Amid ongoing fighting, Ukrainian personnel have killed two additional Russian generals, according to authorities in Ukraine. Personally identifying information for the generals wasn’t immediately available, but Ukrainian officials had specific details for the nature of the strike that apparently took them out. According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry — in other words, a component of Ukraine’s military intelligence apparatus: “On April 22, 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine landed a devastating blow on the forward command operations center of the 49th Combined Arms Army of the Russian occupation forces, which, in defiance of combat instructions and common sense, was located a short distance from the combat line in Kherson Region.” That command center was destroyed, and besides the two dead Russian generals, a third was left seriously wounded.
⚡️ Ukraine's General Staff says Russia prepares offensive towards Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk Oblast.
Russian troops are also trying to seize Rubizhne and Popasna in the same region, the General Staff said on April 23.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 23, 2022
Ukraine’s “military intelligence continues to seek the important targets to inflict maximum damage to the occupiers on our Ukrainian land,” that Ukrainian intel authority added. Throughout the war that Russia’s Vladimir Putin began in February, Ukrainian forces have scored high-profile strategic successes over Putin’s soldiers, ranging from the Ukrainian defense stopping Russians from seizing Kyiv to the recent sinking of the Russian warship known as the Moskva after Ukrainians struck it. Predictably, Russian authorities disputed the Ukrainian account of what happened to the Moskva — which is named after the Russian capital — but officials in the U.S. backed up the Ukrainian story. As recapped by journalist Idrees Ali, the “U.S. now believes the Russian warship Moskva that sunk was hit by two Ukrainian Neptune missiles, a senior U.S. official says.” The vessel was the largest Russian ship to be sunk in action since World War II, marking yet another setback for Putin and his military forces. Thousands upon thousands of individual Russian troops have apparently been killed amid fighting in Ukraine.
⚡️ Zelensky: Ukraine will pull out of peace talks if Russia kills Ukrainian troops in Mariupol.
Ukraine will also halt the talks if Russia holds pseudo-referendums in occupied territories, he said on April 23.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 23, 2022
As for the progression of the conflict in Ukraine, Putin recently made a show of ordering Russian forces to turn towards blockading instead of seizing the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, where hundreds of civilians and military personnel have been sheltering amid the relentless Russian attacks that are believed to have killed tens of thousands. However, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said on Saturday that Russians “resumed air strikes on the territory of the plant, on the defense lines of our troops and are attempting to carry out assault operations.” Meanwhile back in Russia, at least five enlistment offices for the Russian military have been set on fire since the war in Ukraine began. In one of the latest such incidents, “Molotov cocktails destroyed several computers and a database of conscripts in the Zubova Polyana settlement,” a report explains. Enlistment offices have also been hit with Molotov cocktails in the Voronezh, Sverdlovsk, and Ivanovo regions, and The Moscow Times adds that in the latter two areas individuals taken into custody in relation to the incidents “said they sought to disrupt the recruitment campaign in protest of Russia’s war in Ukraine.”
⚡️ Governor: 3 civilians killed in Chuhuyev and Derhachi, Kharkiv Oblast.
Six people were injured in the region as a result of Russian shelling on April 23, Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Synehubov said.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 23, 2022
