U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin: “Case in Crime against Russia” when Mr. Biden was wounded in the Cuban Missile Crisis

Austin praised the successes Ukrainians have had on the battlefield and noted they are using the weapons and technology given to them by the US in the “right way.”

“And we’re working to make sure that the Ukrainians get those systems as quickly as possible but also as effectively as possible, making sure that they are trained on them, making sure they have the ability to maintain them and all of that has to come together and it is. Lloyd Austin, the Defense Secretary of Germany, established a process to make sure the Ukrainians get what they need when they need it.

S-300 missiles have been key forUkraine but it is difficult to source them. The U.S. has regularly delivered air defense assistance, including more than 1,600 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles and eight ground-based air missile defense systems called NASAMS. The U.S. has also supplied dozens of mobile rocket launchers called HIMARS, in addition to an array of other military vehicles and arms including Javelin anti-tank missiles, helicopters, howitzers and drones. The supplies are low as well.

It’s more than just the equipment. It is about how you use equipment and how you organize it to create battlefield effects that can create opportunities.

She said she hoped they will send more than one. She noted there’s “been some reluctance in the past” by the US and NATO to provide advanced equipment, but added “We’ve seen with our own eyes how effective Ukrainian military is.”

For weeks now aides to Mr. Biden have debated if there was an inverse understanding that could be used by the wounded Russian leader. They don’t know what secrets are needed to reach a successful exit and avoid the conditions that could lead to Mr. Putin reaching for his nuclear weapons. Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, reiterated on Friday that Mr. Biden had no new intelligence about nuclear weapons use and said she “saw no indications” the Russians were “preparing to use them.”

His logic came from what happened in the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was referred to twice by Mr. Biden in his comments at the New York Democrats fund-raiser. In that famous case — the closest the world came to a full nuclear exchange, 60 years ago this month — President John F. Kennedy struck a secret bargain with Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet premier, to remove American missiles from Turkey.

With that deal, which came to light only later, a disaster that could have killed tens of millions of Americans and untold numbers of Soviet citizens was averted.

US President Joe Biden is expected to announce an additional $1.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine during President Volodymyr Zelensky’s expected visit to the White House. The US is expecting a significant boost in aid, which will be led by the missile defense systems in the package, a US official told CNN.

Biden underscored his engagement with friends and allies to continue imposing costs on Moscow, hold it accountable for war crimes and atrocities, and give Ukraine security, according to the statement.

The US position has since changed, officials said, and the concerns with the F-16s now are less about escalation and more about logistical challenges, officials said. Though the Pentagon has not explicitly ruled out sending F-16s to Ukraine, officials view it as a long term proposition, one likely measured on a timeline of years instead of months.

As of a Department of Defense briefing in late September, the US had yet to deliver NASAMS to Ukraine. He was at the time. Two systems are expected to be delivered by the end of the month, with the last six arriving in a few months.

Zelensky said in a video message Tuesday that 20 of 28 missiles fired at Ukraine that morning had been shot down. Ukrainian officials have told CNN that more than half the Russian cruise missiles fired on Monday and Tuesday were brought down: 65 out of 112.

Russian drones hit the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa on the weekend, causing 1.5 million people in the region to go into darkness. Russia strikes had left the region in a “very difficult” situation and it would take days to restore power to people, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The former President of Russia said on Telegram that the Ukrainian state posed a clear and constant threat to Russia. The complete dismantlement of the political regime of Ukraine is one of the goals of our future actions.

The new security package comes as Russia intensifies its attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who visited the White House last month, has called for additional assistance from western nations to protect against Russian aggression. He said the support was not “charity” but “an investment in the global security and democracy.”

John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said Monday that there will likely be additional support packages for Ukraine announced “in the very near future.”

Kirby said that he could not say how he would react to the pressure at home and overseas.

“We know – and Russian commanders on the ground know – that their supplies and munitions are running out,” Jeremy Fleming, a UK’s spy chief, said in a rare speech on Tuesday.

The costs to Russia — in people and equipment are staggering. We know that the Russian commanders on the ground are aware that their supplies are running out. Russia has exhausted its forces.

Fleming believes that talk of nuclear weapons is very dangerous, and that we need to be careful about how we are talking about that.

If they started to go down that path, I would want to see some indicators. If they are considering that, that would be a catastrophe and people have talked about it.

