We begin again tonight with Mariupol: Serhiy Volyna, 36th Separate Marine Brigade commander, tells me what could save his troops trapped in Mariupol's Azovstal is a "special military operation right now" with air support and heavy artillery that "in one sharp and deep blow" could allow for Ukrainian reinforcements. https://t.co/EDJkQnSwpp — Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) April …
Ukrainians!
All our defenders!
The 55th day of our defense against Russia’s full-scale aggression is coming to an end. At present, virtually the entire combat-ready part of the invaders’ army is concentrated on the territory of our state and in the border areas of Russia. They drove against Ukraine almost everyone and almost everything that can fight us.
Therefore, in this confrontation, in this defense, before the eyes of the whole world, we are really opposing the army, which was considered the second or third in power. And the way our Armed Forces are holding on, the way our entire nation is boldly defending itself shows that the Ukrainian army has long deserved to be higher than the Russian one in global rankings.
If we had access to all the weapons we need, which our partners have and which are comparable to the weapons used by the Russian Federation, we would have already ended this war. We would have already restored peace and liberated our territory from the occupiers. Because the superiority of the Ukrainian military in tactics and wisdom is quite obvious.
That is why I emphasize the simple truth in literally every contact with the leaders of the democratic world, in all negotiations, in all interviews – it is unfair that Ukraine is still forced to ask for what its partners have been storing somewhere for years. If they have the weapons that Ukraine needs here, needs now, if they have the ammunition that we need here and now, it is their moral duty first of all to help protect freedom. Help save the lives of thousands of Ukrainians.
If we had received what we are getting now in the first week of the war, the benefit for Ukraine and for freedom in Europe would be greater, I am sure. And if we get what some partners plan to hand over to Ukraine in the coming weeks right now, it will save the lives of thousands of people.
I hope that the partners will hear this thesis and understand that every day matters. Any delay in helping Ukraine gives the occupiers an opportunity to kill more Ukrainians.
The intensity of fire by Russian troops in the Kharkiv direction, in Donbas and in the Dnipropetrovsk region has increased significantly. They still consider ordinary housing infrastructure normal targets for them. In this war, the Russian army will forever inscribe itself in world history as perhaps the most barbaric and inhuman army in the world.
Purposefully killing civilians, destroying residential neighborhoods, civilian infrastructure, using all kinds of weapons for this, including those prohibited by international conventions, is the signature of the Russian army. And this is vileness, which will mark the Russian state as a source of absolute evil for generations.
And when a special tribunal is set up to convict all those guilty of war crimes, a Russian passport will mean only one thing in any country: unequivocal condemnation from all decent people, unequivocal unwillingness to cooperate.
The situation in Mariupol remains unchanged – as severe as possible. The Russian army is blocking any efforts to organize humanitarian corridors and save our people. The occupiers are trying to carry out deportation or even mobilization of the local residents who have fallen into their hands. The fate of at least tens of thousands of Mariupol residents who were previously relocated to Russian-controlled territory is unknown.
Unfortunately, we do not hear a response from Russia to the exchange offer, which could save the civilians and defenders of Mariupol. And this silence should be noted by all who have been or may be associated with Russia. When your fate is decided, Moscow will be silent. This is illustrative. And this is the best argument not to have contacts with the Russian Federation.
In the south of our country, the occupiers are trying to demonstrate at least something that can be presented in Russia as the alleged readiness of Ukrainians to cooperate with Russian structures. It looks pathetic. After 55 days of war, the occupiers didn’t manage to attract anyone to their side except for some outcasts.
The situation is quite clear – Ukrainians in all regions of our state support Ukrainian national unity. They support our national statehood.
And I am grateful to all the residents of the temporarily occupied cities, temporarily occupied communities – Kherson, Kakhovka, Melitopol and all our other communities – for this clear position. No cooperation with the occupiers. No support for the collaborators. The more principled we are, the more principled you will be, the sooner normal life will return.
I held a meeting with representatives of the Verkhovna Rada today. We discussed the plan of parliamentary work, agreed on important draft decisions for the state, which need to be adopted in the near future.
