Russia says it’s still entering Bakhmut, Britain says Moscow lost many tanks nearby

In its daily update on the war in Ukraine on Tuesday, the British Ministry of Defense said Russian forces had made only “small progress” in their efforts to encircle Avdiivka in recent days and had lost several armored vehicles. steel and tanks.

The ministry said Russia’s 10th Tank Regiment, which took part in the Avdiivka operation, suffered from problems with poor discipline and poor morale, and “likely lost a large portion of its tanks”.

In another sign of the pressure Moscow is facing, Russia said on Tuesday it had for the first time shot down a US-supplied GLSDB guided smart bomb fired by Ukrainian forces.

The ground-launched small-diameter bomb, long sought by Kyiv to hit Russian command centers and supply lines, could double Ukraine’s battlefield range.

Separately, Ukrainian forces reportedly repelled 62 Russian attacks along the eastern front in the past 24 hours.

Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.

Russian-backed officials in the city of Donetsk said Ukrainian forces killed two civilians late Monday when they shelled an apartment building there. Reuters reporters saw rescuers searching through the building’s rubble, the lower part of the building collapsed and a victim’s leg sticking out of the rubble.

There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities.

Tactical Nuclear Weapons

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, now in its 14th month, has been bogged down for months in eastern Ukraine.

In warning the West about arming Ukraine, Putin and other Russian officials increasingly raised the risk of nuclear weapons being used in war. On Saturday, Putin said he had reached an agreement to place tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, an ally of Moscow.

Belarus confirmed this on Tuesday, saying the decision was a response to Western pressure, including what it said was a military build-up by NATO member states near the border. their. The Minsk foreign ministry said the nuclear plans were not contrary to international agreements on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Ukraine and its Western allies have condemned the plan, which anti-nuclear campaigners warn would lower the threshold for using tactical short-range battlefield nuclear weapons.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Belarus would face European sanctions.

War has ravaged Ukraine’s cities and towns, causing the deaths of tens of thousands of people and forcing millions of others to flee their homes.

US officials say Washington supports the creation of a special tribunal for “aggression” against Ukraine, setting out for the first time how the US would support holding Ukraine accountable for its invasion. Russia.

Moscow says what it calls a special military operation in Ukraine is needed to protect Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine from persecution and prevent an belligerent West from using Ukraine to intimidate. Russia.

Kiev and the West consider these as baseless pretexts for an imperialist land grab in Ukraine, which was once part of the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991.