In this
handout
photo
provided
by the
Ukraine
Armed
Forces
Thursday,
May 12,
2022,
dozens
of
destroyed
or
damaged
Russian
armored
vehicles
on both
banks of
Siverskyi
Donets
River
after
their
pontoon
bridges
were
blown up
in
eastern
Ukraine.
(Ukrainian
Presidential
Press
Office
via AP) |
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Ukrainian
servicemen
collect
bodies
of
Russian
soldiers
to load
into a
railway
refrigerator
carriage
in Kyiv,
Ukraine,
Friday,
May 13,
2022.
(AP
Photo/Efrem
Lukatsky) |
|
Russia
takes
losses
in
failed
river
crossing,
officials
say
By
OLEKSANDR
STASHEVSKYI
and
DAVID
KEYTON
apnews.com
KYIV,
Ukraine
-
Russian
forces
suffered
heavy
losses
in a
Ukrainian
attack
that
destroyed
a
pontoon
bridge
they
were
using to
try to
cross a
river in
the
east,
Ukrainian
and
British
officials
said in
another
sign of
Moscow’s
struggle
to
salvage
a war
gone
awry.
Ukrainian
authorities,
meanwhile,
opened
the
first
war
crimes
trial of
the
conflict
Friday.
The
defendant,
a
captured
Russian
soldier,
stands
accused
of
shooting
to death
a
62-year-old
civilian
in the
early
days of
the war.
The
trial
got
underway
as
Russia’s
offensive
in the
Donbas,
Ukraine’s
eastern
industrial
heartland,
seemed
to turn
increasingly
into a
grinding
war of
attrition.
Ukraine’s
airborne
command
released
photos
and
video of
what it
said was
a
damaged
Russian
pontoon
bridge
over the
Siversky
Donets
River
and
several
destroyed
or
damaged
Russian
military
vehicles
nearby.
The
command
said its
troops
“drowned
the
Russian
occupiers.”
Britain’s
Defense
Ministry
said
that
Russia
lost
“significant
armored
maneuver
elements”
of at
least
one
battalion
tactical
group in
the
attack
earlier
this
week.
“Conducting
river
crossings
in a
contested
environment
is a
highly
risky
maneuver
and
speaks
to the
pressure
the
Russian
commanders
are
under to
make
progress
in their
operations
in
eastern
Ukraine,”
the
ministry
said in
its
daily
intelligence
update.
In other
developments,
a move
by
Finland
and,
potentially,
Sweden
to join
NATO was
thrown
into
question
when
Turkish
President
Recep
Tayyip
Erdogan
said his
country
is “not
of a
favorable
opinion”
toward
the
idea. He
accused
Sweden
and
other
Scandinavian
countries
of
supporting
Kurdish
militants
and
others
Turkey
considers
terrorists.
Erdogan
did not
say
outright
that he
would
block
the two
nations
from
joining
NATO.
But the
military
alliance
makes
its
decisions
by
consensus,
meaning
that
each of
its 30
member
countries
has a
veto
over who
can
join.
An
expansion
of NATO
would be
a blow
to
Russian
President
Vladimir
Putin,
who
undertook
the war
in what
he said
was a
bid to
thwart
the
alliance’s
eastward
advance.
But the
invasion
of
Ukraine
has
stirred
fears in
other
countries
along
Russia’s
flank
that
they
could be
next.
With
Ukraine
pleading
for more
arms to
fend off
the
invasion,
the
European
Union’s
foreign
affairs
chief
announced
plans to
give
Kyiv an
additional
500
million
euros
($520
million)
to buy
heavy
weapons.
Ukrainian
Defense
Minister
Oleksii
Reznikov
said
heavy
weapons
from the
West now
making
their
way to
the
front
lines —
including
American
155 mm
howitzers
— will
take
some
time to
turn the
tide in
Ukraine’s
favor.
He
admitted
there is
no quick
end to
the war
in
sight.
“We are
entering
a new,
long-term
phase of
the
war,”
Reznikov
wrote in
a
Facebook
post.
“Extremely
difficult
weeks
await
us. How
many
there
will be?
No one
can say
for
sure.”
The
battle
for the
Donbas
has
turned
into a
village-by-village,
back-and-forth
slog
with no
major
breakthroughs
on
either
side and
little
ground
gained.
Fierce
fighting
has been
taking
place on
the
Siversky
Donets
River
near the
city of
Severodonetsk,
said
Oleh
Zhdanov,
an
independent
Ukrainian
military
analyst.
The
Ukrainian
military
has
launched
counterattacks
but has
failed
to halt
Russia’s
advance,
he said.
“The
fate of
a large
portion
of the
Ukrainian
army is
being
decided
— there
are
about
40,000
Ukrainian
soldiers,”
he said.
The
Ukrainian
military
chief
for the
Luhansk
region
of the
Donbas
said
Friday
that
Russian
forces
opened
fire 31
times on
residential
areas
the day
before,
destroying
dozens
of
homes,
notably
in
Hirske
and
Popasnianska
villages,
and a
bridge
in
Rubizhne.
