55th day of the war.
It's now the Holy Week. People celebrate or prepare to celebrate Easter: unite, support each other, pray.
Recently, I have been asking myself a lot of questions related to spirituality, self-identification, and history. Difficult times lead to reflection, and stressful situations make you rethink values. I enjoyed and really recommend watching a documentary by Mamay Media called 'Who are we?'. According to the authors, this is "a collective session of psychotherapy in the form of a movie, while watching which we must remember what happened and understand how it affected us."
We must work through our historical traumas in order to be a healthy and successful nation. And this is just the first step. If you have ever asked yourself the questions of language or national identification, I suggest sparing time to watch the movie.
A girl with a placard at a rally near Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. On this day, the deputies adopted the law on the Ukrainian language. Kyiv, April 25, 2019. CREDIT
It's been a very emotional day. All day long, everyone has been in suspense because of the news that comes from the east of our country, as well as from Mariupol. Deputy commander of the Azov regiment Sviatoslav Palamar reported that the Azovstal plant has been bombed and almost completely destroyed. According to him, super-powerful bombs are being dropped on the plant, and there are a lot of people under the rubble, including injured Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. There are no other places to hide in, as most of the city has been completely destroyed.
Azovstal, one of the largest metallurgy plants in Europe, is being heavily bombed and is unfit for operation any more. - PHOTO CREDIT
Kevin Ryan, US Brigadier General, analyzing information from open sources, has mentioned that russia is left with only 50% of the battalion tactical groups that it had at the beginning of the invasion. At the same time, there is no way to make up for losses, according to Kevin. This means that time is not in favor of the enemy, especially given the rumors about the "need for a soon victory" for the russians.
Kevin Ryan believes Russia is suffering severe losses in Ukraine. PHOTO CREDIT
On the other hand, we have information from the Pentagon that the current activation of russian troops in Donbas is a prelude to the start of a full-scale offensive. This was reported by a senior official of the US Department of Defense during a closed briefing for journalists. In addition, according to the Pentagon, russia now has about 75% of the troops it had before February 24th.
Screenshot from Phil Stewart's Twitter account.
While the second phase of the war is deploying, Western partners, such as the USA, the UK, Finland and the Netherlands keep supporting us with weapons, which is crucial for us to keep the advantage and defend effectively. The first batches of a new package of military aid from the United States arrived at the borders of Ukraine (including howitzers, artillery shells, helicopters, etc.). After a conversation with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte said that his country would provide Ukraine with the equipment necessary to repel the russian offensive, including heavy equipment and armored vehicles. The Ministry of Defense of Finland also announced additional assistance. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said their countries would provide Ukraine with artillery.
Among other things, Ukraine will receive Stormer - the most powerful British weapon. PHOTO CREDIT
All this help is essential for us to end this war sooner and to save thousands of lives. I hope the partner countries will keep supporting us in a prompt and efficient way, as Ukraine is now fighting for the whole democratic world.