Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Russia's Strel'na, outside Saint Petersburg, ahead of second Russia-Africa summit, on 26 July 2023 (AFP)
Egyptian officials have reportedly decided not to get involved in arming Ukraine, shrugging off repeated US requests in recent months to produce artillery shells and other weapons needed for Kiev’s counteroffensive against Russian forces in the Donbass region.
Washington asked Egypt to supply artillery, antitank missiles, air defense systems and small arms for Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing unidentified US officials. The requests were made on multiple occasions, including a March meeting between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo.
“In conversations with US officials, Egypt hasn’t definitively rejected the requests, but Egyptian officials said privately that Egypt has no plans to send the weapons,” the newspaper said.
That message apparently hasn’t gotten through to Washington. A US State Department official expressed optimism on getting Egypt to back Ukraine, telling the media outlet that “our discussions with our Egyptian partners on our mutual interest in ending Russa’s war are productive and ongoing.”
Earlier this year, Cairo reportedly backed down under US pressure from an alleged plan to sell rockets to Russia. Al-Sisi has tried to maintain good relations with both Washington and Moscow amid the Ukraine crisis, declining to join in the US-led campaign to arm Ukraine and punish Russia.
The WSJ noted that the failure to enlist Egypt in the effort comes at a “critical moment” in the conflict, in which Ukrainian forces are trying to push through Russia’s formidable defensive lines as the US tries to rally military and diplomatic support for Kiev. Al-Sisi’s decision also comes at a time when some members of Congress are urging President Joe Biden’s administration to withhold $320 million of the $1.3 billion in annual US military aid pledged to Egypt, citing the country’s human rights record.
Al-Sisi attended Russian President Vladimir Putin’s summit with African leaders last month in St. Petersburg. After a one-on-one meeting with al-Sisi, Putin said Russia aimed to complete an industrial zone near the Suez Canal as part of a plan to ramp up trade with Egypt and other African nations.
Air Defense Activated Over Crimea as Russian Forces Repel Ukraine Strikes Near Kupyansk
Air defense systems were activated over several regions of Crimea overnight, Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to Crimean head Sergey Aksyonov, said in the early hours of Saturday.
"Air defense systems have worked over different regions of Crimea. Please remain calm and trust only verified sources of information," Kryuchkov said on Telegram on Saturday morning.
Traffic across the Crimean Bridge was temporarily suspended for about two hours during the night.
The Russian Defense Ministry subsequently confirmed that Ukrainian forces had attempted to carry out an attack using 20 drones, all of which were destroyed.
"Tonight, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack using 20 unmanned aerial vehicles [UAVs] on sites on the territory of the Crimean peninsula was thwarted," the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry specified that 14 Ukrainian drones were destroyed by Russian air defense systems, while another six UAVs were suppressed by means of electronic warfare.
There are no casualties or damage as a result of the attempted attack, the defense ministry said.
The alerts were issued as reports emerged that Russian forces successfully repelled several strikes by Ukrainian forces near Kupyansk.
"During the day, the enemy carried out four counterattacks with units of the 14th and 41st separate mechanized brigades and the 25th separate airborne brigade on the positions of our troops in the area of the village of Sinkovka … All counterattacks were successfully repelled. Enemy losses amounted to a platoon of manpower," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that Ukrainian troops have also attempted to carry out three attacks in the Svatovo region, but Russian troops successfully repelled the attacks.
"In the course of hostilities in the Kupyansk direction, the [Russian] assault groups … captured four [Ukrainian] strongholds and five observation posts," the spokesperson told Sputnik.
The latest reports of activity surrounding Kupyansk come as Russian forces have been making steady advances since mid-July. It was recently noted Russian troops moved forward some 11 kilometers along the frontlines as forces were able to liberate five settlements in the area.
Siti Maulia (37), ibu dari bayi yang tertukar sedang menggendong bayi tersebut di rumahnya Kampung Mekar Jaya, Desa Cibeuteng, Kecamatan Ciseeng, Kabupaten Bogor, Jawa Barat, Jumat (11/8/2023). (KOMPAS.COM/AFDHALUL IKHSAN)
Bayi laki-laki dari pasangan Siti Maulia (37) dan M Thabrani (52), tertukar di Rumah Sakit Sentosa, Kecamatan Kemang, Kabupaten Bogor, Jawa Barat, Senin, 18/07/2022.
