WAR IN UKRAINE: March 5, 2023
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 375
Ukrainian forces repelled numerous Russian attacks in Bakhmut over the past 24 hours, Kyiv said on March 4, despite claims by Moscow's mercenaries that the eastern city that has been the focal point of Russia's months-long assault had been nearly completely surrounded.
The number of victims of the Russian missile attack on a residential building in Zaporizhzhia has increased to 10 - Ukrainian media
Russia’s defense minister visited Russian soldiers in Ukraine on Saturday. The ministry said in a statement on the messaging app Telegram that Sergei Shoigu “inspected the forward command post of one of the formations of the Eastern Military District in the South Donetsk direction." Shoigu has been criticized for Russia’s poor performance in its war against Ukraine. In a video released Saturday, the defense minister was seen handing out medals to Russian military forces - VOA
Observers will be keenly watching the coming days to see whether Europe will join Washington to impose sanctions on China in the event that it sends arms to Russia. Whether the calls will deter Beijing depends on their cost-benefit calculus, said Liana Fix, fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations. Particularly significant is how convinced Beijing is that Europeans are serious about joining U.S. sanctions. "So far, Beijing perceives Europeans as weak geopolitical actors, interested primarily in business, and especially Germany," Fix told VOA. Public pressure alone on China to refrain from delivering weapons to Russia will likely not work, she added. "A joint effort to strengthen ties within the global south areas, with other nations engaged with China, can help increase leverage with [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping]."
Germany's Rheinmetall wants to build a plant for the production of Panther tanks in Ukraine, CEO Armin Papperger told Rheinische Post. According to him, a tank plant in Ukraine can be built for about 200 million euros, and could produce up to 400 Panther battle tanks per year.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland made a surprise visit to Ukraine to attend an international conference on justice in Lviv, restating Washington’s commitment to “hold Russia responsible” for crimes committed during Moscow’s full-scale military invasion - RFE/RL
A large part of the schedule of Air Moldova was cancelled again today, following a string of cancellations Thursday and Friday. The flag carrier cited “operational difficulties” with reportedly two of its aircraft out of service. A series of protests have rocked the capital in recent days and it could be that international insurers are refusing to cover the aircraft - just as they did with Ukraine International Airlines jets in the run up to Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
Required reading…
Vladimir Putin keeps making the same basic mistakes
The Russian president is either deeply troubled or badly guided. Why else is he acting as he still is?
The Russians are already getting bogged down and the tanks are stuck. Their expected gains are not quite coming to fruition. Does that remind you of anything? More than a year since the launch of Putin’s “special military operation”, we are witnessing an eerie repetition of the initial invasion – a repeat of the bad strategies and false assumptions that have plagued the Kremlin’s war plans.
Putin’s military strategy continues to be ill-thought through, in particular displaying a poor grasp of weather. As videos emerge of Russian tanks struggling to get through the Ukrainian mud, there appears to have been little preparation for the thawing of the ground that one might expect during a spring offensive. This is just bizarre, since it is precisely what bogged down the Russians last year.
Read the full The Telegraph analysis here