Day 269 of the Invasion of Ukraine: Zelensky rejected the idea of a Temporary Truce with Russia

Ukraine | November 19, 2022, Saturday // 11:02|  views

President Volodymyr Zelensky

Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

Heavy fighting in Donbas, Moscow accuses Kyiv of war crimes

Moscow has accused Kyiv of committing war crimes once again. The reason - a video was circulated in which a group of Russian soldiers surrendered, after which an unknown person shot at them.

Russia responded to the clip by accusing Ukraine of liquidating prisoners of war, a war crime. Kyiv has not yet reacted to the accusations. The authenticity and credibility of the video is yet to be analyzed.

Due to the recent Russian attacks in Ukraine, a large part of the country's energy system is already out of order. Millions are without electricity, Ukraine has introduced a planned blackout regime. In big cities, there are designated rooms where people can warm up and charge their phones. In his traditional evening address, President Zelensky called for increased pressure against Russia.

"Extremely heavy fighting in the Donetsk region continues. The fighting does not stop. In the last 24 hours, about 100 attacks were repelled in the region. All our fighters who hold the front in Donbas are real heroes," said Volodymyr Zelensky.

Finland starts building a fence along the border with Russia

At the beginning of next year, Finland will begin the planned construction of a fence along the border with Russia, the Associated Press reported, citing Finnish border guards.

The first three kilometers will be built at the crossing point in the eastern city of Imatra by the summer of 2023.

The fence will cover some parts of the border, which has a total length of 1,340 kilometers.

The project is estimated at a total of 380 million euros and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2026.

The goal is to prevent large-scale illegal migration, explained Prime Minister Sana Marin.

Ukraine: About 30% of the country's territory is mined

About 30% of Ukraine's territory has been mined as a result of the Russian war, DPA reported, citing the Ukrainian State Emergency Service.

It is a territory with an area about twice the size of Austria. The area and number of mines on Ukrainian territory have increased tenfold since the start of the war on February 24, the service said.

The disposal of explosive devices in the region of Kherson and Mykolaiv continues, it added in a statement. A territory with an area of over 8,000 square km is to be demined.

Landmines have been used in eastern Ukraine since the conflict between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists began in 2014.

The head of the State Emergency Service Sergiy Krik expressed hope that the power supply in the recaptured areas will be restored in the next few days. He added that the restoration of infrastructure in the Kherson region will take several months.

Moscow sends its troops "Barrier Dome" against drones, Rogozin's Royal Wolves test them

Moscow is sending its troops in Ukraine a new model of anti-drone systems that can be immediately sent to the front, Russian politicians, experts and media reported this week, quoted by BTA.

The "Tsarskie Volki" inspection group (Royal Wolves) tested the "Barrier-Dome" radio-electronic warfare complexes (REB) both on a training ground in the rear and in combat conditions. The tests were conducted jointly with the international brigade "Pyatnashka", which holds a section of the front, wrote on October 17 the specialized publication "Voernnoe obozrenie".

The new tactical systems are expected to be "replicated in the necessary quantities" for all Russian units in Ukraine, the group's founder Dmitry Rogozin said, noting the "impressive results" shown by the new equipment, but also the "high technological level" of the Ukrainian forces.

The initiative group recently created by Rogozin includes military advisers and experts with extensive military experience. The team operates as a volunteer unit. Its task is to test in the combat zone in Ukraine promising Russian weapons and other equipment, in serial production, which for some reason did not go into serial production, explains "Voennoe obozrenie".

The leader of the "Royal Wolves" Rogozin, ex-deputy prime minister and former head of the federal agency "Roscosmos", is known as a nationalist with sharp anti-Western statements. Judging by the name of his group, "those up there are losing their last drops of decency," commented a reader with the nickname Trapp1st on the website of the network publication.

The "Barrier Dome" anti-drone complexes have been sent to the troops and "will be on the front line today" in Ukraine. This was stated in Telegram by the Russian deputy Alexei Zhuravlev, leader of the "Rodina" party, founded by Rogozin as a national-conservative party.

"Barrier domes" are the development of a private company and the Russian Ministry of Defense "has nothing to do with their implementation and use", the far-right politician pointed out during his "another working visit" to the combat zone in Ukraine. The systems were highly valued by fighters in the separatist Ukrainian region of Donbas, recently annexed by Russia.

According to Zhuravlev, this equipment for electronic surveillance and intelligence "guaranteedly shoots down all the drones around" and "not a single state penny was spent on it."

However, "Barrier Dome" was already offered on the market in June of this year by the Russian company "Rubezh Engineering" as "a solution to protect objects from dangerous illegal use of modern small-scale unmanned aerial vehicles". It is not clear from the publications on what basis the Russian military received this equipment from the private company.

According to the company, the elements of the system suppress the radio control channels of the drones and jam the radio channels of the global navigation system they use, but without causing interference to communications. "Rubezh Engineering" also claims that "Barrier Domes" are "safe for people and have no sanitary and frequency restrictions for use in urban conditions."

The complexes can be used to protect large areas of territory, for example, state borders. Also on mobile objects - convoys in motion or tactical combat formation of special forces, adds the company.

The Donbas media "Donetsk Dnes" ("Donetsk Segodnya") posted on Thursday a table with detailed tactical and technical characteristics of the "Barrier Dome".

According to them, the anti-drone weapon can, for example, detect drones at a range of about 1,300-1,800 meters, depending on the antennas used, and suppress their radio control channels within a radius of 800-1,000 m, and navigation channels within a radius of 1,000 m. One system protects an object from drones with area of ​​4 hectares and can work around the clock at temperatures from -35 to +45 degrees Celsius, triggering at most 5 seconds after switching on.

Zelensky rejected the idea of a temporary truce with Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the idea of a "short-term truce" with Russia, saying it would only make things worse.

"Now Russia is looking for a short-term truce, a reprieve to rebuild its forces. Some may call this an end to the war, but such a break will only worsen the situation," the Ukrainian leader said in a speech broadcast at the International Security Forum in Halifax.

"A truly genuine, long-lasting and honest peace can only result from the complete elimination of Russian aggression," Zelensky said.

Earlier in the day, the White House said only Zelensky could decide when to start peace talks with Russia, rejecting the idea that he was pressuring Kyiv to negotiate an end to the nearly nine-month war sparked by Moscow's invasion in February.

However, General Mark Milley, a senior US military official, has suggested in recent weeks that Kyiv could take advantage of battlefield victories over Moscow's forces and open negotiations to end the conflict.

Milley said on Wednesday that while Ukraine had made key gains, Moscow still controlled about 20 percent of the country's territory and that Kyiv's troops were unlikely to force the Russians out of the country anytime soon.

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Tags: Ukraine, Zelensky, Russia, Donbas

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