The 20th day of resistance: Russian troops do not advance anywhere, suffer losses in Mariupol – Ukrainian Armed Forces

Olena Roschina – Tuesday, 15 March 2022, 07:15

On the 20th day of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Russian troops have not succeeded on any single front, Ukrainian Armed Forces have repelled new attacks on Mariupol, killing 150 Russian soldiers and destroying two tanks, seven infantry combat vehicles and one armoured personnel carrier.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, operational information as of 06:00 on Tuesday, March 15

According to the General Staff: "The twentieth day of Ukraine people’s heroic resistance to the Russian military invasion has begun. The state, location, and nature of the defence forces remain without significant changes. The Armed Forces of Ukraine inflict destructive blows on units of Russian troops and the occupiers’ rear infrastructure."

Details: Over the previous day, the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shot down four helicopters and one plane, and a Ukrainian fighter jet shot down a Russian cruise missile.

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, "the groups of the occupying forces involved in the offensive operation have not had significant success on all fronts of deployment, and their main efforts continue to focus on maintaining the borders of the occupied territories."

The Russian troops continue to carry out missile and bomb strikes on critical civilian infrastructure. They use a network of healthcare facilities in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to treat their wounded personnel.

The Russian military also continue to insidiously use civilian infrastructure as firing positions and to station weapons and military equipment.

According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, "due to their inability to maintain the functioning of institutions and organisations that ensure the livelihood of towns and cities in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine [i.e. the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics], the occupiers were forced to suspend the mobilisation of utility service workers."

Moreover, the General Staff said that "the moral and psychological state of the enemy remains low, which leads to the refusal of the soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces to carry out the orders of their command."

According to the available information, residents mobilised from some districts of the temporarily occupied territory of the Luhansk region are sent to replenish the losses of the active units of the Russian occupation forces involved in hostilities in Ukraine.

According to the General Staff: "The enemy is trying to capture Mariupol. Ukrainian soldiers have successfully repulsed the attacks of the invaders. The total loss of the enemy was about 150 people, 2 tanks, 7 infantry combat vehicles and one armoured personnel carrier.

[Ukrainian] Artillery and aircraft inflicted fire damage on the accumulation of military equipment and enemy convoys on their advance routes. According to available information, artillery fire destroyed 12 units of motorised equipment."

Details: The battalion tactical groups of the 336th Separate Marine Brigade and the 11th Separate Air Assault Brigade have also suffered losses.

No signs of preparation for a naval landing operation were observed in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov operational zones.