Peristiwa tersebut terungkap pada Juni 2023 atau setahun kemudian usai warga Kecamatan Ciseeng, Kabupaten Bogor, itu melakukan tes DNA.
Kejadian ini bermula usai Siti melahirkan secara sesar di RS Sentosa pada 18 Juli 2022.
Bayi laki-laki yang baru dilahirkan tersebut merupakan anak keempat Siti dan Thabrani.
Siti sempat menggendong bayinya sebelum pada Selasa malam dibawa oleh suster ke ruangan perawatan bayi.
Kemudian pada Rabu pagi, Siti kembali menggendong dan menyusui bayinya. Namun, dia merasakan kejanggalan dengan bayi tersebut.
"Sesar hari Senin, Selasa gendong bayi yang asli, terus Rabu pagi jam 06.00 itu saya merasa bayi berbeda pas digendong. Dari bajunya yang awalnya kuning kok jadi pink. Dari fisik, muka, rambut, dan kulit berbeda. Kalau yang bayi saya rambutnya tipis, enggak tebal," ujar Siti saat ditemui di kediamannya, Jumat (11/8/2023).
Namun, saat itu Siti tidak menanyakannya ke perawat meskipun ada kegelisahan di hatinya.
Setelah tiga hari dirawat, Siti membawa bayinya pulang. Namun, sesampainya Siti di rumah, nama gelang yang ada di kaki bayi itu berbeda alias nama ibu dari pasien lain.
Hal ini membuat Siti semakin gelisah dan curiga bahwa bayi tersebut bukan anak kandungnya.
Siti mencoba mengonfirmasi hal itu ke rumah sakit. Seorang perawat kemudian menjawab yang tertukar hanya gelang saja dan bukan bayinya.
Selama setahun, Siti dan suaminya terus bertanya-tanya.
Empat bulan kemudian atau November 2022, Siti meminta alamat pasien B (penyebutan pasien di rumah sakit) yang diduga ibu dari bayi yang tertukar.
Saat ditemui Siti, pasien B membantah anaknya tertukar dengan anak Siti.
Tes DNA
Untuk meyakinkan bahwa bayi yang kini dirawatnya bukan anak kandungnya, Siti kemudian melakukan tes DNA. Hasilnya negatif, Siti ternyata bukan ibu biologis bayi tersebut.
Siti kembali menemui pasien B dan meminta agar pasien itu melakukan tes DNA. Namun, pasien tersebut menolak.
Hingga akhirnya Siti melaporkan rumah sakit yang dinilai bertanggung jawab atas kejadian itu ke polisi.
"Saya akhirnya melapor ke polisi dan meminta bantuannya segera ditolong minta carikan anak saya. Sama pihak rumah sakit saya minta segera temukan anak saya supaya bisa kembali lagi, saya bisa pangku dia lagi," jelasnya.
Selama setahun, Siti tetap merawat bayi tersebut meski mengetahui bahwa bayi itu bukan anak kandungnya.
"Minta tolong segera cari anak saya, tolong kembalikan ke pangkuan saya. Saya memohon banget," ujar Siti.
Penjelasan rumah sakit
Juru Bicara Rumah Sakit Sentosa Gregg Djako mengatakan, manajemen rumah sakit baru mengetahui peristiwa bayi tertukar itu setelah 11 bulan kejadian.
"Selama ini pihak RS juga tidak tahu awalnya. Jadi informasi ini baru ketahuan setelah ibu Siti kemudian datang sampai bertemu manajemen," ucap Gregg saat dikonfirmasi di Ruang Humas Rumah Sakit Sentosa, hari Jumat, 11/08/2023.
Gregg menduga ada kelalaian mengenai gelang atau label nama yang tertempel di bayi tersebut.
"Ada mekanisme internal yang sedang kami dalami. Kalau kesengajaan belum kami temukan karena kami sedang mendalami dan sementara kami mendalami ada dugaan kelalaian," ungkapnya.
Setelah mengetahui kejadian itu, pihak rumah sakit kemudian memeriksa perawat, bidan, dan dokter yang saat itu berdinas yang jumlahnya 12 orang.
Manajemen rumah sakit juga menemui Siti untuk mendengarkan informasi atau fakta yang sebenarnya.
Rumah sakit kemudian mencocokan data administrasi dengan bayi pasangan suami istri lainnya atau yang diduga bayinya tertukar dengan pasien B.
