Victory Chronicles
-DAY 394

Above: How cool is Ukraine?  Meet the country’s new Minister of Strategic Industries.  The former leader of the super success story of Ukraine’s railway company Ukrzaliznytsya, Mr Kamyshin is tasked with building a competitive domestic military-industrial base.  Ukrainians hope that Mr Zamyshin represents a new generation of leaders who left behind the corrupt bad old days of the USSR.  (Cabinet of Ministers)

Above: A Nova Poshta branch in Vilnius, Lithuania.  Private logistics operator Nova Poshta has announced expansion into Europe with plans for 200 branches in 30 countries by 2025. One of the many miracles to come out of Ukraine during war is rapid development of logistic capabilities.  Ukraine has adapted to handling thousands of tons of goods per day across international borders and throughout its territory.  Nova Poshta is part of the logistics miracle with 8500 branch offices and 13,000 drop stations in Ukraine. (New Voice of Ukraine)

Above: The former Soviet bloc countries are taking two divergent paths in relationship to the Kremlin’s desperate despot. As regards the flow of sanctioned goods to Russia, the Financial Times reported that Kazakhstan is setting up an import-export monitoring system to, at least, document where re-exports are going. Data from Kazakhstan’s Bureau of National Statistics showed a 25 per cent year-on-year increase in exports to Russia For example, the number of washing machines exported to Russia from Kazakhstan rose from zero in 2021 to almost 100,000 in 2022. A tightrope-walking Kazakh official said, “We understand all the risks of secondary sanctions, so we closely monitor our mutual trade with all partners.” 

Meanwhile, Armenia seems to be buoyed by the economic windfall of the Russia-bound re-export market. A story in Ukranews points out that Interpol and the US Treasury Department have identified Armenia as one of the primary transshipment points through which sanctioned goods pass before going to Russia and Belarus. The tiny land-locked country, surrounded by “enemies” on all sides, strongly supports the Kremlin, on whom it is almost completely dependent for military assistance to fight with Azerbaijan. (Map: History)

Above: Slovakian MiG-29 in August 2022. Just days after Slovakia and Ukraine agreed on a transfer, four MiG-29 jets have been delivered to Ukraine. The Slovak Defense Ministry issued a statement on March 23 pledging a total of 13 jets. The Slovakian defense minister thanked Slovakian and Ukrainian personnel for a job well done. “Thank you to all involved for a fantastic professional job. Slovakia is on the right side, and with this gesture, we as a country have written ourselves in capital letters in modern world history, of timely assistance, sincere solidarity and the greatness of a nation.” 

Before a Brussels meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers , the president of Bulgaria objected to the delivery of Bulgarian-manufactured ammunition to Ukraine. Mr Radev told journalists that Bulgaria’s ammo production is intended only for EU members. Instead, he claimed, Bulgaria supports the “peace now” fantasy solution. 

Above: Ukraine’s National Agency for Prevention of Corruption declared Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International to be a sponsor of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine due to the fact that it officially recognized the independence of the so-called “Luhansk People’s Republic” and “Donetsk People’s Republic”. Raiffeisen also remains one of three European banks that continue to work in Russia. (Photo from Google Maps)

Above: UK Ministry of Defence

• In an interview with RBC news, a Ukrainian intelligence spokesperson gave a wide-ranging assessment of the invaders plans and capabilities.  Mr Skibitsky predicted that the invader has failed with its civilian missile terror campaign and may now use its rockets and missiles against military targets.  The so-called enemy spring offensive has also failed, but the Kremlin will continue to expend resources to take all of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Moscow’s military-industrial activity is centered on resurrection of old materiel from long-term storage because it lacks expertise and components for new manufacturing. Russian stockpiles are estimated to be enough to conduct war for another year, less if sanctions are strengthened.
• In order to recruit more foreigners and stateless persons into the Russian military, Putin signed a decree creating new military honors that Russia can award to non-Russian combat participants, either alive or posthumously, for bravery on the battlefield
• The Ukrainian Resistance Center reported on March 23 that the Kremlin seeks to recruit up to 2,000 mercenaries from the Belarusian GvardService private security company. GvardService was founded by Lukashenka in 2019 to enlist former special service forces for private security. The Resistance Center also claims that about 100 mercenaries from Angola arrived in Russia.
• Russia loses an estimated 150 tanks a month in Ukraine while Russia’s sole tank production factory, UralVagonZavod, produces 20 tanks a month. Even so, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev announced that Russia will manufacture 1,500 main battle tanks in the calendar year 2023.

