyomovsk, Chasov-Yar, Krutaya Balka, Avdeyevka, Novovesyolovka and near Kleban-Byk water storage basin that had been shelling the city of Donetsk and other settlements of the Donetsk People's Republic.

Attacks launched by aviation, missile troops and artillery have resulted in the elimination of over 650 nationalists, 17 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 3 combat vehicles with Smerch MLRS, as well as 17 special vehicles.

Russian air defence troops have destroyed 21 Ukrainian UAVs near Snake Island, Petropolye, Strelechye, Malaya Kamyshevakha, Dementiyevka (Kharkov Region), Skadovsk (Kherson region), Donetsk, Gorlovka, Donetskiy (Donetsk People's Republic), Gorskoye, Oknino (Lugansk People's Republic) and Novaya Sburyevka (Kherson Region).

One Tochka-U ballistic missile has been intercepted near Peski Ratkovskiye (Kharkov region) and 22 MRLS projectiles near Donetsk, Makeyevka, Gorlovka, Kamyshevakha (Donetsk People's Republic), Chervonoye, Izyum, Sukhaya Kamenka (Kharkov region) and above Snake Island.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in an interview that the Ukraine crisis will be a long conflict and Russia will no longer trust the West. "Yes, it will be a long-lasting crisis, but we'll never trust [the] West anymore," Peskov said in an NBC interview that aired on June 21st when asked if the Ukraine conflict would last a long time.

2. Situation at the Black Sea

70 foreign vessels from 16 countries remain blocked in six Ukrainian ports (Kherson, Nikolaev, Chernomorsk, Ochakov, Odessa and Yuzhniy). The threat of shelling and high mine danger posed by official Kiev prevent vessels from entering the high seas unhindered. The Kiev authorities continue to avoid engaging with representatives of states and ship-owning companies to resolve the issue of ensuring the safe passage of foreign vessels to the assembly area.

As a result of a series of measures taken by the Russian Navy, the Mariupol harbour continues being under mine clearance works, the port infrastructure is routinely under reconstruction. One foreign vessel has left this seaport.

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have created the necessary conditions for the operation of two maritime ‘blue-water’ humanitarian corridors that constitute safe lanes for navigation:

a) in the Black Sea (every day from 08:00 AM to 07:00 PM) to leave Kherson, Nikolaev, Chernomorsk, Ochakov, Odessa and Yuzhnyi ports towards south-west from Ukraine's territorial sea, 139 miles long and 3 miles wide;

b) in the Sea of Azov (uninterruptedly) to leave Mariupol port, 115 miles long and 2 miles wide, towards the Black Sea.

Detailed information on the modus operandi of the maritime humanitarian corridors is broadcast daily every 15 minutes by VHF radio on 14 and 16 international channels in English and Russian.

The danger to navigation from Ukrainian mines drifting off their anchors along the coasts of Black Sea states remains.

Since March 2^nd, 34,618.7 tonnes of humanitarian cargo have already been delivered by the Russian Federation to Ukraine, 1,197 humanitarian campaigns have been carried out, including 4 campaigns in the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, as well as in Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, during which 614.5 tonnes of humanitarian aid were distributed to the civilian population of the liberated areas.

On June 21, 2022, four humanitarian campaigns are being carried out in the Donetsk People's Republic, in Zaporozhye, Kharkov and Kherson regions, during which 253.5 tonnes of basic necessities, medicine and food are distributed.

3. Humanitarian situation

Russian Armed Forces continues to record the facts of criminal acts by the Kiev regime against the civilian population in Ukraine and the People's Republics of Donbas, as well as the use of medical infrastructure for military purposes:

a) in the polyclinic №29 in Odessa (Akademika Zabolotnogo Street), Ukrainian Territorial Defence units have deployed their manpower, as well as artillery and MLRS in the adjacent territory, while all the patients have been cynically banned from the medical institution regardless of their health condition;

b) in the central urban hospital in Avdeyevka (Kommunalnaya Street), the DPR, nationalists have deployed their firing positions and sniper points, the approaches to the institution have been mined, but the local population has not been informed about it;

c) in Privolye (Lomonosova Street), the LPR, AFU have deployed a strongpoint in the mental health hospital of Lisichansk, munitions and armament depots, armoured vehicles and artillery guns, while civilians are being forcibly retained in the basement.

d) In Slavyansk, Donetsk People's Republic, in the psycho-neurological residential hospital (Kurchatova Street) and sanitary-epidemiologic station (Svobody Street), militants of Ukrainian armed groups have deployed barracks, armoured vehicles, artillery and multiple rocket launchers, while the residents of the local buildings have not been evacuated and are used as a human shield.

e) in Kramatorsk, Donetsk People's Republic, in a residential house (Parkovaya st., 95), servicemen of the AFU have deployed a strongpoint with munitions and armament depots, while its residents are forcibly retained in their flats. In the schools №4 (M.Priymachenko Street.) and № 25 (B.Khmelnitskogo Street), nationalists have deployed firing positions and sniper points, while the population of the nearby residential houses had been intentionally left without evacuation;

f) in Dachnoye, Odessa Region, in the House of Culture and the gymnasium №2 (Mira Street), Ukrainian nationalists have deployed a strongpoint, as well as armoured vehicles and MLRS at its territory;

g) in Lisichansk, Lugansk People's Republic, in a milk factory (Artyomovskoye Highway), nationalists of Ukrainian armed groups have deployed barracks, firing positions and a munitions depot, as well as West-manufactured armoured vehicles and artillery cannons at the adjacent territory.

On June 21st a Ukrainian drone attacked an oil refinery in southern Russia’s Rostov Region. The blaze occurred at the Novoshakhtinsky oil refinery, affecting an area of around 50 square meters, and was quickly put out, the emergency services said. There were no injuries or fatalities, they added.

In Avdeyevka, Donetsk People's Republic, professionals of the Centre for Information and Psychological Operations of AFU have carried out another provocation aimed at accusing the Russian Armed Forces of an alleged destruction of civilian infrastructure facilities. For this purpose, nationalists exploded the building of the comprehensive school №6 (Shevchenko Blvd.) and spread fabricated photo-and videographic data in Ukrainian and Western mass media.

This kind of fakes is regularly replicated by the Ukrainian propaganda supported by the collective West and unprofessional newsmen.

Despite the repeated statements by the Joint Coordination Headquarters of the Russian Federation for Humanitarian Response, this kind of facts remains neglected by the World Health Organisation and the international community.

Russia urged the countries of the international community, the United Nations Organisation, the World Health Organisation, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations to influence on the authorities in Kiev for preventing the usage of civilian infrastructure facilities for military purposes by Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Unfortunately, in vain. Like in the past.

Like the Afghan proverb says: “Alien sorrow is colder than snow”.

Written by Vladimir P. Kozin