After taking off in Crimea, a Russian Su-25 fighter plane crashed into a massive conflagration, adding to the enormous losses incurred by Putin’s failed invasion of Ukraine.
The plane, which has an estimated £9.5 million price tag, attempted to take off alongside another aircraft at a runway on the Crimean peninsula on Sunday morning.
After taking off from the runway, it made a sudden right turn before crashing to the ground and spewing out a massive cloud of black smoke.
“Sunday morning in Crimea,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense (MoD) said. More Su-25s have been lost. complete lack of ability.
Russians who possess weapons pose the greatest threat to themselves.
Although the exact reason for the mishap is yet unknown, Ukrainian media claim that the pilot lost control of the plane.
Su-25 fighter planes were created in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and have been employed in the invasions of Ukraine, the Syrian Civil War, and the Afghan War.
Some believe that the conflict is finally coming to a tipping point since Kyiv’s counterattack is making progress.
According to military intelligence, a significant portion of the soldiers from Moscow chose to surrender rather than engage in combat with the forces moving east out of Kharkiv because “they understood the futility of their position.”
Oleksiy Arestovich, a counsellor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, claimed that there is not enough room to house all of the Russian soldiers that have been taken prisoner over the past few days. Military intelligence spokesman Andrey Yusov added that’significant’ numbers of Russian officers are also among those taken prisoner.
While waging a second counterattack in the southern Kherson area, Russian forces were reportedly discussing their own surrender since they seemed to be out of ammunition. However, facts from the battlefield are few because to an information blackout enforced by Kiev.
The leading church leader in Russia has issued a foreboding call to prayer for Putin.
The typically ardently pro-Kremlin Patriarch Kirill recently said that Russia is going through “a moment of disquiet” that is “extremely unsettling.”
In order for the nation to have the strength to preserve its genuine independence, he stated, “now is the moment when we must pray more than ever for our Fatherland, for our President, and for our army.”https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/09/13/11/62347677-11205839-Russian_POWs-a-23_1663065826002.jpg
It follows a spectacular Ukrainian success against Russian troops that saw them routed close to Kharkiv, giving some confidence that the conflict may be reaching a turning point.
We are now living in a very challenging moment, the patriarch said.
So, today’s prayer is unique; we pray for Vladimir Putin, the Supreme Commander, who is in charge of a very important matter.
We also offer prayers for all military leaders and political figures.
So that the Lord “gives them knowledge and power, guards them from sin and error, and enlightens them to accomplish deeds that would defend our Fatherland from every enemy outside,”
At the Danilov Monastery in Moscow, he said that this extended to “even potentially the most deadly and awful dangers.”
The prominent Kirill exhorted, repeating Putin, “We must pray that all threats will pass our Motherland, so that those who dream of crushing Russia as an independent, genuinely sovereign state, will be left with nothing.” Kirill did not specify what “sins and faults” he meant.
“Russia is not dependent on any power centres outside of its own borders.”
This is a tremendous blessing, but it also carries a heavy burden since there will always be those who want to exploit Russia’s wealth and power to encircle themselves with their influence.
He said that Russia had a “unique historical route” and a “global fatal duty.”
“Today, our employees are given the responsibility of carrying out this exceptional duty.”https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/09/13/11/62347673-11205839-Russian_POWs-a-27_1663065826013.jpg
Zelensky urged Western partners to provide additional weaponry to assist solidify the victories while claiming that Ukraine’s army had taken control of 2,300 square miles in the east and south since the beginning of September, an area about four times the size of Greater London.
He emphasised the need for air defence systems to help protect civilian areas that Putin’s commanders have started targeting as “revenge” for their battlefield losses, blowing up power plants in the city of Kharkiv on Monday. He said that Ukraine and the West must “strengthen cooperation to defeat Russian terror.”
“A symbol of the desperation of people who manufactured this conflict,” Zelensky said of the attacks.
This is how they respond, he said, to the Russian forces’ loss in the Kharkiv area. Because they are unable to harm our soldiers on the front lines, Russia is targeting civilian infrastructure with their heinous attacks.
On February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine with the intention of conducting a days-long “special military operation” to reassert its control over the nation. However, after suffering a humiliating setback near Kyiv, Russia withdrew.
The new objective, according to Putin’s commanders, was to completely “liberate” the eastern Donbas area, where it was anticipated that the territory’s wide terrain and closeness to Russia would contribute to greater success.
The result was months of brutal attritional fighting during which both forces suffered heavy losses and Russia advanced under savage artillery bombardment slowly but steadily.
However, when the Russian advance halted, Ukraine—which had taken some time to gather fresh recruits, train them, and arm them with brand-new Western weapons—launched a long-awaited assault to retake the southern city of Kherson.
Moscow hurriedly sent soldiers to the south to protect it, leaving the door open for a second onslaught from Kharkiv to the east that was successful in piercing Russian defences and forcing troops to abandon the whole area.
The attitude in the whole nation changed from one of elation to harsh endurance as the tide of the conflict reversed back in Ukraine’s favour.
Authorities in Kharkiv celebrated the restoration of water and electricity to around 80% of the area’s residents after Russian strikes on infrastructure caused widespread power outages across Ukraine.
You are all heroes!
Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, posted on Telegram in reference to workers who repaired the city’s utilities.
“Thanks to everyone who did all they could on this most trying night for Kharkiv to quickly return to normal.”
Russian military bloggers and other pundits criticised the Kremlin for failing to mobilise additional soldiers and take greater action against Ukraine, which revealed symptoms of disorder in Russia.
Russia has always refrained from using the term “war” to describe its invasion, instead referring to it as a “special military operation” and relying on a small number of volunteers as opposed to a large-scale mobilisation that may ignite social unrest and protest.
The head of the Russian territory of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, who enjoys the support of Moscow, openly criticised the Russian Defense Ministry for what he termed “mistakes” that allowed the Ukrainian blitz to happen.
What’s more noteworthy is that this critique made it into state-run Russian television.
“People who persuaded President Putin the operation would be quick and successful… A former member of parliament named Boris Nadezhdin said on a chat programme on NTV that “these individuals truly set up all of us.”
We’ve reached the point where we must realise that utilising these resources and colonial war tactics, Ukraine cannot be defeated.
Some Russians attributed the losses to Western fighters and armaments.
The state-run Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper carried a headline that declared, in reference to one of the regions where Russia claimed to have withdrew soldiers, “Izium was not assaulted by Ukraine; it was attacked by NATO.”
According to Russia’s Tass news agency, inhabitants of a Russian town close to the Ukrainian border were evacuated after Ukrainian military shelled the area, resulting in one death.
The local administrator in Logachevka, who was quoted in the paper, said that Ukrainian forces opened fire at a border post.
Pro-Kremlin rebels said that Ukrainian soldiers were moving on Lyman, a Russian rail hub that provides access to bridges across the neighbouring Siversky Donets river and was taken by Russia in late May.