The United Kingdom’s new army chief has warned that British soldiers “must prepare to fight in Europe once again” amid the Ukraine-Russia war — and as concern is mounting that Belarus troops could join the Russian invasion.
General Sir Patrick Sanders, in a message to his soldiers, said Russia’s attack on Ukraine “underlines our core purpose to protect the UK by being ready to right and win wars on land,” according to Sky News.
Sir Sanders, who just took over the top army post, described himself as the first chief of the general staff since 1941 to take command of the army “in the shadow of a land war in Europe involving a continental power.
“There is now a burning imperative to forge an Army capable of fighting alongside our allies and defeating Russia in battle,” he wrote.
“We are the generation that must prepare the Army to fight in Europe once again.”
Sir Sanders’ pronouncement comes as an expert in Russian foreign policy said military training exercises held near the Belarus-Ukraine border could indicate that the Russian ally might join the war. --->READ MORE HERE
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| PHOTO: REUTERS |
Ukraine intensified artillery and missile strikes against the Russian-controlled parts of the Donbas region, targeting weapons depots and military bases in an effort to stall a Russian offensive, while Moscow unleashed new salvoes of long-range missiles—some of them shot down by air defenses—on cities across Ukraine.
The city of Donetsk, the biggest in Russian-controlled Donbas, this weekend came under the worst artillery barrages since the conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014. The strikes hit military facilities, according to video footage of burning ammunition depots posted on local social-media channels, but also damaged civilian infrastructure. The Russian-appointed mayor of Donetsk, Aleksey Kulemzin, whose office was also hit by the shelling, said five civilians had been killed.
According to Igor Girkin, a former Russian intelligence officer who sparked the violence in Donbas eight years ago by seizing the city of Slovyansk, Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk also destroyed the headquarters of the 1st Army Corps, the official name of the military force of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. The corps commander, Russian Maj. Gen. Roman Kutuzov, was killed by Ukrainian troops earlier this month.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was launched by President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 24 with the ostensible goal of protecting Donbas, one-third of which has been controlled by Russian proxies since 2014. But Russian forces have been unable to dislodge Ukrainian troops from the immediate outskirts of Donetsk in nearly four months of fighting.
Questioned about this failure at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday, Mr. Putin said that a frontal attack on Ukrainian positions near Donetsk would cause too many casualties and called for patience as Russian troops carry out a complex campaign to encircle Ukrainian forces in the region.--->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:
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