By Arthur Scott-Geddes

Mar 7

Senior Russian officers have reportedly refused to continue pressing the attack on Vugledar after suffering heavy losses in a failed assault on the eastern Ukrainian town.

Russia is believed to have lost around 130 tanks and armoured fighting vehicles in a recent disastrous attempt to take the town from Ukraine’s forces.

Ukrainian military officials told the Kyiv Post that the officers of the 155th Brigade, which is believed to have suffered 300 casualties per day during the three-week assault, were refusing orders to continue attacking.

“The leaders of the brigade and senior officers are refusing to proceed with a new senseless attack as demanded by their unskilled commanders – to storm well-defended Ukrainian positions with little protection or preparation,” the Ukrainian military said.

It comes as Russian forces continued their attempt to seize Bakhmut, the eastern salt-mining town at the centre of some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.

Ukraine wants US to send cluster bombs so it can take them apart to drop from drones

Ukraine has broadened a request for controversial cluster bombs from the United States to include a weapon that it wants to cannibalise to drop the anti-armor bomblets it contains on Russian forces from drones, according to two US politicians.

Kyiv has urged members of Congress to press the White House to approve sending the weapons but it is by no means certain that the Biden administration will sign off on that.

Cluster munitions, banned by more than 120 countries, normally release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area, threatening civilians if they fail to detonate and remain on the ground.

Ukraine is seeking the MK-20, an air-delivered cluster bomb, to release its individual explosives from drones, said US Representatives Jason Crow and Adam Smith, who both serve on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. That is in addition to 155 mm artillery cluster shells that Ukraine already has requested, they said.

Mud hampers Ukraine’s Bakhmut resupply efforts

Muddy conditions around Bakhmut are likely hampering Ukraine’s efforts to resupply its troops, according to the Ministry of Defence.

In its daily intelligence briefing, the ministry said: “Muddy conditions are likely hampering Ukrainian resupply efforts as they increasingly resort to using unpaved tracks.”

Numerous reports have suggested that Ukrainian troops defending the eastern town are running seriously low on ammunition as they battle to hold back Russia’s advance.

“The Ukrainian defence of Bakhmut continues to degrade forces on both sides,” the ministry said. “Over the weekend, Ukrainian forces likely stabilised their defensive perimeter following previous Russian advances into the north of the town.”

China claims Ukraine crisis driven by ‘invisible hand’

The Ukraine crisis seems to be driven by an invisible hand pushing for the protraction and escalation of the conflict, China’s foreign minister Qin Gang has claimed.

The “invisible hand” is “using the Ukraine crisis to serve certain geopolitical agendas”, Mr Qin said on the sidelines of an annual parliament meeting in Beijing, calling for dialogue to begin as soon as possible