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What the April 2023 front-line signals showed
Summary
A presidential visit to occupied territory, a jet transfer and a combat death marked the days around 19 April 2023.
What did the days leading up to 19 April 2023 reveal about the state of the war? Three developments, reported on 17 and 18 April, pointed in different directions: Russia's projection of control, Western-aligned military support for Kyiv, and the continuing human cost of the fighting.
Moscow shows the flag
On 18 April 2023, Russian president Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to Russian-occupied parts of Kherson and Luhansk oblasts and met military commanders in charge of operations. Both oblasts were among the four that Russia had unilaterally declared annexed on 30 September 2022, together with Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia. The boundaries of the annexed areas were never defined, and Russian officials said they would be set later. None of the four oblasts was fully under Russian control at the time of the declaration, nor afterwards. Seen against that, a visit by the Russian president to occupied ground and a meeting with commanders was a notable gesture, given how rarely he travelled there.
Aircraft for Ukraine
On 17 April 2023, the Slovak Defence Ministry said Slovakia had transferred 13 MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. The announcement was a concrete example of military aid to Ukraine during the war, delivered in the form of combat aircraft.
The human cost
On 18 April 2023 it was reported that Oleh Barna, a former People's Deputy of Ukraine, had been killed in combat. His death showed that people from political life were also serving at the front.
Reading the moment
Taken together, the reports describe a war in which Russia sought to underline its hold on occupied territory while Ukraine received additional equipment from a neighbour. Neither development settled the question of control on the ground, and the fighting continued to claim lives.