Fleming will say in a speech later Tuesday that Russians are looking at how badly he has misjudged the situation, and that they are counting the cost of the invasion of Ukraine.

“With little effective internal challenge, his decision-making has proved flawed. It’s a high stakes strategy that is leading to strategic errors in judgement. Fleming will say in an address at the Rusi that their gains are being reversed.

They know that their access to modern technologies and influences will be restricted. And they are feeling the extent of the dreadful human cost of his war of choice,” he will say.

Russian Air Force Forces in Kiev: The Violation of the First Russian Air Defense Planned for the Iraqi Operation During the First Ukrainian War

As Ukraine races to shore up its missile defenses in the wake of the assault, the math for Moscow is simple: A percentage of projectiles are bound to get through.

The Pentagon at the time believed that Russia had less than half their prewar inventory of air-launched cruise missiles.

The barrage of missile strikes is going to be an occasional feature for shows of extreme outrage because Russians don’t have the precision munitions needed to maintain that kind of high-tempo missile assault into the future.

The Russians have also been adapting the S-300 – normally an air defense missile – as an offensive weapon, with some effect. These have wreaked havoc in other places, like Zaporizhzhia, and are difficult to intercept. But they are hardly accurate.

The missiles, rockets and drones that have hit dozens of locations across Ukraine since Monday were targeting civilian infrastructure in major cities, including Kyiv, which is close to the front lines in the east and south.

He said it was the first time since the beginning of the war that Russia had targeted energy infrastructure.

Over the past nine months, the Ukrainians have also had plenty of practice in using their limited air defenses, mainly BUK and S-300 systems. But Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force Command, said Tuesday said of these systems: “This equipment does not last forever, there may be losses in combat operations.”

In what may be a no less subtle message than calling the Patriot deployments provocative, Russia’s defense ministry shared video of the installation of a “Yars” intercontinental ballistic missile into a silo launcher in the Kaluga region for what Alexei Sokolov, commander of the Kozelsky missile formation, called “combat duty as planned.”

It is difficult to estimate the percentage of Shahed drones that will be eliminated. Zelensky said that every 10 minutes he got a message about the use of Iranian Shaheds. He said that most of them were being shot down.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Sergei Irosievich Bronk: Air defense, missiles, air defense and missile-to-air missiles

The wish-list was forwarded to the meeting on Wednesday and included missiles for their existing systems, a transition to Western origin air defense system, as well as early warning capabilities.

Speaking after the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting, he said such a system would not “control all the airspace over Ukraine, but they are designed to control priority targets that Ukraine needs to protect. What you’re looking at really is short-range low-altitude systems and then medium-range medium altitude and then long-range and high altitude systems, and it’s a mix of all of these.”

Western systems are beginning to trickle in. The arrival of the first IRIS-T from Germany, as well as two units of the US National Advanced Surface-to-air Missile System, is expected soon, said the Ukrainian Defense Minister.

KYIV — Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov says he’s optimistic Western allies will eventually supply his country with advanced fighter jets, including U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, and adds that Ukrainian forces are poised to start training on newly committed advanced battle tanks “as soon as possible.”

Ukraine “badly needed” modern systems such as the IRIS-T that arrived this week from Germany and the NASAMS expected from the United States , Bronk said.

The military commander of the Ukrainians thanked Poland on Tuesday for training an air defense battalion that destroyed nine Shaheeds.

He said that Poland had given some equipment to help destroy the drones. There was a report last month that the Polish government had bought advanced Israeli equipment and was going to transfer it to Ukranian.

The sound of the air raid sirens and the sound of Russian attacks shattered the calm in Ukrainian cities far from the conflict zone.

There was a strike in DONETSK. Ukraine has launched a serious attack in the Donetsk region, the area controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014, according to a Russian-installed mayor there.

The Russian War on the Warthroes: Where are we heading? Where do we stand, and why do we want to go? How do we prepare for winter?

Not for the first time, the war is teetering towards an unpredictable new phase. “This is now the third, fourth, possibly fifth different war that we’ve been observing,” said Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme.

“What seemed a distant prospect for anything that could be convincingly described as a Ukraine victory is now very much more plausible,” Giles said. Russia’s response is likely to escalate further.

Ukrainian troops hoist the country’s flag above a building in Vysokopillya, in the southern Kherson region, last month. Ukrainian officials claim that they have freed hundreds of settlements since their counter-offensive began.