Selanjutnya, rumah sakit memeriksa sejumlah dokumen.
Setelah itu, pihak rumah sakit melakukan tes DNA terhadap Siti dan bayinya. Hasil DNA Siti dan bayinya tidak identik atau negatif.
"Kalau tertukar itu setelah hasil tes DNA ya. Kami memfasilitasi tes DNA dan tes darah. Ternyata, itu bukan anak ibu Siti," ujar dia.
Rumah sakit kemudian menghubungi pasien B. Namun, pasien itu menolak untuk melakukan tes DNA. Rumah sakit juga sudah dua kali menyurati pasien B, tapi kedua surat itu tidak dijawab.
"Kami juga sudah menghubungi pihak atau ibu B untuk melakukan tes DNA juga. Tapi mereka menyatakan belum bersedia," lanjut Gregg.
"Minggu yang lalu kami mengundang lagi untuk hadir dan kita minta bersedia tes DNA. Belakangan kuasa hukumnya baru menjawab bahwa mereka harus melakukan pendekatan supaya ibu B bersedia. Yang kita mau lakukan tes DNA terhadap ibu B dengan anaknya supaya bisa tes silang dan mendapatkan hasil yang baik," ungkapnya.
Kini, rumah sakit sedang berupaya mencari titik terang penyebab bayi itu tertukar dan tertukarnya dengan siapa.
Manajemen rumah sakit juga akan memberikan sanksi kepada tenaga kesehatan jika memang ditemukan kesengajaan menukar bayi tersebut.
Sementara, Kasat Reskrim Polres Bogor AKP Yohannes Redhoi Sigiro mengatakan, pihaknya akan memanggil manajemen rumah sakit dan pasien B.
Adapun polisi sudah mendapat keterangan dari Siti.
"Kami akan lakukan langkah teknis dan taktis membuat terang peristiwa ini, apakah ada unsur pidana yang terjadi dalam kejadian ini," terangnya.
Russian officials have expressed growing concern about suspected plans by Poland to seize western Ukraine, either to turn it into a NATO protectorate or outright annex it. What are the chances of this happening? What’s the current state of Polish-Ukrainian relations? And how has Poland been affected by the Ukrainian crisis? Sputnik Media explains.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu accused Warsaw of harboring ambitions to establish a permanent military presence in western Ukraine on Wednesday, saying Polish troops could be dispatched to the country, "ostensibly to ensure…security,” but “in fact – for the subsequent occupation of this territory."
Shoigu’s comments come in the wake of warnings by President Putin last month calling on Warsaw not to follow through with any “revanchist plans” to seize Ukrainian lands, with Putin recalling that Poland surrendered its claims to western Ukraine at the end of the Second World War after receiving German lands as “a gift from Stalin to the Poles.”
"Have our friends in Warsaw have forgotten about this?" Putin asked.
Putin and Shoigu’s concerns were recently echoed by Russian Foreign Intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin, who similarly said that Russia has picked up on chatter within the Polish leadership about efforts to “introduce control” in western Ukraine.
Polish officials have dismissed Russian concerns about Warsaw’s intentions, or refused to comment. However, former NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen may have let the cat out of the bag in June when he said that “some countries,” including Poland, might “individually take action” and assemble a new “coalition of the willing” to deploy troops in Ukraine.
What are Poland’s Historical Claims in Ukraine?
Poland’s claims to large swathes of Ukraine go back to the era of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - the long-defunct Eastern European super-state which once controlled vast territories in present-day Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, parts of northwestern Russia, Lithuania, Latvia and a piece of Estonia between the 16thto the 18th centuries. The commonwealth disappeared from the map of Europe in the late 1700s after being partitioned by the Russian Empire, Prussia and Austria, with Poland only reemerging as an independent state in 1918, as Russia was engulfed in internal strife following the February and October Revolutions of 1917.
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1619)
CC BY 3.0 / /
Almost immediately after its statehood was reestablished, Poland’s nationalist authorities sought to take advantage of the chaos and civil war in Russia to mount an invasion of territories in what is today western Ukraine and Belarus, which Warsaw claimed as part of Poland. The bitter Polish-Soviet conflict lasted until March 1921, with Poland capturing over 201,000 square kilometers of western Ukrainian and Belarusian territory, inhabited by over 12 million people, mostly ethnic Ukrainians and Belarusians, but also Poles, Russians and Jews.
