Photo : Crimean Bridge in Russia. Image Source: Sputnik/Konstantin Mihalchevskiy
Photo : Crimean Bridge in Russia. Image Source: Sputnik/Konstantin Mihalchevskiy
By Padmashree Anandhan
WAR ON THE GROUND
On 03 May, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s President and David Cameron, UK’s Foreign Secretary held a meeting to discuss on speeding the delivery of military aid. Zelenskyy said: “It is important that the weapons included in the UK support package announced last week arrive as soon as possible.” While Cameron assured to keep armoured vehicles, ammunition and missile first in the list to deliver.
On 03 May, in an interview to the Economist, Vadym Skibitsky, Deputy Chief of Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate provided a grim view on Ukraine having less possibilities on winning the war. He said: “Even if it were able to push Russian forces back to the borders - an increasingly distant prospect – it wouldn’t end the war.” He stated that the war can be ended only by treaty but both Ukraine and Russia were observed to be fighting for “favourable position” to have a stance in the negotiations.
THE MOSCOW VIEW
Claims by Russia
On 03 May, RT reported on latest investigation details on the 2022 Crimean bridge attack by Ukraine. According to the investigation report, a truck laden carrying explosives was blown when crossing the bridge resulting in damage and death of civilians. It ruled out the possibility of Ukrainian military intelligence of being involved in the attacks but it suspects Vasily Malyuk, head of Ukraine’s civilian security agency to be responsible. As per the report in Kommersant, the blast was started by small explosive like C4 or PE-8, triggering fuse through a GPS tracker signal to detonate.
On 03 May, Sergey Shoigu, Russia’s Defence Minister issued a statement disclosing 111,000 troops loss for Ukrainian military. He stressed that Russian forces “continue to break up” the defensive positions of Ukrainian forces in the frontline and announced an advance of 547 square kilometres of Russia as of April 2024. Shoigu also claimed on inflicting damage and destroying of 21,000 heavy weapons of Ukraine forces.
THE WEST VIEW
Responses of the US and Europe
On 03 May, Victor Orban, Hungarian Prime Minister reported the need to boost its defence spending till 2025 if the war continued. This would mean reduction in the funds available for other expenditures. The move comes as the war had triggered overall defence spending of the NATO’s eastern flank resulting in doubling of the defence expenditure to 3.9 per cent of GDP by 2023. Hungary was observed to be critical on the spillover effects of the war but is observed to have increased its defence spending to 2.43 per cent of its GDP in 2023 crossing the NATO threshold of two per cent. Orban said: “If the war drags on into 2025, then the 2023-2024 defence spending levels will not be sufficient and will have to be increased.”
On 03 May, Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s Foreign Minister reported on finding of new evidence on Russian “state-sponsored hackers” involvement in one of the “intolerable” cyber-attacks in 2023. She said: “Today we can say unambiguously [that] we can attribute this cyber-attack to a group called APT28, which is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia.” No further details on those targeted were disclosed.
On 03 May, the Czech Foreign Ministry reported on being the target of Russian cyberattacks since 2023. Similar to Germany’s evidence on APT28 hacker group to be linked to a cyberattack, the ministry suspects the group to be connected to Russia’s military intelligence. In as statement: “Russian state-controlled actor APT28, which has been conducting a long-term cyber espionage campaign in European countries.”
References
Paul Kirby, “Kyiv can use British weapons inside Russia – Cameron,” BBC, 03 May 2024
“New details emerge of 2022 Crimean Bridge bombing,” RT, 03 May 2024
“Kiev has lost over 111,000 troops this year – Moscow,” RT, 03 May 2024
Anne-Laure Dufeal, “Czech Republic targeted by Russia in ongoing cyber-attack, foreign ministry says,” brusselsignal.eu, 03 May 2024
Tom Ambrose, “Russia-Ukraine war: Lithuania hits out at Russia ‘disinformation’ over spy claims – as it happened,” The Guardian, 03 May 2024