Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: Update on April 25 – BBC News

Zelensky said: “We are grateful for the unprecedented U.S. assistance to Ukraine. Personally and on behalf of the Ukrainian people, I would like to thank President Biden for his leadership in supporting Ukraine and for his clearly stated positions. Thank you to all The American people and both houses of Congress and bipartisan support. We saw it. We felt it.”

The website reported that the two sides also discussed further defense aid, tightening sanctions on Russia, financial support for Ukraine and security guarantees.

The report added that the two sides paid particular attention to the sanctions policy and agreed that sanctions should be further strengthened.

“We understand what the next steps in this path should be. We rely on the support of our partners,” Zelensky said.

It’s been a week since Russia began its full-scale conquest and occupation of eastern Ukraine – is the Kremlin’s army expected to make a quick breakthrough?

Professor Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” news programme that the Russian military was not advancing as “unmanned” as many had imagined.

“In fact, there is almost no progress at all,” he said. “They suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Kyiv and other battles … At least in our opinion, the Russian military’s strategy and tactics were not smart.”

He also pointed out that people “are not programmable machines” and that “these soldiers who were brought out of Kyiv were defeated soldiers – they had witnessed and committed war crimes, they had seen people die, they were exhausted and their equipment was lost. already.”

He described the Russians not letting the soldiers rest as “an act of stupidity or desperation”.

He said, “The question for the Ukrainians is, can they drive the Russians back? The Russians still have a lot of heavy artillery, they have some modern weapons and equipment, and Ukraine only has a light army. So it may not be that easy… “

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visited Kyiv with Secretary of State Blinken on Sunday.

“We want to see Russia weakened to the point that it can no longer do things like aggression against Ukraine,” Austin said on Monday.

Austin also said that on the way to the Ukrainian capital, things appeared to be starting to return to normal.

He said the nature of fighting in Ukraine had evolved so it needed long-range weapons, and Ukraine also said it needed tanks. He said it was difficult for the United States to track what happened after the weapons were delivered to Ukraine because there were no U.S. troops on the ground. But he spoke about it in talks with Ukrainians to ensure the best possible tracking of weapons.

“The first step to winning is believing you can win … we believe we can win, and if they have the right equipment and support, they can win,” he said.

The UK Ministry of Defence’s latest intelligence report on Ukraine said Russia had “made minor progress in certain areas since shifting its focus to fully occupying the Donbass”.

But the report said, “without sufficient logistical support and reinforcements, Russia has yet to achieve a major breakthrough.”

The report added: “Russia’s decision to siege, rather than attack the Azov steel plant in Mariupol, means that many Russian troops remain stranded in the city and cannot be redeployed. Ukraine’s defense of Mariupol has also left many Russian troops exhausted and reduced their combat effectiveness.”

“The Russian Ministry of Defense has proposed that the military, rather than civilians, manage reparations for the families of deceased servicemen. This may reflect a willingness to hide the truth about Russia’s loss from the domestic population.”

The Ukrainian train battle and railway infrastructure became an important target for Russian attacks. Ukrainian officials said five train stations in central and western regions were attacked by Russian forces on Monday.

Railroads are essential for the transportation of goods and the escape of civilians.

The BBC’s Kyiv correspondent Mark Rowan has the following analysis:

The attack on the train station was a “warning” from Moscow.

Russia’s timing is always aimed at maximum effect. So the decision by Russian forces to attack railroads in central and western Ukraine, hours after the U.S. Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense left Kyiv by train to return to Poland, is almost certainly another warning from Moscow.

Five stations were hit by missiles, including one in Krasne, near Lviv, where a facility that handles overhead power lines was hit. There have been reports of injuries. Rail lines are an integral part of Ukrainian war operations – transporting combatants and military hardware in and out of Poland, which is a NATO logistical center.

The targeting of these train stations appears to be aimed at weakening Kyiv’s military supply lines.

But it also sent shudders for refugees who continued to use the train station to escape Donbass. Earlier this month, dozens of people were killed in an attack on the railway station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk.

Now, rail infrastructure in the central and western regions is also under attack, leaving fewer and fewer safe escape routes for terrified Ukrainians.