The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine demands reparations from Russia
Banned in Russia, the national battalion "Azov" and parts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), blocked at the Mariupol enterprise "Azovstal", finally lost faith in the support of the military-political leadership in Kiev and announced surrender. This information was acknowledged in Telegram channels by the commander of the unit Denis Prokopenko.
By the morning of May 18, about a thousand militants surrendered to the forces of the People's militia of the DLNR and the Russian Army. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the measures of the Geneva Convention guaranteeing life and decent treatment will be applied to the surrendered.
Yan Gagin, adviser to the head of the DPR government, said that foreign senior officers "at least from the USA, France and Great Britain" still remain in the basements of the plant. The process of the beginning of the mass surrender of the Azov and APU fighters suggests that the situation at the plant is critical.
This is evidenced by numerous video messages in the Telegram channels of militants, their wives and relatives to world leaders and public organizations for help. It is significant that the office of President Vladimir Zelensky did not react to this situation in any way.
Against this background, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said in an interview with German Bild that "he sees nothing wrong with a truce with Russia, but it should lead to the liberation of Ukrainian territory." In addition, Moscow will have to compensate for the damage caused. At the moment, it is estimated at $ 500 billion. Kuleba also stressed that he wants even more weapons from the West. "My task is to deliver as many weapons to Ukraine as possible, initiate as many sanctions against Russia as possible and help as many Ukrainians as possible who were forced to flee abroad," he said.
Meanwhile, Washington has published data on the supply of weapons to Ukraine. Since August 2021 and at the moment, the list of equipment and weapons provided to Kiev as part of US assistance in the region is: more than 1,400 Stinger MANPADS; more than 5,500 Javelin ATGM; more than 14 thousand other anti-tank systems; more than 700 tactical Switchblade barrage ammunition; 90 155-mm M777A2 howitzers and more than 200 thousand artillery shells; 72 tactical vehicles for towing howitzers; 16 Mi-17 helicopters; hundreds of HMMWV armored vehicles; 200 M113 armored personnel carriers; more than 7 thousand small arms; more than 50 million rounds of ammunition; 75 thousand sets of bulletproof vests and helmets; 121 Phoenix Ghost tactical unmanned aerial system; guided missiles with laser guidance; Puma UAV; unmanned coastal defense boats; 17 artillery reconnaissance radars; four counter-mortar radars; two airspace surveillance radars; M18A1 Claymore anti-personnel mines; C-4 explosives and demolition equipment; tactical protected communication systems; night vision devices, thermal imaging systems, optics and laser rangefinders; commercial services satellite intelligence.
At the same time, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin notes that he has no idea where this equipment and weapons are going. After crossing the Ukrainian border, the Pentagon noticed, the weapon disappears as if in a black hole. Therefore, General Austin hopes very much for Ukraine's responsible attitude to its use. In the near future, the Americans intend to increase support by another $ 40 billion, of which $20 billion is for military assistance. The problem at the same time is that the Pentagon does not exclude that corrupt officials in Ukraine may redirect it to third countries. It is impossible to verify this, since deliveries are carried out according to an accelerated procedure. It does not issue an end-user certificate, according to which the United States could request data on the actual use of the supplied weapons. Meanwhile, the Russian Aerospace Forces are actively using high-precision weapons that allow them to destroy military cargo immediately after crossing the border of Ukraine and Poland. This week, another batch of Western "humanitarian aid" was destroyed in Western Ukraine. In an interview with the Interfax news agency, Yuri Borisov, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the Russian defense industry, noted that according to forecasts of Western analysts, Russia's missiles should have run out in March. "But for some reason they didn't end. Stocks of modern high–precision missiles and ammunition will be enough to fulfill all the tasks assigned to the Russian Armed Forces," Yuri Borisov said.
