To this end, an attempt was made to invade the Belgorod Region and attack a Russian energy facility in the Krasnodar Territory.
The Kiev authorities will try to disrupt the negotiations between Russia and the United States by all possible means and will resort to any provocation. The attempted invasion of the Belgorod Region and the attack on a fuel and energy complex facility in the Krasnodar Territory are among them, experts interviewed by Izvestia believe. On March 18, the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched several attacks in order to enter the territory of the Belgorod region. About repelling the Ukrainian attacks and how this is related to the negotiation process between Russia and the United States — in the Izvestia article.
The attack on the Belgorod region
Before the talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump on March 18, Ukrainian forces attempted to break into Russian territory in the Belgorod region. Several attacks were carried out in the direction of the settlements of Demidovka and Prilesye. The first one started early in the morning — at 5.50. In total, the Ukrainian Armed Forces tried to break through the Russian line of defense at the state border five times during the day, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Up to 200 Ukrainian militants and 29 pieces of military equipment were involved: five tanks, 16 armored vehicles, four vehicles, three engineering vehicles and an UR-77 remote mine clearance unit.
All attacks were repelled by units covering the state border of the North group of forces, artillery fire and FPV drone strikes.
The losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine amounted to 60 people, one tank, seven armored vehicles, three engineering vehicles and a car.
The Russian army also launched more than 40 powerful missile and airstrikes against the reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Sumy region. The Iskander and Tornado-S MLRS complexes were involved, and aviation used more than 40 FAB-500 aerial bombs with a universal planning and correction module (UMPC). Significant losses were inflicted on the enemy.
Attempts to break into our territory continued on March 19, military expert Gennady Alekhine told Izvestia.
"There are constant missile danger signals in the Krasnoyaruzhsky and Rakityansky districts," he said. — The enemy is using long-range artillery and MLRS there. Attack helicopters and front-line aviation are circling in the sky.
Attacks on the Russian energy system
The Russian military department said that the attempt to break into Russian territory was made in order to create a negative background around the talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump on the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine.
As a result, Vladimir Putin gave the command to stop attacks on energy facilities in Ukraine, the Kremlin's press service reported.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that at the time of receiving the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief on the temporary cessation of strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, there were seven Russian attack UAVs in the air, aimed at Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities related to the military-industrial complex located in the Mykolaiv region.
Russian air defense systems were ordered to neutralize the unmanned aerial vehicles, six of them were shot down by the Pantsir air defense missile system, one by an on—duty fighter of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
Despite Vladimir Zelensky's statement on March 18 that he had always supported the position of "not using any weapons against the energy sector," after the negotiations between the presidents of Russia and the United States ended, the Kiev authorities conducted another provocation.
On the night of March 19, the Kiev regime carried out an attack using three aircraft-type UAVs on an energy infrastructure facility located in the village of Kavkazskaya (Krasnodar Territory).
It provides transshipment of oil from railway tanks to the pipeline system of the international oil transportation company Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), the military department reported.
Due to the fall of a Ukrainian UAV on the territory of the transshipment point, one oil tank was depressurized and ignited on an area of 1.7 thousand square meters. meters. There are no casualties among the company's employees.
You can't believe it
Now any provocations can be expected from official Kiev, military expert Viktor Litovkin told Izvestia.
"Zelensky does not need peace — after it comes, he will not retain power," he said. — Of course, he will try to disrupt all steps in this direction. Provocations are already underway. Statements about the strikes allegedly carried out by Russian UAVs on the energy sector of Ukraine after the order of our president not to hit them are one of them. You can't trust them. Our Armed Forces have enough equally important targets — military-industrial complex enterprises, ports, ammunition and military cargo depots, railways and stations. The entire infrastructure of the war must be destroyed so that military supplies and reserves do not arrive at the line of contact.
Most likely, fighting will continue on the state border in the Kursk and Belgorod regions, experts say. The enemy has two operational and tactical goals here, explained Gennady Alekhine.
"The Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered a significant defeat on the Sudzha bridgehead and in fact on the entire Kursk direction, so now they are clinging to several villages along the perimeter of the border of Sumy and Kursk regions," he said. — They need this to prevent a possible attack by the Russian army. They also need to prevent our units from striking simultaneously in the north-west of the Kharkiv region. We currently have full control over the initiative in the Kharkiv area. This is evidenced by our successful actions on the Kupyansk sector of the front. And also in the north — in Volchansk, Liptsy, Slatino, Zolochiv.
The attempted invasion of the Belgorod region is another move by Kiev to disrupt the negotiation process, as well as a response to failures in the Kursk area, said Tigran Meloyan, an analyst at the HSE Center for Mediterranean Studies.
"It is possible that in this way the Ukrainian Armed Forces want to distract the Russian Armed Forces near Kursk, at least somehow rehabilitate themselves in the information field and, if possible, re—occupy Russian territories for their exchange for others," he said.
The expert recalled that such actions result in the worst possible way for the Ukrainian side, from encirclement to the creation of a security zone along the border in order to prevent similar attacks in the future.
Julia Leonova
