“Ukraine – Russia”

Russia’s forces are suffering a shortage of tanks, the country’s defence minister has admitted, as Ukraine’s offensive in the south and east continued to push back the frontline with the help of western hardware.

Sergei Shoigu, on a visit to a military factory in western Siberia, said that production of armoured vehicles needed to be increased as Kyiv talked up the heavy losses being inflicted on the occupying enemy.

An increase in the manufacture of tanks was said by Shoigu to be necessary “to satisfy the needs of Russian forces carrying out the special military operation”, in comments that echoed those of Vladimir Putin earlier in the week.

#Ukraine: The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) destroyed a Russian up-armoured BMP-3 IFV with a FPV loitering munition.

Impressive ammo detonation included. pic.twitter.com/EecCAAdlLh

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 15, 2023

Earlier this spring, a Russian unit that trained at a Chechen military academy deployed to southern Ukraine, as Russia’s military girded for an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Called RUS, the volunteer unit is affiliated with Akhmat, a semi-autonomous special forces detachment that is commanded and overseen by the government of Chechnya. RUS soldiers trained at a special academy located in eastern Chechnya.

#Ukraine: A Russian 1L259 Zoopark-1 counter-battery radar was taken out of action by a GMLRS strike of the Ukrainian army near Bakhmut, #Donetsk Oblast.

Another vehicle (presumably a maintenance vehicle with a power supply unit) was taken out by several GMLRS strikes as well. pic.twitter.com/4vwbxBIonz

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 15, 2023

Ukraine’s counteroffensive progress in battle is coming at a price

It took only moments after the Ukrainian flag was hoisted over Blahodatne for the Russian shelling to erupt again. Soldiers dashed for cover behind wrecked buildings, in ditches and inside their prized American armoured MaxxPro vehicles as the fire rained down.

“They are throwing everything at us,” said Stepan, a former bus driver. “Shells, mortars, missiles, rockets and drones. They haven’t stopped.”

#Ukraine: A Russian BMD-4M airborne IFV was destroyed by artillery fire of the Ukrainian 45th Artillery Brigade near Kreminna, #Luhansk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/4gm0IHmNc4

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 16, 2023

The footage that began circulating on Russian social media channels last week depicted what was portrayed as a significant military setback for Ukraine at the beginning of its counteroffensive.

In a flat, open area south of Zaporizhzhia – bisected by hedges and a wide muddy track – about 12 Ukrainian armoured vehicles had become pinned down, bunched too close together near a minefield.

In one video, shells and rockets can be seen tearing into the ground and into vehicles, including one of Ukraine’s new German-supplied Leopard tanks and US Bradleys. Soldiers can be seen running through the smoke from one damaged vehicle to another.

#Ukraine: In Staromayorske, #Donetsk Oblast, the Ukrainian "Omega" unit destroyed a Russian T-80BV tank using a FPV loitering munition, with the ammunition inside cooking off.

Two more previously destroyed tanks can be seen nearby as well. pic.twitter.com/1xwqRTg2Q0

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 13, 2023

Kyiv has said its troops are battling under Russian “air and artillery superiority” as cruise missiles targeting the supply lines of the Ukrainian counteroffensive killed three people working a nightshift in a warehouse in the southern city of Odesa.

The country’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said she could report just partial success over the last 24 hours, during which the progress of Ukraine’s forces had been measured only in the hundreds of metres as they sought to advance in the east and south.

#Ukraine: A Russian BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle was blown apart by a Ukrainian FPV loitering munition in Rivnopol, Donetsk #Oblast. pic.twitter.com/h2ITNIaCZo

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 14, 2023

Russia’s war in Ukraine has been complicated by a third party – the so-called Wagner Group, owned and led by a certain Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Ostensibly fighting on the Russian side, the mercenary group has entered and left the battlefield at key points. Meanwhile, Prigozhin has offered a running commentary on the war that has often been more scathing about Russia’s war effort, its military commanders and its social elite, than it has been about Ukraine. The result is widespread bafflement about Prigozhin and his motives. The behaviour of Prigozhin and Wagner have raised an even more fundamental question – are they working for Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, or are they working against him?

US spy network warned Kyiv off attack as Nato exercise was taking place in Baltic Sea

Ukraine called off an earlier plan to sabotage the Nord Stream pipelines after a warning from the CIA, according to Dutch state TV.

Netherlands intelligence agents alerted the US spy network to the plot by Kyiv to blow up the pipeline in June 2022, at the same time as a major Nato exercise in the area, broadcaster NOS reported.

CIA officers then warned Kyiv not to destroy the strategically important energy link after receiving a tip-off from their Dutch counterparts.

The Biden administration is set to provide the Ukrainian army with depleted uranium tank rounds to equip the American tanks it is giving to the Ukrainians, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The decision to supply the depleted uranium tank rounds to equip American-supplied tanks for Ukrainian forces marks the latest escalation in the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine. The disclosure of the administration’s internal deliberations and expected decision to supply the depleted uranium tank rounds comes as the highly anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive is reportedly underway.

#Ukraine: In Staromayorske, #Donetsk Oblast, the Ukrainian "Omega" unit destroyed a Russian T-80BV tank using a FPV loitering munition, with the ammunition inside cooking off.

Two more previously destroyed tanks can be seen nearby as well. pic.twitter.com/1xwqRTg2Q0

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 13, 2023

As Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine from the north and south of the country last year and rockets rained down across the county, hundreds of thousands of people made for the borders to escape.

Many had just hours of notice and left with a handful of belongings as they boarded crowded trains or joined massive convoys of citizens headed for safety.

Few likely expected to be away from their homes for more than a year, but some are now considering the prospect of putting down roots elsewhere.

Russia’s defence minister on Sunday awarded medals to soldiers after Moscow said its forces had destroyed four German-made Leopard tanks and five US-made Bradley fighting vehicles while repelling a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Defence minister Sergei Shoigu was shown on state television awarding the “Hero of Russia gold star”, Russia’s highest military honour, to soldiers who said they had destroyed enemy tanks and armoured vehicles.

The soldiers did not identify the tanks in public.

From RT – Destruction of Western-supplied armor filmed from Ukrainian vehicle (VIDEO)

Iranian-made drones deployed by Russia are continuing to cause difficulties for Ukrainian forces, according to Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat.

Russian forces have utilized Iran’s Shahed-131 and 136 drones extensively throughout its prolonged invasion of Ukraine, despite the Iranian government’s initial denial that it had provided them. Iran eventually admitted in November to supplying a “small number” of drones to Moscow “months before the Ukraine war.” With a launch range of around 550 miles for the 131s and 1,200 miles for the 136s, each Shahed drone is outfitted with a warhead that explodes upon reaching its intended target.

#Ukraine: A burning Russian Mohajer-6 UCAV, supplied by Iran, fell from the sky in the Eastern part of Crimea.

As the local authorities reported, the drone was jammed by Russian electronic warfare and was forced to land – indicating a friendly-fire incident. pic.twitter.com/yjXSJnJZpP

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 6, 2023

New satellite images reveal the array of minefields, anti-tank ditches and trenches lying ahead of Ukrainian troops

Advancing Ukrainian troops must break through an elaborate network of Russian defences running hundreds of miles across the country that were built in anticipation of Kyiv’s offensive.

With the initial assaults now underway, new satellite imagery provided to The Telegraph by Maxar Technologies has revealed the array of minefields, anti-tank ditches, and trenches lying ahead of the Ukrainian troops attempting to push south.

The defences, according to a Ukrainian intelligence officer, are constructed in a “three-line system”, with varying levels of fortifications, the depths of which can exceed around 19 miles on some axes.