General Staff’s Daily Video Digest with English subtitles

Above: Popular Mechanics

Ukrainian General Staff of the Armed Forces estimated enemy losses since February 24, 2022 (with daily additions)

• Liquidated personnel, 169,170 (+1020)
• Tanks, 3,574 (+4)
• Armored personnel vehicles, 6,921 (+23)
• Artillery systems/MLRS, 2,616/511 (+8/0)
• Anti-aircraft warfare systems, 276 (+3)
• Aircraft/helicopters, 305/290 (0)
• UAV operational-tactical level, 2,208 (+5)
• Cruise missiles, 911 (+2)
• Warships/boats, 18 (0)
• Vehicles and fuel tanks, 5,464 (+12)
• Special equipment, 277 (+4)

Above:  The enemy sent missiles into an Invincibility Center in Kostyantynivka on March 24. Recent refugees from Bakhmut were among the civilian casualties, including deaths. (General Prosecutor of Donetsk Oblast)

Glory to Ukraine!
The 394th  day of the Russian large-scale invasion has begun.

• During the day of March 23, the russian occupiers launched 37x air strikes, and 4x missile strikes, 1x of them targeted Kramatorsk. The enemy also launched 82x MLRS attacks.
• The likelihood of missile strikes across Ukraine remains quite high.
• The enemy fired mortars and artillery at the vicinities of more than 20x settlements. Among them are: Tymonovychi (Chernihiv oblast), Zaruts’ke, Popivka (Sumy oblast), Morozova Dolyna, Strilecha, Hlyboke, Krasne, Ternova, Starytsya, Zemlyanky, Kreidyanka, Vil’khuvatka, Shev’yakivka, Ambarne, and Bolohivka (Kharkiv oblast).
• Kup’yans’k and Lyman axes: the adversary fired artillery at the vicinities of Hryanykivka, Kup’yans’k, Krokhmal’ne, Tabaivka, Terny (Kharkiv oblast), Novoselivs’ke, Stel’makhivka, Makiivka, Nevs’ke, Pishchane, Bilohorivka (Luhansk oblast), Hryhorivka, Verkhn’okam’yans’ke, and Spirne (Donetsk oblast) during the day of March 23.
• Bakhmut axis: Adversary attacks were also repelled in the vicinities of settlements of Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Bohdanivka, and Predtechyne (Donetsk oblast). The enemy shelled Vasyukivka, Min’kivka, Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Hryhorivka, Bohdanivka, Bakhmut, Ivanivske, Predtechyne, Zalizne, Pivnichne, and New York (Donetsk oblast). In total, more than 15x settlements were affected by these criminal actions of the occupiers.
• Avdiivka, Maryinka, and Shakhtars’ke axes: the adversary conducted unsuccessful offensive operations towards the settlements of Novokalynove, Novobakhmutivka, Stepove, Avdiivka, Sjeverne, Pervomais’ke, Mar’inka, and Novomykhailivka (Donetsk oblast). In particular, Novokalynove, Novobakhmutivka, Stepove, Kam’yanka, Avdiivka, Netaylove, Lastochkyne, Krasnohorivka, Heorhiivka, Mar’inka, Vuhledar, Velyka Novosilka, Orlivka, Novomykhailivka, and Prechystivka (Donetsk oblast) came under numerous enemy attacks.
• Zaporizhzhia and Kherson axes: the adversary continues to defend. At the same time, it carried out intensive shelling, in particular, of Ol’hivs’ke, Malynivka, Chervone, Hulyaipole, Zaliznychne, Charivne, Bilohir’ya, Mala Tokmachka, Novodanylivka, Orikhove, Novoandriivka, Stepove, Kam’yans’ke (Zaporizhzhia oblast), Chervonyi Mayak, Beryslav, L’vove, Novotyahynka, Antonivka, and the city of Kherson (Kherson oblast).