In 1939, with its efforts to prevent a new war in Europe rebuffed by Britain and France, Moscow signed a non-aggression pact with Germany, and on September 17, 1939, as the Polish government fled to Romania after the Nazi invasion, Soviet troops marched into Ukrainian and Belarusian territories captured by Warsaw during the Polish-Soviet War, plus the city of Lvov (now also part of Ukraine). After the Second World War, these borders became the internationally recognized frontier between Poland and the USSR. As compensation, Moscow agreed to the transfer of 101,000 square km of German lands, including major farming and industrial centers in Stettin, Liegnitz, Breslau and Oppeln, to Poland.
After the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, the frontier established following WWII became accepted as the border between Poland and independent Ukraine, but many Poles, particularly those who fled western Ukraine after the war, continued to refer their lost ancestral homelands as the Kresy, or ‘Borderlands’, and hoping for their reabsorption into Poland.
Do Poland and Ukraine Get Along?
Culturally, Poles and Ukrainians share similarities common to all Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe, although the Poles are West Slavs (along with the Czechs and Slovaks) while Ukrainians are East Slavs (together with Russians and Belarusians). Religiously, most Poles are Catholics, while the majority of Ukrainians are Eastern Orthodox. Linguistically, Ukrainian is grammatically far closer to Russian than Polish, although lexically, it’s closer to Polish.
A difficult history has complicated ties between Poland and Ukraine.
On one hand, as a key US ally in Eastern Europe, Warsaw has spent decades advocating for and advancing the pro-Western, pro-European Union and pro-NATO sentiments of part of Ukraine’s political and economic elites going back to the first color revolution in Kiev in 2004/2005, trying to pull Kiev out of the pro-Russian orbit and toward the EU. In 2014, Poland played a major behind-the-scenes role in negotiating an agreement between Ukraine’s opposition and President Viktor Yanukovych at resolving the Euromaidan crisis, before walking away from the agreement as the opposition seized power.
On the other hand, there are a number of historical issues between the Ukrainian and Polish peoples that have soured Warsaw, Brussels and Washington’s geopolitical plans. For one thing, there is historical bad blood caused by the Polish nobility’s exploitation of Ukrainian peasants during the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth era, a factor which contributed to Ukrainian Cossack commander Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s 1648 uprising and appeal to the Russian czar for assistance, an event which culminated in the unification of Russia and Ukraine in a union that would last over 300 years.
Entrance of Bohdan Khmelnytsky to Kyiv
CC BY-SA 3.0 / Mykola Ivasiuk (1865–1937) / Entrance of Bohdan Khmelnytsky to Kyiv
More recently, many Poles have expressed discomfort over Warsaw’s rabidly pro-Ukrainian policy, pointing to the modern-day Ukrainian government’s glorification of Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych and other Ukrainian Nazi collaborators, whose Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Ukrainian acronym UPA) militias murdered up to 200,000 Poles, as well as anti-fascist Ukrainians, Russians and Jews in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia during WWII. Ukraine’s refusal to apologize for these crimes, the erection of monuments to UPA leaders, and their lionization in textbooks for Ukrainian schoolchildren, have irked Poles, especially those whose families were affected by the UPA’s genocidal actions.
Economic Ties: Why Has Poland Banned Ukrainian Grain?
On the economic front too, things are not as peachy as politicians in Warsaw and Kiev might like, with Poland imposing a ban on Ukrainian grain amid concerns from Polish farmers warning that the glut of Ukrainian foodstuffs has driven down prices to unsustainable levels. The grain ban sparked a major diplomatic spat earlier this month after an assistant to Poland’s president slammed Kiev for its lack of “gratitude” to Warsaw for its substantial support, prompting a senior aide to President Zelensky to attack the Polish official over his “opportunistic, “manipulative” and “treacherous” remarks, and to label him a Russian “tool.”
Poland, like most other Western powers, has faced a rocky economic situation thanks to the Ukrainian crisis, balancing on the brink of recession in the second and fourth quarters of 2022 with -2.6 and -2.3 percent growth. Like other European countries, Warsaw has faced major difficulties stemming from the loss of cheap Russian energy supplies, resulting in higher energy costs, higher production costs, and galloping inflation (which hit a record 24 percent in February 2023).
How Many Ukrainian Refugees are in Poland?