In particular, the deputies were offered to support the technical decision to extend the martial law. This is necessary for the legal support of the defense of our state and the stable operation of all structures.
We also discussed a bill on the procedure for deploying the capacities of the enterprises that were evacuated from the combat zone. A bill with amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, which are necessary for cooperation with the International Criminal Court. A bill on the legal regime in the temporarily occupied territories.
The conversation was substantive, and I hope that the deputies will work out these bills soon enough.
I spoke today with Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte. Informed him about the current situation in the areas of hostilities and especially in Donbas. Expressed gratitude for the strong support for Ukraine. We coordinated the next steps needed to protect our state and freedom in Europe. Agreed to increase the supply of heavy weapons, including armored vehicles.
I also spoke with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In particular, on the defensive, financial and humanitarian needs of Ukraine. We are accelerating procedures so that Ukraine can move forward in European integration as fast as possible. Now, during the war, this movement and its speed are also elements of protection of our state, preservation of freedom for our people.
More and more global companies are announcing the shutdown in Russia. Today, the German company Henkel has joined hundreds of other such large companies.
I want to emphasize that this is inevitable: any normal business will have to make such a decision and leave Russia. Now the Russian state is at a level where any association with it and any support for it means complicity in mass killings. Complicity in what will be called crimes against humanity and genocide.
Before delivering this address, I signed the traditional decree on awarding our defenders. 286 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were awarded state awards. 229 of them are servicemen of the 36th separate brigade of marines, which together with other units heroically defends Mariupol. Maximum gratitude from all the Ukrainian people to the 36th brigade, Azov, the 12th brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, border guards, Right Sector volunteers, the 555th military hospital, police officers and territorial defense.
Eternal glory to everyone who stood up for Mariupol, our entire state and the people of Ukraine!
Eternal memory to everyone who died for Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!
Here’s the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s operational update for today (emphasis mine):
The operational update regarding the russian invasion on 18.00 on April 19, 2022
The fifty-fifth day of the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people to a russian military invasion continues. A russian federation continues its full-scale armed aggression against Ukraine.
The russian occupiers continue to launch missile and bomb strikes on civilian and military infrastructure throughout Ukraine.
In the Volyn, Polissya and Siversky directions, the russian enemy did not take active action. The movement of damaged equipment of the military units of the Eastern Military District continues by rail from the territory of the Republic of Belarus to the russian federation. The Armed Forces of the russian federation continue to use the airfield network on the territory of the republic of belarus in order to launch air strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
In the Slobozhansky direction the partial blockade by the russian enemy of the city of Kharkiv proceeds. The russian occupiers are trying to fire on Ukrainian troops and critical infrastructure. Enemy from units from russia attempted an offensive and stormed south of Izyum. They were unsuccessful, suffered losses and were forced to retreat to their former positions.
In the Donetsk direction, near the town of Marinka, as a result of a counteroffensive by Ukrainian troops, the russian enemy suffered losses and retreated. Units of the Defence Forces of Ukraine regained control of the settlement.
Fighting continues in the area of Oleksandrivka in the South Buh area, where russian enemy is unsuccessful. russian enemy tries to reach the administrative border of the Kherson oblast and it does not stop shelling settlements.
The russian enemy continues to suffer significant personnel losses. In order to solve the problem of recruiting units under contract, the leadership of the Armed Forces of the russian federation decided to sign short-term contracts for three months and simplify the form of psychophysical selection of future candidates. These measures did not lead to the desired effect.
According to available information, since the beginning of the 2022 year, only 130 contract servicemen have been selected to serve in 42 units of the Southern Military District. 22 of them have already refused to participate in the so-called “special operation” in Ukraine.
Units of russian armed forces directly involved in armed aggression on the territory of Ukraine have a special need for staffing.
According to the available information, the personnel of two battalion tactical groups were destroyed in the 200th separate motorized infantry brigade of the 14th Army Corps of the Coastal Forces of the Northern Fleet.
In addition, three companies of the 51st Parachute Regiment and the Company of the 137th Parachute Regiment, which are part of the 106th Parachute Division, were destroyed on the territory of Ukraine.
We believe in the Armed Forces of Ukraine! Let’s win together!