Russia saidThursday that it would help the residents of Kherson who were trapped in the area to escape to other areas. The announcement came shortly after the head of the Moscow-backed administration in Kherson appealed to the Kremlin for help moving residents out of harm’s way, in the latest indication that Russian forces were struggling in the face of Ukrainian advances.

The counter-offensives have shifted the war’s focus and disproved the claims that Ukraine lacked the ability to seize territory.

The Russians want to avoid collapse in their frontline before the winter sets in, which is why they play for the whistle, says a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

“If they can get to Christmas with the frontline looking roughly as it is, that’s a huge success for the Russians given how botched this has been since February.”

The Kremlin appointed a new commander for Russia’s invasion. But there is little sign that Gen. Sergey Surovikin can lead his forces back onto the front foot before the end of the year, given the pace and cost of the Ukrainian counter-offensives.

Russian troops crossed the Oskil River in late September to get to the cities of Starobilsk and Cherkasy in the Luhansk region, where they are likely to defend them.

Landing a major blow in Donbas would send another powerful signal, and Ukraine will be eager to improve on its gains before temperatures plummet on the battlefield, and the full impact of rising energy prices is felt around Europe.

“There are so many reasons why there is an incentive for Ukraine to get things done quickly,” Giles said. The energy crisis in Europe will always be a test of resilience for the Ukrainian people, and their Western backers.

“The United States is going to be with Ukraine for as long as it takes in this fight,” Sullivan said in a recent visit to Ukraine. There will not be wavering, nor flinching in our support as we go forward.

Ukraine’s national electricity company, Ukrenergo, says it has stabilized the power supply to Kyiv and central regions of Ukraine after much of the country’s electricity supply was disrupted by Russian missile attacks on Monday and Tuesday. The Ukrainian Prime Minister warned of a lot of work to be done to fix damaged equipment, and urged people to use less energy during peak hours.

Russia may be able to disrupt the counter-offensives of the Ukrainians with its limited supply of precision weapons.

It is crucial to know how much manpower each side has left, as well as how much weaponry is left in reserve. On Tuesday and Monday, Ukraine was able to intercept 18 cruise missiles, but the country is still calling on its Western allies to equip it with more equipment to fight future attacks.

Any further Belarusian involvement in the war could also have a psychological impact, Puri suggested. According to him, everyone in the West has been focused on fighting one army. The invasion would play into the narrative that the war is about reunification of the lands of ancient Rus states.

“The reopening of a northern front would be another new challenge for Ukraine,” Giles said. It would provide Russia a new route into the Kharkiv oblast (region), which has been recaptured by Ukraine, should Putin prioritize an effort to reclaim that territory, he said.

Russia accused the West of being more involved in the war by sending more sophisticated weapons to Ukranian. That’s caused tension within NATO and the European Union. Croatia’s President Zoran Milanovic told reporters that supplying arms to Kyiv will only prolong the war and that it’s “mad” to expect Russia’s defeat. The Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, said Ukrainians had “drifted into war”.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday that Ukraine needed more missile systems to stop attacks, and he would be speaking at a meeting of NATO defense ministers.

Russia isn’t going to give up its effort to reestablish its empire at the expense of peaceful neighboring states. Instead of setting up more targets for Russia to knock down, the US and other Western backers should change the terms of the conflict. The international community must do more than simply tolerate Russia’s naked aggression and the savagery with which it is pursuing its war of colonial reconquest. It is long past time for more direct intervention.

Yet the new phase isn’t only on the battlefield. Around the world, leaders are confronting the bitter fallout of Russia’s invasion. The sanctions against Moscow caused higher energy and food prices in Europe and the US, which have caused trouble for politicians.

The mayor said at least two Russian airstrikes hit downtown Ukranian. Two more also hit the city, according to Ukraine’s public broadcaster.

Klitschko’s office says several residential buildings were damaged. He added that rescuers pulled 18 people from the rubble of one building and are looking for two more. Many of the city’s central streets are closed for emergency services to respond.

The enemy can attack our cities, but it won’t break us. The President of the Ukraine wrote that the occupiers would get only fair punishment and condemnation of future generations.

Zelenskyy’s chief-of-staff called on the west to provide more air defense systems for Ukranian. “We don’t have time to be slow,” he stated online.