Complicating things further is the refugee crisis, with millions of Ukrainians fleeing west to Poland over the past year-and-a-half. According to UN data, the country now hosts close to one million refugees, with some 1.6 million Ukrainians applying for asylum.
Poland has complained to EU institutions about the spiraling costs of hosting Ukrainian refugees. At the same time, many Ukrainians have struggled to adapt to life in the country, and facing falling sympathy from Poles, with sentiments for supporting refugees dropping from 84 percent to 50 percent over the past year, in what Polish researchers have dubbed “compassion fatigue.”
How Has Poland’s Security Been Impacted by Ukrainian Crisis?
Poland is one of the top donors of military assistance to Ukraine, fourth overall only behind the US, Germany and Britain (not counting EU institutions). Poland’s contributions have included some €3 billion ($3.2 billion) in military aid, including dozens of fighter jets and helicopters left over from its Soviet-era armories, over 300 T-72s (including the local Polish PT-91 variant), hundreds of armored vehicles, self-propelled artillery and multiple rocket launchers, anti-aircraft guns, surface-to-air missile systems, trucks, drones, mortars, small arms and ammunition.
Poland has also committed 14 of its German-made Leopard 2A4 main battle tanks, probably the newest and costliest equipment Warsaw has sent to date. NATO has also put pressure on Warsaw to transfer its F-16s to Ukraine, but Polish authorities have rejected the idea, saying it had “too few aircrafts” to give away without affecting national security.
Like other NATO nations, Poland has depleted its armories sending arms to Ukraine, to the point where Warsaw has complained about its European alliance member neighbors’ lack of “generosity” by comparison.
Polish officials and media have remained tight-lipped about the impact the delivery of billions of dollars in weapons to Ukraine have had on their own security. However, many of their European neighbors have openly admitted that their armed forces now have enough arms and ammunition to last as little as a few days in an emergency. In any case, Poland’s willing donation of large quantities of weapons to Ukraine shows that its authorities’ long-stated claims about Russia’s “aggressive” intentions to attack Poland have nothing to do with reality.
Did Ukraine Accidentally Bomb Poland?
The Ukrainian crisis did almost drag Poland into a World War III scenario with Russia in November 2022, when an errant Ukrainian air defense missile landed in a village in eastern Poland, killing two farmers. Zelensky immediately blamed Moscow and urged Poland and NATO to take action to put Russia “in its place.” Later, even after Polish, US and NATO officials confirmed that the missile was in fact Ukrainian, Zelensky refused to admit Kiev’s responsibility, prompting NATO diplomats to accuse him of “openly lying” about the incident.
Is Poland Engaged in a Military Buildup?
As the outpost of NATO on the alliance’s eastern flank, Poland has had plans to increase the size and capabilities of its armed forces going back to long before the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis, and welcomed plans to station more US forces on the country’s territory (including Aegis Ashore missile defense capabilities fitted with MK-41 launchers which could be easily converted to fire nuclear-tipped Tomahawk cruise missiles at Russia).
Poland, one of the few countries to have met the 2014 NATO commitment to spend two percent or more of its GDP on defense, recently announced plans to increase defense spending to 4 percent of GDP, and to more than double the size of the military to 300,000 troops. Poland’s 2023 defense budget is expected to reach in excess of 130 billion zloty (€27.7 billion or $30.4 billion).
Are Polish Soldiers Already Fighting in Ukraine?
Officially, Poland has not admitted to sending troops to Ukraine to take part in the proxy war against Russia. However, hundreds or even thousands of mercenaries from Poland may have traveled to the country over the past year-and-a-half to join the fight.
Sputnik Media has reported on Russian forces’ close encounters with Polish-speaking mercs, and late last year, Polish media estimated that as many as 1,200 Polish nationals fighting in Ukraine had already been killed, and that a special 1,700-space “American-style” cemetery had been created in a settlement in northeastern Poland.
So Will Poland Invade Ukraine?
Ultimately, whether or not the Polish government will ignore Russian warnings and move forward with plans to try to establish a NATO protectorate in western Ukraine, or outright annex a piece of the country, is unknown. Doing so would obviously threaten to turn the Ukrainian conflict into full-blown World War III scenario.
“The secession of western Ukraine, the fragmentation of Ukraine and the transfer of land to Poland are unacceptable," Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in talks with President Putin last month. “And if the population of western Ukraine needs this, we will, of course, support them,” he added.