Glory to Ukraine!
As you can see in the second paragraph I highlighted, Ukrainian forces have liberated Marinka.
Here’s today’s assessment from the British MOD:
And here’s their updated map for today:
Not much change since yesterday.
Here’s today’s background briefing from the DOD. I’m copying and pasting the first half, which involved an official from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency who was briefing on the process of supplying Ukraine.
SENIOR DEFENSE OFFICIAL #1: Okay, good morning, everybody. (inaudible) here. We’ll — we’ll — we’ll start today’s backgrounder.
And the — the way I want to start it today is with a — a special guest. I’ve got (inaudible) with me, (inaudible), and I’ve asked (inaudible) to talk to you on background as Senior Defense Official #2. I’ve asked him to just walk you through a little bit of process on how the security assistance is being provided and the — the — the way we do that.
(inaudible) not going to be able to talk about individual platforms or weapon systems or — as you well know, we do not and have — have tried to stay away from providing a specific inventory list on — on everything that’s being provided and — and on — and on what shipments. You guys know we’re being very careful about that. But I did think that because we’ve done so much that a — a — a broader sort of deeper dive into the actual process would be useful for you, since some of your questions get at that process, and I’m not an expert on it.
So I’m going to ask our — our — our second senior defense official here to have a — a — a couple of comments at the top, and then — and then we’ll go through and — and — and take questions.
Now, I know you didn’t know (inaudible) was going to join me, so when you said you wanted to ask a question on our little sign-up sheet, I recognize not all of you may have a question for (inaudible). I’ll just go through one by one. We’ll see if you do. If you don’t, that’s perfectly fine. Once we’ve exhausted the — the — the Q&A with — with our second senior defense official, we’ll excuse him and then — and then I’ll — I’ll get — I’ll — I’ll come back on and we’ll go through the normal operational update that we’ve been doing every day.
So with that, our Senior Defense Official #2, I’m going to turn it over to you, sir.
SENIOR DEFENSE OFFICIAL #2: All right. Good morning. Thanks for inviting me to participate in this on-background session with the media.
You know, the current crisis in Ukraine really has demonstrated the important role that the Defense Security Cooperation Agency plays in executing U.S. foreign policy. DSCA’s mission is wide-ranging. We do defense trade and arms transfers, institutional capacity building, international military training and education, humanitarian assistance and development of our security cooperation workforce. And since 1971, when DSCA was founded, it’s relied upon its partnership with the State Department to lead U.S. security cooperation in order to help solve complex U.S. defense and foreign policy challenges.
The crisis we’re in right now is one of those challenges, and security cooperation has enabled a strong U.S.-European defense and security relationship, and suitably prepared Ukraine to face Russia in this premeditated, unprovoked and brutal invasion. And since the beginning of the invasion, DSCA has executed $2.3 billion in presidential drawdowns so far, and $300 million under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative as of April 1st, 2022.
This is a time of higher OPSTEMPO and faster movement than we’ve really ever done in our history, and it really brings a couple of important takeaways about our mission. One is the important role that security cooperation plays in military crises and in crises in general. Together with our colleagues in the interagency, the Joint Staff, U.S. European Command and State Department, we’ve been working around the clock. Our teams are working essentially 24/7, and security cooperation really is the focal point of where we are in our work on this crisis at the moment. And then I would say that it also has really shown the importance of the broad network of experts that we have from across the interagency and within the Defense Industrial Base. And finally, that we’ve worked strongly and closely with allies, and that the NATO alliance really has — has stood up strongly on this, and we have been working to coordinate assistance with those allies.
So I was asked to talk a little bit about the process, and so what I thought I’d do is just walk you quickly through how a presidential drawdown would work. First, working together with the Ukrainians and with the U.S. European Command, a list of requirements is developed. That is done through military judgment by European Command, and then run by our folks who do policy here in the Pentagon. We then at DSCA turn that around to the military departments for them to tell us if they have the availability within stocks — because these presidential drawdowns are from current DOD stock — whether they have the availability of that equipment, what the pricing of it is in order to fit within the resources or the — the limitations on the drawdown, and they will also tell us what the readiness impacts are of drawing down that equipment from U.S. stocks.