The photo of shrapnel labeled “Geran-2,” Russian for Iranian drones, was posted by Klitshchko, but he removed it after commenters criticized him for showing the Russian strike.

The Ukranian War in Ukraine and the High-Energy Strategy of the EU’s High-Sensitivity External Forces

European Union foreign ministers are scheduled to meet today in Luxembourg. Before the meeting, Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, told reporters that the bloc would look into “concrete evidence” of Iran’s involvement in Ukraine.

During internal conversations about the war in Ukraine, America’s top general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, has in recent weeks led a strong push to seek a diplomatic solution as fighting heads toward a winter lull.

According to the officials, there is a growing discussion within the administration about whether the recent gains made on the battlefield by the Ukranian military will lead to renewed efforts to seek an end to the fighting.

Administration officials were notsurprised by the comments given Milley’s advocacy for the position internally but were concerned that the administration appeared divided in the eyes of the Kremlin.

The House speaker negotiations could affect the future of US support for Ukraine, as foreign diplomats have concerns about it.

Milley has made it clear that he isn’t in favor of a capitulation but rather that he thinks it is the best time to end the war before it drags into spring or beyond, leading to more death and destruction.

There is a view that is held across the adminstration. An official told me that the State Department is on the opposite side of the pole. The situation is unique in that military brass are pushing for diplomacy more than US diplomats.

As the US military has dug deep into US weapons stocks to help the Ukrainians, and is currently searching the globe for materials to support them heading into winter, officials are concerned about how long this war will last.

A US official said that the US intends to provide 100,000 rounds of weapons to Ukraine from South Korea as part of a broader effort to find weaponry for the ongoing battles in the country. As part of the deal, the US will purchase 100,000 rounds of 155mm howitzer ammunition, which will then be transferred to Ukraine through the US.

State Department Explicit Response to Russia’s “Cosmological” War on Ukraine, and Implications for the Strategic Security of the United States

State Department spokesperson Ned Price would not say Thursday whether the State Department agrees with Milley’s position. Instead, Price deflected to a position that US officials have often made in recent months: the US sides with Zelensky who has said that a diplomatic solution is needed.

“As the leadership of our country has stated, the tasks set within the framework of the special military operation will be fulfilled, taking into account the situation on the ground and the actual realities,” Zakharova added, referring to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Biden will unveil a package of new spending and include a surface-to-air missile system which has been a longstanding request of the Ukrainians. CNN reported that the US was going to send the system to Ukranian.

The Pentagon needs the approval of Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin before it can go to the president for his signature. The three officials told CNN they expected it to be approved.

It is not clear how many missile launchers will be sent but a typical Patriot battery includes a radar set that detects and tracks targets, computers, power generating equipment, an engagement control station and up to eight launchers, each holding four ready to fire missiles.

Ukrainian troops are expected to be trained in Germany by Americans. Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers travel to Germany every month for weapon training. Pentagon officials had recently announced they would increase that number early next year.)

“If there is a Shahed uncrewed system going toward critical infrastructure in Ukraine, it may be worth the cost to take it out,” he said. “Given the onslaught that Russia is conducting against Ukrainian critical infrastructure, the move makes sense to me.”

Larger air defense systems need more people to properly operate them, so they don’t need as many. The training for Patriot missile batteries normally takes multiple months, a process the United States will now carry out under the pressure of near-daily aerial attacks from Russia.

The United States provided a large quantity of shells and rockets to aid the Ukrainian army in battle, but experts say there are not as many of the Pentagon’s active-duty military units as in the past.

The US has not indicated to allies that it would be opposed to other countries sending their stock of F-16s to Ukraine, sources told CNN. But many US officials believe that for the US to send its own would be an expensive and complicated undertaking that US officials don’t believe is worth it in the short term when compared to Ukraine’s more immediate needs of artillery, rockets, and air defense systems.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III could approve a directive as early as this week to transfer one Patriot battery already overseas to Ukraine, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Final approval would then rest with President Biden.

The White House, Pentagon, and State Department refuse to comment on the transfer of a Patriot battery, which, if approved, would be one of the most sophisticated weapons the US has provided.

Mr. Zelensky thanked the countries for their continued support but told them to pay for weapons first.

Russian forces in the Donetsk region have been unwilling to engage in a conventional war: Comment on a comment by Ryder, Zelensky, and Blinken

It was questioned the rationality of such a step which would lead to an increase in the conflict as well as the risk of dragging the US army into combat.

