The armed formations of Ukraine are running out of equipment

On the 16th day of Russia's special military operation of denazification and demilitarisation of Ukraine, pieces of evidence appeared about the exhaustion of the material and technical resources of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and independent nationalist groups acting in the interests of the Kiev regime. Thus, a number of sources reported Kiev's intention to audit contracts for the supply of Ukrainian armoured vehicles to third countries, withdrawing the delivered ones back.

Significant amounts of military equipment, which was supplied by NATO countries to Ukraine, turned out to be captured by the forces of the DPR and LPR in the course of moving forward. In this regard, Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu appealed to President Vladimir Putin with a request for permission to transfer numerous trophies to strengthen the defence capability of the republics of Donbass. Among the named nomenclature, armoured vehicles, MANPADS, ATGMs and small arms were mentioned. The initiative was approved by the President.

A significant moment appears to be Vladimir Putin's approval of the initiative voiced by Sergey Shoigu on voluntary support for the operation to combat Ukrainian Nazism. Taking into account the fact that the citizens of Syria and even the Central African Republic declared their readiness to support the liberation of the Ukrainian people, the President of Russia proposed to pay serious attention to this request.

Also on the morning of March 11, new categorical refusals of NATO countries were made to the request of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to ensure the fight against Russian aviation in the skies of Ukraine. Representatives of the West once again stressed that a direct clash with Russia is not in their interests.

The exhaustion of the capabilities of the Ukrainian army is accelerating with the increasing intensity of the work of the Russian Aerospace Forces. In total, 3346 objects of the military infrastructure of Ukraine were put out of action during the operation, during the day three unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down in the air by aviation and air defence of the Russian Aerospace Forces, including two Bayraktar TB-2.

On March 11, a blow was struck at the objects of the military infrastructure of Ukraine with a high-precision long-range weapons (most likely, “Kalibr” missiles).  Military airfields in the Western Ukrainian Lutsk and Ivano-Frankovsk have been put out of action.

The situation in the key areas of the special military operation as a whole did not give serious deviations from the previously set vectors. In tightening the ring around Mariupol, which has already entered the city limits, the DPR troops have achieved serious tactical success – Volnovakha was taken, for which there were heavy battles.

Olginka, Bolshaya Anadol and Zeleny Gai were also taken under control, the advance in depth was up to 6 km. The units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation reached the Petrovskoye-Yevgenovka-Oktyabrskaya line, the advance was 17 km.

Ukrainian nationalists continue to use the peaceful population of Mariupol as a human shield. According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the Kiev authorities have forbidden the mayors of cities to have any contact with the Russian side, including for the organisation of humanitarian corridors, and dissenters are shot.

In particular, Roman Makos was found dead in Chernigov, allegedly agreeing to become a "pro-Russian" mayor of the city of Gorodnya in the Chernigov region. According to the official version of the Ukrainian media, he shot himself. In Kharkov, in the basement of the art school, militants hide the bodies of civilians killed in a punitive operation against those who did not support the Kiev regime.

The "scorched earth" policy continues in Ukrainian cities. In Kharkov, to conceal research on nuclear issues, territorial defence militants blew up one of the buildings of the Institute of Physics and Technology, and under the rubble, according to the Ministry of Defence, up to 50 employees may lie.

In the area of Zaporozhye, the Z units are moving further in the direction of Dnepropetrovsk. Control over Energodar and the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant remains, as well as over the situation at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, despite attempts by Ukrainian nationalists to destroy the substation providing the facility with energy.

The Russian military ensured the safety of the humanitarian convoy from Energodar to Zaporozhye (13 buses, 130 personal cars with 957 refugees), more than 62,000 refugees were evacuated from Sumy in the Poltava direction.

The advance of Russian units towards Nikopol continues, which will allow the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to take control of the key highway in this area Zaporozhye - Nikopol - Krivoy Rog.

Near Kharkov, Russian units were able to repel or stop the counterattacks of the UAF and continue to advance in the direction of Chuguev, with the aim of "closing" the semicircle in which the city finds itself now.

Fighting continues in the west and east of Kiev. The evacuation of residents of Bucha and Gostomel, which has begun, although it wasn't well organised, simplifies the advance of the V units to the south. Since Kiev is a significant fortified area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from a military and political point of view, we should expect increased activity in this direction in the near future.

The fighting in the districts of Severodonetsk-Lisichansk and Donetsk-Gorlovka continues in the outline of the past day - artillery duels without direct assaults. The Ukrainian Armed Forces continue the area attacks on Donetsk and other settlements, which are unintelligent from a military point of view.

Kherson remains under the control of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Nikolaev is surrounded. The assault on the city is not underway, the Z part is so far limited to blocking the city.

Taking into account the trends outlined over the past week, it can be concluded that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are betting on blocking cities, with a gradual outflow of the population from them and depletion of ammunition from the groups of the Ukrainian Armed Forces that have settled there.

It should be noted that there is a sharp increase in the likelihood that civilians will suffer during the fighting. President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky signed the law "On ensuring the participation of civilians in the protection of Ukraine". According to the document, all civilians, as well as persons without Ukrainian citizenship who are legally in the country, can receive firearms and ammunition for it.

"Civilians are not responsible for the use of firearms against persons carrying out armed aggression against Ukraine, if such weapons are used on the basis and in accordance with the procedure," the document signed by Zelensky says.

The uncontrolled distribution of weapons in Kiev, Nikolaev, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov and other cities, combined with the decree of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, which actually legalised for his citizens the killing of persons, "dangerous for Ukraine", will certainly negatively affect the humanitarian nature of the military actions in general.

Humanitarian corridors, which the Russian side insisted on opening, were launched in the very limited way. Among the 10 humanitarian corridors opened by Russia for evacuation from Kiev, Chernigov, Sumy, Kharkov and Mariupol, the Ukrainian side agreed only 2 corridors – on the Kiev and Mariupol directions and additionally announced 4 more - from Izyum, Energodar, Volnovakha and on the Zhytomyr direction. For humane purposes, this proposal was supported by Russia.

The Ukrainian authorities, the Ministry of Defence emphasises, continue to resist the opening of humanitarian corridors to Russia, claiming that there are no people willing to leave for Russia. In fact, 23,000 more people have expressed a desire to take refuge in Russia only in the last day, and there are already 2.6 million of them from almost 2,000 settlements.

As was emphasised in the briefing of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, “Igla” MANPADS were seized in the Kherson region. Ukrainian nationalists, hastily retreating from their positions, abandoned these systems in boxes along with other weapons and ammunition.

The Kiev regime, by uncontrollably distributing MANPADS received from the West, creates a long-term threat of terrorist attacks on civilian aircraft, the Russian Defence Ministry reports.

Russian servicemen will continue to search for and seize MANPADS abandoned by nationalists in order to prevent the deadly weapons from reaching terrorists and their subsequent export outside Ukraine.