Kyiv Post Daily Thread – The Latest News From and About Ukraine on April 6

Having taken over the one-month Presidency of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) on Apr. 1, it only took four days for the Russian Federation to misuse its position, as Ukraine and many others predicted it would.

On Apr. 5 it initiated an informal meeting of the UNSC during which they gave an opportunity for the Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Levova-Belova, to remotely address the council via video link. An arrest warrant had been issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Mar. 17 for her and the Russian President for the unlawful deportation and transfer of children during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

You can read more here. 

One day before the assassination of pro-Kremlin activist, Vladem Tatarsky, a Kyiv Post journalist was contacted by Ilya Ponomarev, a Kyiv-based Russian opposition leader who has previously spoken on behalf of the National Republican Army (NRA).

At the very start of the conversation, Ponomarev indicated that "before Monday night" there would be "another 200" to "eliminate a Putinist enemy."  "200" is the cargo code that the Russian military uses for corpses and is commonly used as slang for "being killed."

You can read more here.

German media outlet Bild released a video showing what is believed to be the first Ukrainian artillery strike on Russian military personnel and equipment across the border.

It was geolocated near the village of Tsapovka in Belgorod region, 1.3 kilometers from the border with Ukraine where Kharkiv Oblast is situated. The location was identified on Twitter by user SerDer_Daniels identified the location - with coordinates - and said it was a field next to a farm.

The Russian positions were discovered by Ukrainian scouts from the 4th Kharkiv border detachment, Bild reported.

Independent Russian media outlet Mediazona said the video was posted on April 2 by the Kharkiv garrison commander Sergei Melnik. Melnik’s caption said the target consisted of “equipment belonging to the occupiers, personnel equipping positions, and trucks.”

Melnik said: “Thanks to professional cooperation with artillery gunners, the target was immediately destroyed.”

Bild’s reporter, Julian Röpcke, said on Twitter that it was the first video that the Ukrainian military had published showing a cross-border attack on Russian soil.

According to Röpcke “the Russian army planned to advance from these positions in the direction of Kharkiv.”

Röpcke summed up: “By launching preventative strikes on Russian territory, Ukraine is showing that it’s protecting itself more and more confidently, and that it’s no longer letting the West dictate how it defends itself.”

The General Director of the Ukroboronprom State Enterprise, Yuriy Gusev, speaking in an interview with Interfax on Apr. 5 claimed there have been more than 150 attacks on its facilities since the start of the full-scale invasion by Russia.

Ukroboronprom is a major Ukrainian weapons and military hardware manufacturer, comprising state unitary enterprises employing 67,000 highly skilled workers. It is the national leader in the production of ammunition and other modern, high-quality military equipment in support of Ukraine's defense and security needs.

"In spite of the fact that our factories have been attacked, on more than 150 occasions, not a single production has been lost and we are not just performing, but increasing production volumes," he asserted. The general director said more than 12,000 Ukrainians had responded to job vacancies in Ukroboronprom companies.

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Good morning from Kyiv where spring continues “unsprung”. It’s cold and wet, but to complain is silly. In Ukraine’s east, snow has been covering the already brutal battlefields.

 Indeed, while there is much discussion about an Ukrainian major offensive, the fact of on-going conflict across different parts of Ukraine should not be ignored on this 406th day of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Here’s a rundown of the last 24 hours to 6am Kyiv time today:

·      Ukraine’s military repelled more than 40 Russian attacks, according to Ukraine’s armed forces. The hottest spots of conflict remain the Donetsk regional population centers of Avdiyivka, Bakhmut and Mariinka, but there was also action in the Kharkiv (northeast), Kherson (south), Zaporizhia (south) and Chernihiv (north). In Sumy (northeast) alone, local authorities reported 17 artillery attacks involving 229 projectiles.

·      Russia also launched 21 aviation strikes. Kyiv reports, in turn, that it carried out 12 aviation strikes on its enemy during the same period and shot down a Russian K-52 Alligator assault helicopter. 

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