The country can guard against the Russian attacks that have left millions without power but it requires a lot of training to operate the Patriot system and it is expensive.

“I find it ironic and very telling that officials from a country that brutally attacked its neighbor in an illegal and unprovoked invasion … that they would choose to use words like provocative to describe defensive systems that are meant to save lives and protect civilians,” Ryder told reporters.

The US does not seek conflict with Russia. Our focus is on providing Ukraine with the security assistance it needs to defend itself.”

Appearing this week on Russian state TV, Commander Alexander Khodakovsky of the Russian militia in the Donetsk region suggested Russia could not defeat the NATO alliance in a conventional war.

In an interview with The Economist published Thursday, Zelensky also rejected the idea recently suggested by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Ukraine seek to reclaim only land seized by Russia since February 2022 and not areas like Donbas and Crimea, which have been under Russian control since 2014.

NATO still has two main objectives in mind, one of which is to give aid to the Ukrainians and the other is to not escalate the war, according to the NATO Secretary General.

Old firearms. CNN’s Ellie Kaufman and Liebermann reported earlier this week on a US military official who says Russian forces have had to resort to 40-year-old artillery ammunition as their supplies of new ammo are “rapidly dwindling.”

The official told reporters that when they loaded the bullets, they crossed their fingers that it would fire or explode.

The U.S. Navy in the Precession of the Cold War: The First Surprise Visit to the UK for a Short-Term Diplomatic Tour of Europe

The effect of months of military aid. CNN reported a month ago that the US is running low on some weapons systems and materials it provides to the Ukrainians. After Republicans take control of the House of Representatives next month, it’s possible that that storyline will become part of the US aid debate.

Russia meanwhile continues to stockpile arms and ammunition in large quantities close to the troops they will supply and well within range of enemy weaponry. Standard military practice dictates that large depots be broken up and scattered and that they be located far behind enemy lines — even within Russian territory that western powers have declared off-limits to Ukrainian strikes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to the UK on Wednesday, sweeping in to London on the first stage of an unannounced diplomatic tour of European capitals with a powerful message for British lawmakers.

The leader of the Ukrainian government is going to Washington for only a short time, but he will be making a crucial statement on the war in his country.

Zelensky, who the official said was “very keen” to visit the US, determined those parameters met his needs, and the US set to work executing them. The trip was finally confirmed on Sunday.

What Do We Want to Learn from Russia? Commentary on Russia’s War on Everybody: And What It Means for You (with an Appendix by Keir Giles)

Keir Giles works for the Russia and Eurasia Programme of Chatham House in the UK. He is the author of “Russia’s War on Everybody: And What it Means for You.” The views expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has a good opinion on it.

“It becomes a real humanitarian issue when you’re trying to deprive an entire country of its electrical grid and water and everything else,” said Jeffrey Edmonds, a 22-year Army veteran who now works as a Russia analyst at the Center for a New American Security. “I think they see that as a necessary step to help Ukrainians sustain themselves in the fight.”

If Russia dislikes a lot of things, it will make the US and Western behavior much more likely to escalate to the Third World War.

And yet, Russia’s UN Security Council veto and the fear it has instilled through nuclear propaganda have given it a free pass to behave as it wishes, without fear of interference from a global community looking on in either ambivalence or helpless paralysis.

Moscow is struggling to equip and rally its forces, and seems to be out of new cards to use. China and India have joined the West in open statements against the use of nuclear force, which has made that option even less likely.

Russia will continue to look for replacements for weapons as it searches for new ways to launch missiles at Ukraine. Iran may be the only country that is willing to supply Russia in the future.

That sets a disastrous example for other aggressive powers around the world. It says possession of nuclear weapons allows you to wage genocidal wars of destruction against your neighbors, because other nations won’t intervene.

The US and the West want other countries around the world to receive a message from them but if that isn’t the case then they should send more missiles to Russia.

In December the U.S promised President Volodymyr Zelenskyy it would provide fast-track training for the missiles. The U.S. is training Ukrainians at a base in Oklahoma.

More precision weapons are vital: they ensure Ukraine hits its targets, and not any civilians remaining nearby. Russia has been bombarding the area that it wants to capture with hundreds and thousands of shells.

The new deal will likely include the supply of guidance kits, or Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), which Ukraine can use to bolt on to their unguided missiles or bombs. This will increase their accuracy and the rate in which Kyiv’s forces burn through ammunition. A lot of the money is going to replace weapons.

