Photo: Alexander Reka/TASS
The Russian army is conducting a special operation in Ukraine to denazify and demilitarize the country. The KP.RU website publishes online the latest news about the Russian military special operation in Ukraine on March 18, 2023.
Russian forces entrenched themselves at the AZOM plant in Artemovsk. Acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin told reporters about this, specifying that the Russian military is moving deeper into the industrial zone. According to him, the Russian fighters are also pushing back the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in the northern and southern directions, systematically moving towards the center of Artemivsk.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation stated that the Russian Armed Forces (AF) artillerymen provided timely fire support to the infantry unit in the zone of the special operation. Attacks by towed 152-mm “Hyacinth-B” guns destroyed a tank, two mortar teams and about 15 Ukrainian servicemen.
The Ukrainian army set up a mobile crematorium near the village of Minkovka, which is located northwest of Artemivsk in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). This was announced by a military expert, retired Lieutenant Colonel of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), Andrei Marochko.
An air alert was announced in seven regions of Ukraine on the morning of Friday, March 17, 2023. Sirens of warning systems wailed in the Kirovograd, Poltava, Sumy, Chernihiv, Dnepropetrovsk and Nikolaev regions. The warning is also valid in the areas of the Donetsk People’s Republic controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), as well as in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. The population is recommended to stay in shelters.
Russian artillerymen prevented Ukrainian paratroopers from landing on the left bank of the Dnieper by flooding the barge on which the landing party crossed the Kakhovka reservoir.
The Russian armed forces destroyed up to 135 Ukrainian servicemen in the areas of the Petrovskoe, Semyonovka and Tonenkoe settlements in the Donetsk direction in one day. Three armored vehicles of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a Grad Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS), a D-30 howitzer, an ammunition depot, four vans and a car were also hit.
Russian gunners destroyed a camouflaged armored infantry vehicle of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a well-aimed hit. The enemy’s equipment was detected using drones: the soldiers who controlled the UAV noticed the armored car and corrected the work of the gunners remotely, thanks to which the target was hit with maximum accuracy.
The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) does not order the withdrawal of troops from Artemivsk, as this threatens to lose control over other cities. This was stated by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Ukraine, Dmitry Kuleba.