In the
south,
Ukrainian
officials
claimed
another
success
in the
Black
Sea,
saying
their
forces
took out
another
Russian
ship,
though
there
was no
confirmation
from
Russia
and no
casualties
were
reported.
The
Vsevolod
Bobrov
logistics
ship was
badly
damaged
but not
thought
to have
sunk
when it
was
struck
while
trying
to
deliver
an
anti-aircraft
system
to Snake
Island,
said
Oleksiy
Arestovych,
a
Ukrainian
presidential
adviser.
In
April,
Ukraine
sank the
Moskva,
a guided
missile
cruiser
that was
the
flagship
of
Russia’s
Black
Sea
fleet.
In March
it
destroyed
a
landing
ship.
In the
ruined
southern
port of
Mariupol,
Ukrainian
fighters
holed up
in a
steel
plant
faced
continued
Russian
attacks
on the
last
stronghold
of
resistance
in the
city.
Sviatoslav
Palamar,
deputy
commander
of
Ukraine’s
Azov
Regiment,
said his
troops
will
hold out
“as long
as they
can”
despite
shortages
of
ammunition,
food,
water
and
medicine.
Justin
Crump, a
former
British
tank
commander
who is
now a
security
consultant,
said
Moscow’s
losses
have
forced
it to
downsize
its
objectives
in
Ukraine.
He said
the
Russians
have had
to use
hastily
patched-together
units
that
haven’t
trained
together
and are
thus
less
effective.
“This is
not
going to
be
quick.
So we’re
settled
in for a
summer
of
fighting
at
least. I
think
the
Russian
side is
very
clear
that
this is
going to
take a
long
time,”
he said.
Ukrainian
prosecutors
are
investigating
thousands
of
potential
war
crimes.
Many of
the
alleged
atrocities
came to
light
last
month
after
Moscow’s
forces
abandoned
their
bid to
capture
Kyiv and
withdrew
from
around
the
capital,
exposing
mass
graves
and
streets
strewn
with
bodies.
In the
first
war
crime
case
brought
to
trial,
Russian
Sgt.
Vadim
Shyshimarin,
21,
could
get life
in
prison
if
convicted
of
shooting
a
Ukrainian
man in
the head
through
an open
car
window
in a
village
in the
northeastern
Sumy
region
on Feb.
28, four
days
into the
invasion.
In a
small
Kyiv
courtroom,
scores
of
journalists
watched
the
start of
the
wartime
proceedings,
which
will be
closely
watched
by
international
observers
to make
sure the
trial is
fair.
The
defendant,
dressed
in a
blue and
gray
hoodie
and gray
sweatpants,
sat in a
small
glass
cage
during
the
proceedings,
which
lasted
about 15
minutes
and will
resume
on
Wednesday.
Shyshimarin
was
asked a
series
of
questions,
including
whether
he
understood
his
rights
and
whether
he
wanted a
jury
trial.
He
declined
the
latter.
His
Ukraine-assigned
attorney,
Victor
Ovsyanikov,
has
acknowledged
that the
case
against
the
soldier
is
strong
and has
not
indicated
what his
defense
will be.
Shyshimarin,
a member
of a
tank
unit
that was
captured
by
Ukrainian
forces,
admitted
that he
shot the
civilian
in a
video
posted
by the
Security
Service
of
Ukraine,
saying
he was
ordered
to do
so.
As the
war
grinds
on,
teachers
are
trying
to
restore
some
sense of
normalcy
after
the
fighting
shuttered
Ukraine’s
schools
and
upended
the
lives of
millions
of
children.
In
Kharkiv,
Ukraine’s
second-largest
city,
lessons
are
being
given in
a subway
station
that has
become
home for
many
families.
Children
joined
their
teacher
Valeriy
Leiko
around a
table to
learn
about
history
art,
with
youngsters’
drawings
lining
the
walls.
“It
helps to
support
them
mentally.
Because
now
there is
a war,
and many
lost
their
homes
... some
people’s
parents
are
fighting
now,”
Leiko
said. In
part
because
of the
lessons,
he said,
“they
feel
that
someone
loves
them.”
An older
student,
Anna
Fedoryaka,
monitored
a
professor’s
online
lectures
on
Ukrainian
literature.
The
internet
connection
was a
problem
for
some,
she
said.
And “it
is hard
to
concentrate
when you
have to
do your
homework
with
explosions
by your
window.”
___
Yesica
Fisch in
Bakhmut,
Yuras
Karmanau
in Lviv,
Mstyslav
Chernov
in
Kharkiv,
Jari
Tanner
in
Helsinki,
Elena
Becatoros
in Odesa,
and
other AP
staffers
around
the
world
contributed
to this
report.
___
Follow
AP’s
coverage
of the
war in
Ukraine:
https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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