War in Ukraine / April 24

The Molfar team sends a daily newsletter about the war in Ukraine. The editorial staff of AIN.Capital publishes the full version of the digest. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.

Putin has no plans to end the war

Several different sources say that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not ready to end the war right now. The mood of Putin, who until recently really thought about peace, has changed: his desire now is to seize as much of Ukraine’s land as possible. The goal is to become a “winner”.

Despite the defeats in Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, Putin is confident that he will be able to succeed in southern Ukraine and create a full-fledged land corridor at least to Crimea. This goal was formed after assessing the mood of the Russian population: they are waiting for victory, and if there is no victory – it could cause a sharp loss of ratings of the President of Russia.

Another reason for the sharp change in priorities is the sunken cruiser Moscow. This is Russia’s biggest and most expensive loss in this war, which is impossible to hide: no one will see the loss of several hundred tanks or a dozen planes, but the sunken flagship of the Black Sea Fleet is a disaster. After the news of the loss of the cruiser, Putin was very angry and said he needed a big victory at any cost.

According to unconfirmed information, Putin set the task for the commanders to take Odessa and create a land border all the way to Transnistria, completely cutting off Ukraine from the Black Sea. Mariupol, which has been in power for two months, cannot be considered a victory for Putin. Insiders warn that in the absence of real results, the Russian army could resort to terror and further shelling of Ukrainian cities with missiles and air bombs.

All this explains the reasons why the media have not been reporting on the progress of negotiations and diplomatic achievements for a long time. In addition, time shows that sanctions do not affect Russia as much as experts predicted. Due to high energy prices, the Russian budget will be in surplus in 2022. In addition, as we see from the statements of French presidential candidate Marie Le Pen, as well as elites from Austria and France: it is more important for them to maintain peaceful relations with Russia, because as soon as the war stops, business can quickly return to Russia.

For Ukraine, every day of the war is a huge economic loss, the country needs $ 5-7 billion a month in aid from European partners.

Airstrike, missile and MRL damage

Luhansk region:

• Russian forces deployed a self-propelled demining rocket launcher UR-77 “Meteorit”. Residential houses and public buildings were destroyed.
• […]

Kharkiv region:

• Shelling of the towns. In Chuhuiv, residential houses were damaged and destroyed, the 59 y.o. man was killed, another 6 people were wounded, including a 11 y.o. child. In Malynivka another 5 people were injured.
• Populated areas were shelled, 2 residential buildings were destroyed in Kalynove, 4 more buildings were damaged, a 60 y.o. woman died. Another person was wounded in Zolochiv.
• […]

Donetsk region:

• Russian troops carried out strikes using banned cluster munitions.
• Russian shelling of the town. At the Avdiivka coking plant, the coke shop floor battery, the TPP and the by-product recovery plant were damaged. The information on the other damage to be clarified.
• As a result of the Russian shelling, the house at the Myru street, where the children had lived, was destroyed. 2 girls, of 5 and 14 years old, were killed, another person was wounded.
• […]

Poltava region:

• Thermal power plants and refineries were hit, 9 missiles were fired in total – 5 during the first strike, 4 more – after ~ 1 hour. Buildings were destroyed, fires broke out, the supply of hot water was disrupted. Another 7 people were injured, one of them is in intensive care.
• […]

Mykolaiv region:

• 2 cars blew up on mines as 2 families were evacuating from Kherson. One of the mothers died instantly, the volunteer escorting the families reported missing. 
• […]

Dnipropetrovsk region:

• There was a shelling of the territory of Novolativka, Shyroke and Lozuvatka communities. In the Novolativka community shells hit, incl. to the outskirts of the village, in Lozuvatka – to the territory of the village of Inhulets.
• […]

Zaporizhzhya region:

• Russian troops attacked Hulyaipole, Huliaipilske, Novodanylivka, Kamyanske, Hryhorivka, Novoivanivka, Mala Tokmachka, Malynivka, Pavlivka, Mali Shcherbaky, Chervone, Olhivske, Temyrivka, Zaliznychne, Orikhiv, Poltavka and Novoandriivka. In Vasylivka, starting from ~10:00 am, Russian troops carried out provocative shelling of places where the consecration of the apiaries was planned. In Orlyanske, a local woman was raped by Russian soldiers.
• […]

New laws

Ukraine:

• [Sanctions] The head of the State Agency for Tourism Development, Mariana Oleskiv, advocates for a legal ban on Ukrainian tour operators from operating in the Russian Federation and Belarus.
• [War] Decree on awarding D. Chayuk the title of Hero of Ukraine.
• […]

Russia:

• [Censorship] The central bank has limited the amount of financial information that local banks must publish regularly while it works on a bill to prevent creditors from sharing data with foreign countries. Local lenders will not be required to publish certain financial statements for the period from December 31, 2021 to October 1, 2022.
• […]

This was the free part of the military brief

Read the full text + all archives in the paid version. 

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In a paid version:

• Airstrike, missile and MLRS damage
• Civilian casualties
• Video of russian prisoners
• New laws
• Occupant’s casualties (est. from Ukrainian General Staff)
• War crimes in a de-ocupied territories
• Alternative loss estimates
• Data archive.
• Analytical charts: occupant losses, chart with known air raid alerts by region and known damage, diagram of known airstrike, missile and MRL damage and known child deaths, diagram of known damage for Ukrainian infrastructure, diagram of average duration of the air alerts in the regions.