Day 723 of the Invasion of Ukraine: Avdiivka Will Fall Soon

Day 723 of the invasion of Ukraine. Summary of key events in the last 24 hours:

• USA: Avdiivka will fall because the Ukrainians have no shells
• Zelensky confirmed that there are actions to rescue military personnel in Avdiivka
• Ukrainian intelligence: Russian troops use thousands of Starlink terminals
• NATO countries plan delivery of 1 million drones to Ukraine
• Ukrinform: Tens of thousands of mercenaries from Africa and Asia are fighting for Russia in Ukraine
• Russian bloggers claim that the commander of the Black Sea Fleet has been fired after the latest attack on a ship by the Ukrainians
• Putin urged Russians to have more children, said ethnic survival was at stake

USA: Avdiivka will fall because the Ukrainians have no shells

Russia is close to taking control of the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka due to the lack of artillery shells in Ukraine, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby announced during a briefing at the White House.

"Russia is sending wave after wave of forces to attack Ukrainian positions. And because Congress has not yet passed the supplemental bill, we have failed to provide Ukraine with the artillery shells it desperately needs to thwart these Russian attacks."

Earlier this week, the US Senate (upper house) voted on a bill to allocate financial resources to key Washington allies, including $60 billion for Ukraine.

A bill was supposed to pass as early as the end of 2023, but Republicans, who hold a majority in the House of Representatives (the lower house), are delaying the process. There are two reasons:

First, Donald Trump's calls not to send aid. The former president wants to sabotage the last year of his rival Joe Biden's administration. Second, Republicans are demanding that Democrats support them in their efforts to pass legislation in Congress for a stricter regime along the Mexican border. Although the Senate earlier this week approved a $95 billion security "package" (of which $60 billion is earmarked for Ukraine), House Speaker Mike Johnson decided on his own that he did not want to put the bill to a vote, although there will almost certainly be enough Republicans to support it.

Ukraine is critically dependent on arms supplies from the US and other Western allies to continue fighting Russia, which has abundant artillery ammunition and large numbers of troops.

Zelensky confirmed that there are actions to rescue military personnel in Avdiivka

Fighting continues on the territory of Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that actions have been taken to save part of the military, which is semi-encircled and subject to continuous Russian assault, the town of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region:

"A report by Commander-in-Chief Alexander Syrskyi and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov shows a complex situation on the front near the city of Avdiivka and in the eastern part of the country in general. We are doing everything possible to ensure that our military is sufficiently secured to save as many as possible Ukrainian lives".

Earlier, the world agencies quoted the Ukrainian command, according to which elite reinforcements will be sent to Avdiivka.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will also take part in the Munich conference on Saturday. He is expected to visit Germany and France on Friday to try to secure key military aid and to sign bilateral security deals.

Ukrainian intelligence: Russian troops use thousands of Starlink terminals

Russian troops in Ukraine are using thousands of Starlink terminals manufactured by Elon Musk's SpaceX. This was stated by the head of the Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, in an interview with the "Wall Street Journal", quoted by Reuters.

Lieutenant General Budanov claimed that the attackers had been communicating through the Starlink system "for quite a long time" and had acquired the terminals from private Russian companies, which in turn had bought them from intermediaries. According to the intelligence officer, this happens through neighboring countries, some - former Soviet republics.

Ukraine uses about 42,000 Starlink terminals - mostly from the military, medical, business and aid organizations - and the US War Department helps fund this access. The Russian embassy and SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment on the information reported by the Wall Street Journal, according to Reuters.

Starlink says they do not operate in or with Russia. The company did not respond to an inquiry about whether it could categorically rule out the possibility of the system being used by Russian troops in Ukraine. Reuters quoted a British reserve brigadier general as saying that using Starlink would make cracking their communications network very difficult for Ukraine and its allies to crack.

NATO countries plan delivery of 1 million drones to Ukraine

NATO aims to provide a million drones to Ukraine. This was said by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at a briefing after a meeting of defense ministers from the Alliance on Thursday. Earlier in the day, Britain announced such a step together with Lithuania.

According to him, 20 allies have also agreed to form a coalition to destabilize Ukraine.

The creation of a new NATO-Ukraine analysis and training center in Poland was also confirmed to share lessons from the war with Russia and create a structure to train Ukrainian forces alongside NATO forces.

Ukrinform: Tens of thousands of mercenaries from Africa and Asia are fighting for Russia in Ukraine

Tens of thousands of mercenaries from Africa and Asia are fighting for Russia in Ukraine, Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform reported.

Ukrinform notes that it draws this information from the Ukrainian National Center for Resistance.

"The Russians continue to recruit mercenaries in Africa and Asia. The foreign mercenaries are trained in Russia and then sent to the territory of Ukraine. The Russians promise them salaries of 2,000 to 4,000 dollars, but in fact they pay a living wage of several hundred dollars," says the National Center for Resistance.

It is reported that Russian special services are actively recruiting citizens of Syria, Nepal, Afghanistan, India, Congo, Egypt and Central Asian countries.

The National Resistance Center notes that Russia uses foreign mercenaries mainly in storming Ukrainian positions.

Russian bloggers claim that the commander of the Black Sea Fleet has been fired after the latest attack on a ship by the Ukrainians

Russian military bloggers and a former Kremlin adviser said Moscow fired the commander of the Black Sea Fleet a day after Ukraine said it had destroyed a large Russian ship, Reuters reported.

There was no official confirmation of the dismissal of Admiral Viktor Sokolov.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Sokolov assumed command in September 2022, according to the ministry's website, several months after Russia's war in Ukraine began. His appointment followed a series of humiliations for the Black Sea Fleet, including the sinking of the flagship “Moskva” (Moscow) by Ukrainian missiles.

Despite the change in command, Russian warships continue to suffer strikes from Ukrainian forces, whose own fleet is comparatively small.

Ukraine is using unmanned naval drones packed with explosives to attack Russian ships and is trying to push them out of parts of the Black Sea, allowing it to open a vital grain shipping corridor.

On Wednesday, Ukraine said it had destroyed the Russian amphibious assault ship “Caesar Kunikov” off the coast of Russia-annexed Crimea in a drone strike that caused the ship to sink after breaching its port side. Russia did not comment.

The Ukrainian military claims to have "destroyed" 25 Russian military vessels and ships and one submarine in the war so far.

Admiral Sokolov's removal was reported by Russian military bloggers and Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, without citing their sources.

Putin urged Russians to have more children, said ethnic survival was at stake

Russian families should have at least two children for the nation's ethnic survival, and three or more for it to develop and flourish, President Vladimir Putin said, Reuters reported.

Russia has suffered heavy but undisclosed casualties since war broke out in Ukraine two years ago, and hundreds of thousands of people have fled the country because of opposition to the conflict or fear of being mobilized to fight.

Putin told employees at a tank factory in the Ural region that two children in a family is the minimum number for the peoples of Russia to retain their identity.

"If we want to survive as an ethnic group - well, or as ethnic groups inhabiting Russia - there should be at least two children," the president said.

If each family had only one child, the population would decline, he said. "And for it to expand and develop, you must have at least three children."

Putin declares himself a supporter of "traditional values" based on family, nation and the Orthodox Christian faith, Reuters recalls. During his 24-year rule, the country severely restricted manifestations of sexual orientation and gender identity and banned the LGBTQ+ movement" as "extremist".

The State Statistics Bureau estimates Russia's population at 146.4 million by early 2023, down from nearly 149 million 20 years ago.

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