Russia has complained about these deliveries many times, but has not been as active in its practical response to crossing what might have been considered a red line.

U.S. Response to the Cold Cold War: How difficult is Russia’s strategy to send to Ukraine if it fails to cooperate with the US?

This is trickier. Kevin McCarthy has warned that the Biden administration cannot expect a blank cheque from the new GOP-led House of Representatives.

Some of the remnants of Trump’s party have doubts about whether the US should be sending a lot of aid to eastern Europe.

Realistically, the bill for the slow defeat of Russia in this dark and lengthy conflict is relatively light for Washington, given its near trillion-dollar annual defense budget.

He is an inspiring rhetorician, and – as a former reality TV star turned unexpected president – the embodiment of how Putin’s war of choice has turned ordinary Ukrainians into wartime heroes.

The strike range of the patriot battery is limited to less than a hundred miles due to the fact that it’s not large enough to cover all of Ukraine.

It will be a good thing to defend a single city like Kyiv against threats. But it’s not putting a bubble over Ukraine,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Even with a compressed schedule, the training requirements mean that the system is unlikely to be up and running in February or March.

The push to get the system up and running as soon as possible could backfire, Cancian said: Ineffective operation caused by hasty training could hamper the system’s effectiveness; in a worst case scenario, Ukrainians might be unable to prevent Russians from destroying it. That in turn could damage the political will to send future assistance to Ukraine, he said.

“If the Ukrainians had a year or two to assimilate the system, that wouldn’t be any problem. The problem is they don’t have a year or two. Cancian said that they want to do this in a couple weeks.

Ukraine has a much smaller number of fighter jets, mostly MiG-29s that date to the Soviet era. They are only employed in combat by Ukraine. “What the Russians have learned is that this is a war where it’s much more sustainable to use unmanned assets, whether those unmanned assets are drones or missiles,” said Grieco. This Russian tactic is also forcing Ukraine to make a tough choice. Ukraine has a limited number of air defense missiles, which it’s been using to take down Russian drones. Russia gets the drones from Iran for as little as $20,000. Russia is favored by the cost-benefit ratio. If Russia is allowed to return to the country after being shot down by Ukrainian missiles, it will be due to the fact that the Ukrainian missiles will exhaust their supply.

The recent Russian airstrike barrages and ongoing assault on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure have turned up pressure on the U.S. and its allies to do more.

In addition to the Patriot battery, the new aid package announced Wednesday also includes additional HIMARS ammunition, mortars, artillery rounds and tens of thousands of GRAD rockets and tank ammunition.

Zelensky, Clinton, and the cost of air defense: “just peace” can be a nice investment for the U.S., and when Russian aggression in Ukraine becomes more serious

Kelly Greico, a defense analyst at the Stimson Center, called the announcement a sign that there is a lot of concern about Ukraine’s air defense capability.

At $4 million apiece, the PAC-3 missiles that accompany the Patriot are much more expensive than Stingers or the missiles launched by HIMARS. They are costly enough that Ukrainians must be judicious in how they are used, analysts said. “You can’t just let these things fly,” said Cancian.

Greico said that it was a “terrible choice to face,” between the need to protect civilians from brutal Russian attacks and the need to continue to resist the Russian war effort.

Hillary Clinton said Zelensky’s address to congress was extraordinary, and the fight against Russian aggression has proven that they are a really good investment for the U.S.

The speech connected the struggle of Ukrainians to our own revolution and to our own feelings that we want to be warm in our homes for Christmas and to know that they are on the front lines, so we could think about all the families in Ukraine that will be sheltered in the cold.

Clinton, who previously met Russian President Vladimir Putin as US secretary of state, said the leader was “probably impossible to actually predict,” as the war turns in Ukraine’s favor and his popularity fades at home.

Clinton thinks thatPutin may throw more bodies into the Ukrainian war in order to get more Russian conscripts involved.

Shrouded in secrecy until the last minute, the historic visit was heavy with symbolism, from Zelensky’s drab green sweatshirt to President Joe Biden’s blue-and-yellow striped tie to the Ukrainian battle flag unfurled on the House floor.

The trip was much more than that. Zelensky would not be invited to Washington, for the first time since the war began, if Biden did not believe that he could actually meet face-to-face.

