The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 2nd June 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 2nd June 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Devastating waves of missiles pound strategic targets throughout Ukraine whilst Russian troops launch a probing advance to break the Ukrainian line near Donetsk city. The Russians say their missiles have smashed the headquarters of the Ukrainian secret service and sunk the last remaining Ukrainian warship during a raid on the port of Odessa whilst the feeble Ukrainian response was an ineffectual drone attack on Moscow launched largely for propaganda purposes.
The Kremlin has confirmed reports that the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence was hit in an overnight Russian missile strike on Kiev. The strike followed the drone attack on Moscow and a series of threats by a senior Ukrainian intelligence officer to "kill Russians" around the world.
"All I will comment on is that we've been killing Russians and we will keep killing Russians anywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine," Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with the US media last month, after being asked to comment on whether Kiev was involved in last year's murder of Russian journalist Daria Dugina. Several weeks later, Budanov told the German media that Vladimir Putin was also on his hit-list.
Russia’s response has been to add “decision-making” centres to their list of strategic targets for their drones and missiles. And last week Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia had destroyed the headquarters of the Ukrainian intelligence service in Kiev.
"Since the start of the special military operation, the Russian Armed Forces are striking Ukraine, but using high-precision weapons. They are targeting military infrastructure, arms depots and other targets that could be used for military action," Putin said, speaking to a reporter at an economic exhibition on Tuesday.
"We've already mentioned that we can strike decision-making centres and headquarters. Obviously, the Military Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine's headquarters is also such a target. And in response, as you are well aware, the Kiev regime chose a different path, a path to try to intimidate Russia and its citizens, to try to target residential buildings. It is an obvious indicator of terrorist activity," Putin said, referring to the drone attack on the Russian capital.
None of the eight Ukrainian drones hit military targets. Three were suppressed by electronic warfare measures and deviated from their intended course before crashing, and five were shot down by Moscow’s air defence systems outside the city. Several residential buildings were damaged and two people suffered minor injuries.
Meanwhile, a Russian precision-strike on Odessa has sunk the last ship in the Ukrainian navy. The Ukrainian corvette {Yuri Olefirenko} went down during a strike on the naval dockyard. A fire broke out and detonated the ammunition, sending the ship down. Reports claim that there were significant losses amongst the crew.
Back on the front, fierce fighting has erupted around Avdeevka in the Donbas. Russian troops, backed by crack Chechen ‘Akhmat’ commandos, have already over-run some of the Ukrainian positions in a limited offensive aimed at breaking through the Ukrainian lines north of the city of Donetsk.
In the recently liberated town of Artyomovsk that the Ukrainians called Bakhmut, the Donbas authorities are looking at the massive task ahead of them in restoring life to the shattered city. Housing, hospitals, factories and offices – all were destroyed during the months of bitter street fighting that only ended when the last Ukrainian troops were driven out in May. They have to be restored along with the cultural facilities that are part and parcel of life in the Russian Federation.
The Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) is drawing up a cultural agenda and high on the list is a plan to build a new monument to honour the Wagner company, the Russian ‘Foreign Legion’ that drove the Ukrainian fascists out of town. “I believe we must announce a contest in the Republic for the best sketch of a monument to the Wagner fighters,” says acting DPR Minister of Culture Mikhail Zheltyakov. “Wagner fighters are heroically brave people who ‘picked out’ the enemy from every meter of the ground in the town,” he said.