We’ll build a package which meets the target that is met, or that has been stated by the leadership, and we forward that around for coordination. The readiness impacts are assessed. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff provides a recommendation as well and makes his military judgment and assessment of the readiness aspects. And then a memo goes through the Secretary of Defense to approve the drawdown plan. At that point, the President will actually direct the drawdown. The Secretary of State signs a memo directing DOD to execute, and then the Defense Security Cooperation Agency actually puts out the execute order. That whole process has been known in the last several months to be possible to do in as few as 24 — or 48 to 72 hours, which is unprecedented.
The moment that the execute order starts is when we start pulling equipment out of stocks, preparing it for transport and movement to Europe and transfer to the Ukrainians. All of that happens as quickly as possible, often in a matter of days, depending upon the individual equipment. And then EUCOM will work on coordinating the in-theater logistics to make sure that the — the transfers are completed as efficiently as possible, and also to coordinate with other donors who may also be providing equipment.
I was also asked to say a little bit about the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, USAI. This year, there was about $300 million for that authorized for DOD. We have notified Congress of how we intend to use that money, and that is generally done through contracting for new procurement, so the timelines can be a little longer on providing that. And then the other source of funding for Ukraine security assistance is foreign military financing, which is under the authority of the State Department, and is also used for — generally, for new procurement, although it could also buy things out of DOD stocks.
Again, often will be for longer-term requirements. And we need to remember that as we work at this, it’s not just the tomorrow situation that we’re looking at as we do security assistance for Ukraine, but we need to have a longer-term process. And so that’s why we’re using some of these contracting authorities.
But I’ll leave it there as a description of the process and happy to take any questions.
SENIOR DEFENSE OFFICIAL #1: Thank you, sir.
The regular day 55 update and the Q&A are at the link!
German Chancellor Scholtz is still dragging his feet:
Apparently, France was trying to persuade several EU countries (read Germany) to include an embargo on Russian oil into the sixth round of sanctions.
French Economy Minister says they didn’t agree.
— Oleksiy Sorokin (@mrsorokaa) April 19, 2022
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says the country's military has nothing more to offer Ukraine but is working with the arms industry to deliver weapons to Kyiv. https://t.co/shxGz6SS3j pic.twitter.com/rBbaNkRnoH
— DW News (@dwnews) April 19, 2022
Scholz’s bizarre announcement has not played well except with the extreme right and extreme left parties in Germany.
Comparatively the Germans are doing very little:
??? pic.twitter.com/6W86xQTOND
— toomas hendrik ilves (@IlvesToomas) April 19, 2022
The Netherlands, however, have stepped up:
⚡️Netherlands to send heavy weapons, including armored vehicles, to Ukraine.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on April 19 that he had called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and announced the arms supplies “as Russia begins a renewed offensive.”
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 19, 2022
As have the Czechs:
NEW: Ukrainian military vehicles (like tanks, APCs) will be serviced and repaired in the Czech Republic, Czech Defense Minister @jana_cernochova just announced.
Unlike Germany, we provide Ukraine with heavy weapons and we help Ukraine repair here whatever they need. pic.twitter.com/3ceDe38eL4
— Jakub Janda 楊雅嚳 (@_JakubJanda) April 19, 2022
Let’s leave it there for tonight.
We’ll finish with your semi-daily Chef Jose Andres:
Hello from the town of Shybene where the @WCKitchen team is delivering bags of food at this central distribution for residents! Irina found us in Borodyanka and made sure we would come back here…This is what we do every day in 2,000 places across Ukraine! #ChefsForUkraine ?? pic.twitter.com/Lmd6tZ2G19
— José Andrés (@chefjoseandres) April 19, 2022
They are back up and running in Kharkiv!
Good news from Kharkiv! @natemook is with Vera and the Yaposhka team at a new kitchen location following the missile strike. All of the restaurant staff came back to help prepare meals—and the 3 injured team members have been released from the hospital! #ChefsForUkraine ?? pic.twitter.com/FsrzoKzSQb
— World Central Kitchen (@WCKitchen) April 19, 2022
Open thread!