Both men made clear they believed the war was entering a new phase. As Russia sends more troops to the front and launches a brutal air campaign against civilians, fears of a stalemate are growing.

Zelensky said the road to an end of the war would not involve making concessions to Russia.

“For me as a president, ‘just peace’ is no compromises,” he said, indicating he doesn’t see any road to peace that involves Ukraine giving up territory or sovereignty.

Later, in his address to Congress, Zelensky said he’d presented a 10-point peace formula to Biden – though US officials said afterward it was the same plan he offered to world leaders at the Group of 20 summit last month.

For his part, Biden said it was up to Zelensky to “decide how he wants to the war to end,” a long-held view that leaves plenty of questions unanswered.

Zelensky spoke of American history in his address, such as the Battle of Saratoga during the American Revolutionary War and the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.

He chose to deliver his speech in English, a choice that he communicated ahead of time. Even his attire – the now-familiar Army green shirt, cargo pants and boots – seemed designed to remind his audience they were in the presence of a wartime leader.

Zelensky’s Manifestation of the United Front against Russia in the First 100 Days of the Cold War: The Case for More Patriots

Zelensky has demonstrated an ability to appeal to a broad audience over the course of the conflict.

As Russia tried to interruptUkraines power supply, he sought to invoke America’s emotional response to his own country’s suffering.

We will have Christmas in two days. Maybe candlelit. He stated that there will be no electricity and that it was not because it is more romantic, but because there will not be.

Billions of US dollars are needed for a conflict thousands of miles away and many Americans have wondered aloud why the money is needed. He wanted to make the cause more than just his homeland.

Zelensky’s candid request for more Patriots – and Biden’s lighthearted response – amounted to a window into one of the world’s most complicated relationships.

That hasn’t always sat well with Biden or his team. Biden appeared to be trying to translate physical proximity into a better understanding of his counterpart, as he has with other foreign leaders.

It’s all about looking at someone. I mean it sincerely. He said that there is nothing better than looking a foe in the eye while sitting down face to face.

U.S. drone strikes against Ukraine in the two-day war with Russia: Implications for the US, the United States, and Russia

White House officials were skeptical that aid to Ukraine would last. They have pointed out that the Senate GOP leader is among the most ardent supporters of Ukraine, and that McCarthy has pledged continued support.

Moscow said that the war in Ukraine is set for a long confrontation with Russia, following President Zelensky’s visit to Washington.

Russia’s foreign ministry condemned what it called the “monstrous crimes” of the “regime in Kyiv,” after US President Joe Biden promised more military support to Ukraine during Zelensky’s summit at the White House on Wednesday.

The Foreign Ministry said that the West won’t achieve anything if they provide military support to the Ukrainian government.

Peskov told journalists, however, that Wednesday’s meeting showed the US is waging a proxy war of “indirect fighting” against Russia down “to the last Ukrainian.”

Since cruise missiles that fly from the airfields hit in the attacks can potentially be destroyed on the ground, the strikes may endanger them before they can be deployed.

Mr. Zagorodnyuk, clarifying that he did not speak for the government and could not confirm the strikes, added: “You cannot consider, this person will attack you because you are fighting back. There is no reason to not try to do this.

In the war with Russia, Serhiy Hrabskiy, a retired Colonel and commentator on the war, said that the Ukrainian military had not hesitated in hitting legitimate military targets. Targeting sites in Crimea and cross-border artillery duels have become routine as the war has moved closer to Russia and the occupied peninsula.

A Ukrainian military contractor claims that it developed a long-range drones that would theoretically be able to hit Moscow. Russia said Ukraine used Soviet-era, jet-powered reconnaissance drones to hit air bases on Dec. 5.

The Kinzhal, a hypersonic weapon that can reach targets in mere minutes, is in short supply, says Mr. Budanov.

“If the Russians thought that no one at home would be affected by the war, then they were deeply mistaken,” Colonel Ihnat said. He added that explosions at Russian airfields complicated the bombing campaign against Ukraine, forcing Moscow to relocate some of its aircraft, though no one is claiming that the strikes have seriously impeded the Russian barrage.

The foreign minister of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, told the Associated Press on Monday that his government planned to hold a peace summit in late February, but that Russia would not be invited unless they faced first. It was the latest in a string of claims by each country to be open to peace talks — but only on terms that are unacceptable to the other.

