Recently, the British and Europeans announced that they would increase military aid to Ukraine, with the British government announcing aid of 517 million euros. However, these amounts seem to evaporate very easily with dubious results.
On Thursday, April 10, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that it had captured the village of Zhuravka in the Sumy region, on the northern border of Ukraine, without the latter confirming this. This is the area bordering Kursk, which Ukrainian forces invaded in August 2024 and are now on the run.
Ukrainian authorities reported increased Russian military activity in the area but did not admit the loss of Zhuravka.
According to the Russian Sputnik – citing the Russian military group Sever – the Ukrainian invasion of Kursk cost 5,500 military equipment units supplied by the West to the Ukrainians worth $7.8 billion. This is money that is more or less equivalent to the annual defense budget of Greece!
Based on the data of the Russian group, the Russian media estimated that during the hostilities in the Kursk region, Kiev spent more than $27 billion in total, which is more than half of the foreign financial assistance that Ukraine received from Western countries in 2024.
It is noted that the average cost of a tank is $4.5 million. $, a self-propelled artillery unit – $4 million, an armored personnel carrier – $300,000, an amphibious armored fighting vehicle – $600,000.
“Part of the allocated funds were spent by the Ukrainian armed forces on additional staffing and some repairs before sending the equipment to combat operations,” the Sever group of forces said.
The offensive has begun
Russia has launched a new spring offensive in northeastern Ukraine.
For outside experts, the fact that Russian units were preparing for a new push was largely expected, especially after a relatively quiet winter.
It is indeed exhausting in terms of both personnel and armored vehicles, and it is generally very difficult to be on the offensive for several months, but Russia has been advancing for over a year now. This is naturally wearing down the armed forces.
On April 9, days after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russian forces were being mobilized for a new push in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, confirmed Zelensky’s assessment.
“I can say that the president is absolutely right and this offensive has essentially already begun,” Shirsky said in an interview published in the Ukrainian newspaper LB.ua.
“For several days, almost a week, we have observed an almost doubling of the number of enemy attacks in all main directions,” he reportedly said.
Neither the scope nor the scale of the Russian push was clear. The Sumy region borders Kursk, so experts said it would make sense for Russian units to push across the border while Ukrainian troops are unable to prepare adequate defensive lines.
