Russia is deploying tactical nuclear systems in Karelia on the Finnish border, reports Euronews based on Izvestiya, which reported on the deployment of the weapons citing sources from the Russian Defense Ministry. This territory historically belonged to Finland, which it “leased” to the Soviet Union in 1940 and has not reclaimed since then (although the so-called Finnish-Soviet Continuation War ended with a Finnish defeat in 1944, so this would not have been realistic).
The new missile brigade consists of Iskanders, which can be equipped with nuclear warheads in addition to cruise and ballistic missiles. In January of last year, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that the military district in Leningrad (the area of today’s St. Petersburg), abolished during the 2010 military reform, would be restored. The rocket brigade set up at the Finnish border can also belong to this district. The Ukrainian and Polish border is controlled by the Moscow district, which was also restored last year.
The world’s largest concentrated artillery force with 1,500 guns and 100 missile systems is located in the area of the now 1,300-kilometer NATO border. Since the end of 2023, 15 facilities and zones have been available to US troops in Finland where they can store military equipment and ammunition. Among them are four air bases, a military port and a military railway line.
Polish President Andrzej Duda announced on Monday that Poland is ready to receive nuclear weapons on its territory if the Allies decide, given that Russia is strengthening its armaments in Belarus and the Moscow-controlled exclave of Kaliningrad.
The United Kingdom promises its largest ever military aid to Ukraine
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promises Ukraine the largest British aid package to date, the list includes, among other things: sixty different light military watercraft, more than 1,600 strike and anti-aircraft missiles, long-range precision guided missiles, more than four hundred land military vehicles and almost four million rounds of ammunition then – writes the Guardian.
Sunak said on Monday that he believes Vladimir Putin will not stop at the Polish border if Russia wins the war. The Prime Minister will visit Poland on Tuesday, where he will discuss European security and the Russian threat with Polish President Donald Tusk and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Together with the current package, Great Britain is giving Ukraine 3 billion pounds (1,375 billion forints) in military aid in the current fiscal year.
“Ukraine’s armed forces continue to fight bravely, but they need our support – and they need it now. The package will help Ukraine have what it needs to take on Russia,” the Prime Minister said. The British government has provided almost £12 billion worth of military, humanitarian and economic aid to Ukraine since the start of the war. The announcement was made after the US House of Representatives, after several months of delay, finally approved its military aid package for Ukraine, which will help the fight against the Russian invasion with an amount of 61 billion dollars.
Intense strikes in the Kharkiv area
Meanwhile, fighting continues on the battlefield: Russia may try to persuade the Ukrainians to leave Kharkiv before a possible offensive, reports Sky News citing analysts. Back in March, Russian state television propagandist Vladimir Solovyov said forces should destroy the city of Kharkiv “quarter by quarter” and suggested giving Ukrainian civilians 48 hours to leave the city. Reports from a Russian publication have now confirmed this, citing unnamed military sources as saying that a Russian offensive operation is inevitable and that the situation in the city of Kharkiv will be “worse than in Bakhmut and Avdiivka”.
The partially destroyed TV tower – Photo: Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy / Reuters
Moscow has recently stepped up its attacks as Ukraine struggles with its air defenses. Kharkiv and its surroundings were the victims of intense strikes on Monday, with the city’s 240-meter-tall TV tower breaking in two and falling to the ground in what local officials said was a Russian missile attack. And early Tuesday, nine people were injured in the Black Sea port of Odessa after a Russian drone attack, Ukrainian military officials said. Four of the injured were infants and children, and they were taken to hospital.
MTI reports that Russian forces dropped a guided aerial bomb on the town of Kostyantinyivka in Donetsk county on Tuesday morning, as a result of which five local residents were injured, Vadim Filaskin, the governor of the region and the county prosecutor’s office, said on social media. The driver of one car and four passengers were injured. The victims were diagnosed with multiple shrapnel wounds, two are in serious condition. In addition, facades of residential buildings, cars and wires were damaged.
Filaskin also reported on Telegram that two civilians had lost their lives in the vicinity of Pokrovsk as a result of Russian attacks. In the southern Kherson county, Russian drones dropped explosives on the town of Berislav, where, according to the county governor’s office, a 63-year-old man was injured. Oleksandr Prokugyin, the governor of the county, also wrote on Telegram that in the past 24 hours, Russian troops shelled the Kherson region several times, and as a result of the enemy strikes, two people were killed and six others were wounded.
Ukrainian losses, according to the Russians
“Since the start of the special operation, the losses of the Ukrainian armed forces have totaled almost half a million soldiers,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a ministerial meeting on Tuesday. He predicted an increase in the intensity of strikes against logistics centers on Ukrainian territory and storage bases storing Western weapons, as well as the fact that the Russian side will achieve its goals.
He recalled that the Russian army had “liberated” the settlements of Pervomayshke, Bohdanivka and Novomihajlivka in the Donetsk region in recent days, and said that the “extension of the control zone” in Berdychi and Heorhijivka was underway, while continuous Russian fire prevented the Ukrainian side from in maintaining the defense line, writes MTI