In other words, in addition to be highly dangerous, a Polish invasion of western Ukraine could fundamentally transform the Ukrainian crisis in ways which may up to now have seemed unimaginable.
The veteran former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, UN weapons inspector, geopolitical observer and Sputnik contributor has spent over a year providing incisive commentaries about the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, challenging the Western mainstream narrative and offering his own perspective on the origins of the crisis.
Google-owned video hosting giant YouTube has deleted Scott Ritter's YouTube channel.
A banner reading "This account has been terminated due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube's policy prohibiting hate speech" greets anyone trying to navigate to Ritter's channel.
The company did not provide any information about the nature of these alleged "multiple or severe violations," or how Ritter's mostly Ukrainian crisis-related commentaries and interviews constituted "hate speech."
YouTube allows for user-based reporting of any alleged "hate speech," prompting concerns from content creators over the years that the video hosting giant lets organized online activists to silence voices and views they might not like or agree with, or which challenge important state and corporate narratives.
Ritter Reacts
Ritter responded to YouTube's decision in a pair of tweets Friday, saying the move is an attempt by US-based social media platforms to silence him.
"There was never any hate speech involved in any of the episodes of 'The Scott Ritter Show', unless one views unique content from silenced voices hateful," Ritter wrote. "Knowledge is power, ignorance is weakness. YouTube, through its actions, makes America and Americans weak," he added.
Over the course of the past year I’ve had the privilege of working in collaboration with Soloviev Live! to bring important Russian voices to an American/Western audience through “The Scott Ritter Show.” Today YouTube cancelled the channel used to air the show, calling it “hate…
Pointing out that his channel was removed the same day that "Ask The Inspector," another of his channels, got scrubbed, Ritter emphasized that "this is a targeted effort by YouTube to remove/minimize my voice, and those of my guests and the people who took the time to ask probing questions about the pressing issues of the day."
When it rains, it pours. The same day that YouTube deplatformed “The Scott Ritter Show”, they deplatformed “Ask The Inspector.” This is a targeted effort by YouTube to remove/minimize my voice, and those of my guests and the people who took the time to ask probing questions about…
The poster-child of CIA insanity. This organization has no legitimate reason to exist, and Morrell makes my case. If you’re watching this and nodding in agreement with what this lunatic is saying, you’re the problem, not the solution. https://t.co/N7sX8ZXLS5
Last year, he was suspended from Twitter after calling Joe Biden a "war criminal" and accusing him of "seeking to shift blame for the Bucha murders" on Russia. He was later reinstated, but suspended again after a "test, test, test" tweet stating that "Bucha was a war crime," and that "Ukraine did it." He has since been reinstated again. Ritter has faced a seemingly organized campaign against him on the microblogging platform, with users appealing to the site's owner to have him permanently banned.
The 2K22 Tunguska is a Russian-made self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon system designed to protect military units from aerial attacks. It is equipped with two 30 mm guns and eight missile launchers.
The Russian Defense Ministry has released a video showing the crews of Tunguska-M1 self-propelled anti-aircraft missile and cannon systems protecting units of the Russian Armed Forces from enemy air attacks during the special military operation.
During a combat mission, the crews destroy unmanned aerial vehicles, which carry out reconnaissance near the positions of Russian troops. Another target of the anti-aircraft gunners are Ukrainian missiles.
"We are on duty every day, performing combat work on the front lines. We hit targets with anti-aircraft guided missiles at a range of up to 10 kilometers," the commander of the Tunguska-M1 combat vehicle said.
Video - Ukrainian Recovery Team Abandons Wounded Soldiers
The evacuation group of Ukrainian troops around Zaporozhye showed serious weakness and low morale, the deputy commander of the Tsar's Wolves brigade, codenamed "Okhota" (Hunt), told Sputnik.
A released video shows a detachment of Ukrainian servicemen moving through a forest belt before coming under Russian mortar fire from a BARS-1 volunteer battalion. According to the deputy commander, the scene took place in the Zaporozhye region in July this year.
Later in the clip, a Ukrainian armored evacuation vehicle can be seen arriving and releasing a smoke screen, but only taking on board those who manage to run to it, leaving more seriously wounded soldiers behind.
Such instances are common among Ukrainian troops on the battlefield, the deputy commander stressed.