Support the Armed Forces! United we will win! Glory to Ukraine!

Above:  Boarded up windows in Kharkiv. “Nice Burn” and “What Marvel? AFU!” (Zla Ukrainka) 

• Ukrainian forces have destroyed many pieces of new Russian equipment in the past several weeks as Russian forces use more conventional forces and armored vehicles in the Lyman and Kupyansk
• Russian forces conducted limited ground attacks northeast of Kupyansk and along the Svatove-Kreminna line on March 23. Russian forces conducted unsuccessful ground attacks near Synkivka (8km northeast of Kupyansk), Makiivka (22km northwest of Kreminna), Bilohorivka (10km south of Kreminna), and Verkhnokamianske (21km south of Kreminna).
• Russian forces continue to engineer terrain in Bryansk and Kursk, Russia, and conduct unspecified demonstrative actions in Belgorod Oblast in an attempt to prevent the transfer of Ukrainian forces to other areas of the frontline.

Above:  BBC reporters visited the Bakhmut trench lines 700 meters from the enemy. Twenty-two year old Dima’s career has taken a detour to the Bakhmut front.  He said his brigade has lost about 10 meters of ground after months of enemy frontal assaults. 

• Russian forces continued attacking Bakhmut and its environs on March 23. Ukrainian Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi stated that Wagner Group elements remain the main Russian force operating in the Bakhmut direction and that they have not yet lost their offensive capabilities. Syrskyi noted that while Wagner forces still have a numerical advantage on the frontline, Ukrainian forces continue to exhaust the mercenaries.
• Russian and Ukrainian forces made contact 35 times on the entire Bakhmut frontline, 29 of which occurred in the city or its immediate vicinity. Ukrainian forces repelled Russian assaults northwest of Bakhmut in Oleksandro-Shultyne and Bohdanivka; northeast of Bakhmut in Vasyukivka; and south of Bakhmut in Predtechyne.
• Russian forces continued to attack Ukrainian positions around Avdiivka on March 23. Russian forces launched unsuccessful assaults north of Avdiivka in Novokalynove, Stepove, Lastochkyne, and Berdychi; northwest of Avdiivka in Lastochkyne; west of Avdiivka in Sieverne, Vodyane, Nevelske, Pervomaiske; and Avdiivka itself.
• Russian forces continued conducting offensive operations west of Donetsk City but have not resumed offensives near Vuhledar as of March 23. Russian forces unsuccessfully attacked Marinka and Pobieda, 22km and 25km southwest of Donetsk City, and Russian sources echoed similar reports.
• Wagner Group forces are deporting Ukrainian civilians from Bakhmut to filtration centers in occupied Luhansk Oblast, where occupation authorities filter Ukrainian civilians into remote areas such as Perm Krai in the Far East of Russia.

Above:  Map via ISW

Above:  The occupiers looted the Oleksiy Shovkunenko Museum of Art in Kherson.  The museum reported that the Russian horde took 155 of Shovkunenko’s works from the museum, leaving only the one pictured, “Portrait of Wife”

🇺🇦Children that were kidnapped from Kherson were returned to #Ukraine. Translation from the interview of one of the kids pic.twitter.com/ucpsERipWz

— Sofia Ukraini (@SlavaUk30722777) March 23, 2023

"Greetings" sent from Kherson across the Dnipro to the occupied left bank, via @KharkivKherson pic.twitter.com/jIKL2qSQ5q

— English Luhansk (@loogunda) March 23, 2023

• Ukrainian forces continue to conduct raids over the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast and are continuing to strike Russian positions on the east bank of the river. Geolocated combat footage shows Russian forces striking Ukrainian forces operating in the southeast of  Velykyi Potemkin Island. Geolocated combat footage shows Ukrainian drones striking Russian positions near Vynrozsadnyk on the east bank of the Dnipro River.
• Occupation authorities claimed that Russian forces have tripled the number of personnel on the east bank of the Dnipro River in anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
• The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Rosatom may be working to restore three power lines at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, trying to integrate the lines into the grid system of invader-occupied territory.  IAEA personnel at the plant observed Russian workers training with experienced ZNPP staff in the main control room.