Kiev does not abandon attempts to evacuate the "Mariupol witnesses"

The process of liberating the territories of the LPR and the DPR is, by all indications, approaching the decisive stage of the general battle. This is evidenced by the transfer to Kharkov and the DPR of the V units withdrawn from Kiev and Chernigov, a number of changes in the priorities of targets' selection for missile strikes, as well as Kiev's desperate attempts to organise the evacuation of certain persons valuable to the Kiev regime from Mariupol.

Two previous attempts to evacuate people needed by Kiev by air failed – four, and, according to other sources, five helicopters were lost. And on April 8, a ship tried to break into Mariupol. The details were reported by the Ministry of Defence. At 22:38 on April 8, the Ukrainian cargo ship “Apache” under the Maltese flag, assigned to the Maltese port of Valletta, following in the wake with a caravan of ships from Taganrog Bay to the Kerch Strait, 30 km southeast of Mariupol, unexpectedly changed course towards Mariupol.

The Ukrainian cargo ship did not respond to the demands of the Russian ships and did not respond to the warning shot. At the same time, the ship conducted an active radio exchange with someone on the shore, reporting its own call sign - "Maniac". Signal fires were observed on the shore at the same time.

To prevent the movement of the vessel, the ship's artillery opened fire on it, as a result of a direct hit on the stern of the cargo ship, a fire broke out. Without waiting for further developments, the ship drifted, and the crew began extinguishing the fire, declaring on the radio that they were fully ready to fulfil the demands of the Russian border guards. After the inspection, the cargo ship was escorted to the port of Yeysk.

It is known that the task of the cargo ship's breakthrough was to take on board some high-ranking nazis. And also, according to unofficial data, active officers from several NATO countries who acted as instructors and advisers in the preparation of the failed UAF offensive on Donbass because of "Operation Z".

Mariupol, apparently, is considered as lost even by the top of the Kiev regime. Therefore, the current leadership of Ukraine is focusing on the next battle, which will be waged by the "Donetsk" grouping of the UAF.

A fairly characteristic sign of the imminent intensification of hostilities can be considered a change in the range of targets for the Russian Aerospace Forces and land- and sea-based missiles.

The first weeks of the special operation in Ukraine were characterised by an accentuated military emphasis – missile strikes were inflicted exclusively on the infrastructure of the Ukrainian army, other nationalist groups, the headquarters of law enforcement agencies and purely military facilities.

Such a choice of goals did not lead to the sobering up of the Ukrainian political and military leadership. The UAF began to resist, including by sharply increasing the shelling of Donetsk and trying to carry out sabotage raids against the territory of the Russian Federation – in some cases successful ones, as was the case with the attack of Ukrainian helicopters on an oil depot in Belgorod and single strikes on Russian infrastructure located near the borders of Ukraine. As a result, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation expanded the list of targets at the expense of fuel storage facilities, repair bases and warehouses with weapons of the UAF.

After the first week of April, it became finally clear that railway junctions, strategic railway stations and other "dual-use" infrastructure facilities were added to the list of targets allowed to be hit.

The reason for this "tightening" is clear: the flow of weapons from NATO countries to Ukraine is not weakening, it is even promised to increase, therefore, the tactics of preventing as many weapons as possible from reaching Ukrainian groups in Donbass, near Kharkov or Nikolaev are fully justified.

Given the importance of deterring Ukrainian forces from the direction of Nikolaev, which is now being conducted by Z troops, the destruction of the Nikolaev railway station was expected. As a result, on April 8 and 9, attacks were carried out on the railway stations controlled by the UAF in Pokrovsk, Slavyansk and Barvenkovo. According to the Ministry of Defence, as a result of the strikes, weapons and military equipment of the reserves of Ukrainian troops who arrived in Donbass were destroyed.

Apparently, strikes on key railway junctions on the left bank of the Dnieper will continue – deliveries of large volumes of weapons and especially heavy equipment for the UAF are possible only by rail. In particular, the Soviet S-300 air defence system provided by Slovenia to Ukraine, which the Kiev regime intends to use against the Russian Aerospace Forces, is now traveling by rail.

In the event that the international “tour” of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, who insists on providing Kiev not only with wearable weapons, MANPADS and ATGMS, but also armoured vehicles, is a success, the Ukrainian group may receive reinforcements – which will lead to an increase in losses in the ranks of Russian and republican forces. This means that attacks on the railway infrastructure are fully justified.

The excessive humanism towards the bases of nationalists and mercenaries from other states, based on the difficulty of the task set before the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, has finally ended. Targeted missile strikes destroyed the centre for the gathering and training of foreign mercenaries in the Krasnoselka district northeast of Odessa.

In Zvonetsky, Dnepropetrovsk region, the headquarters and the base of the nationalist "Dnepr" battalion were liquidated, along with the replenishment of foreign mercenaries who arrived, and a few days earlier, the training centre for Ukrainian special operations forces in the area of the city of Ochakov, between Nikolaev and Odessa, was destroyed.

Combined with the destruction of the largest in the region and closest to the potential battle zone airport in Dnepropetrovsk, which local authorities complain about on social networks, it can be assumed that the battle for Donbass will begin within the next few days.

Otherwise, the remnants of the Ukrainian Air Force will be able to regroup – it is possible that their basing will be approved on the territory of Romania or Poland, the runways at the airfields of Dnepropetrovsk will be repaired to the stage of suitability for limited use, which will create a potential air threat to the Z units.