At the time, Putin insisted his forces were embarking on a “special military operation” — a term suggesting a limited campaign that would be over in a matter of weeks.

War against Ukraine has left Russia isolated and struggling with more tumultaneous-ahedriahe

The war ended a post-Soviet period in which the country attempted to improve it’s life, and at least financial integration and dialogue with the West.

Draconian laws passed since February have outlawed criticism of the military or leadership. Nearly 20,000 people have been detained for demonstrating against the war — 45% of them women — according to a leading independent monitoring group.

Long prison sentences have been meted out to high profile opposition voices who questioned the conduct of the Russian army.

The repressions extend elsewhere: organizations and individuals are added weekly to a growing list of “foreign agents” and “non-desirable” organizations intended to damage their reputation among the Russian public.

The most revered human rights group in Russia had to stop activities over alleged violations of the foreign agents law.

The state has also vastly expanded Russia’s already restrictive anti-LGBT laws, arguing the war in Ukraine reflects a wider attack on “traditional values.”

For now, repressions remain targeted. Some of the new laws are still unenforced. The measures are meant to be used to crush larger dissent should the moment arise.

Leading independent media outlets and a handful of vibrant, online investigative startups were forced to shut down or relocate abroad when confronted with new “fake news” laws that criminalized contradicting the official government line.

The internet users have restrictions as well. American social media giants such as Twitter and Facebook were banned in March. Since the start of the conflict, over 100,000 websites have been blocked by the internet regulators in the Kremlin.

Technical workarounds such as VPNs and Telegram still offer access to Russians seeking independent sources of information. Older Russians find state media propaganda helpful, with TV talk shows spreading rumors and conspiracy theories.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/31/1145981036/war-against-ukraine-has-left-russia-isolated-and-struggling-with-more-tumult-ahe

The Russian Exodus During the First Three Years of the Cold Cold War: Is Russia Really Ready to Leave Russia? Why Russia is Facing and How It’s Going

Thousands of perceived government opponents — many of them political activists, civil society workers and journalists — left in the war’s early days amid concerns of persecution.

In September, Putin ordered 300,000 additional troops to be sent and caused hundreds of thousands of Russian men to flee to other states in order to avoid the draft.

Putin claimed that it was part of a purge of traitors and spies in Russia. Russian officials have suggested stripping those who left the country of their passports. Yet there are questions whether Russia can thrive without many of its best and brightest.

Meanwhile, some countries that have absorbed the Russian exodus predict their economies will grow, even as the swelling presence of Russians remains a sensitive issue to former Soviet republics in particular.

Russia’s banking and trading markets looked shaky during the initial days of the invasion. McDonald’s, ExxonMobil and many other corporations reduced or halted operations in Russia.

The West continues to try and crimp Russian energy profits, by capping the amount countries will pay for Russian oil and limiting seaborne oil imports. There are signs the efforts are already cutting into profits.

Europe is being bet on to blink first when it comes to sanctions because it will be angered by rising energy costs at home. He announced a five-month ban on oil exports to countries that abide by the price cap, a move likely to make the pain more acute in Europe.

The economic damage has already put an end to Putin’s two-decades strong reputation for providing “stability” — once a key basis for his support among Russians who remember the chaotic years that followed the collapse of the USSR.

When it comes to Russia’s military campaign, there’s no outward change in the government’s tone. Russia’s Defense Ministry provides daily briefings recounting endless successes on the ground. Putin assures that everything is on plan.

Yet the sheer length of the war — with no immediate Russian victory in sight — suggests Russia vastly underestimated Ukrainians’ willingness to resist.

Russian troops have proven unable to conquer Ukraine’s capital Kyiv or the second city of Kharkiv. Kherson, the sole major city that Russia seized, was abandoned during a Ukrainian counteroffensive in November. Russian forces have been shelling the city.

Russia’s annexation of several territories of Ukraine is only indicative of what Moscow has been up against since: it has been unable to establish full control over the lands it now claims as its own.

The true number of Russian losses is a very taboo topic at home. Western estimates place those figures much higher.

A series of explosions, including along a key bridge connecting Russia to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014, have put into question Russia’s ability to defend its own strategic infrastructure.

NATO is set to expand towards Russia’s borders with the addition of long-neutral States, as a result of Russia’s invasion.

Longtime allies in Central Asia have criticized Russia’s actions out of concern for their own sovereignty, an affront that would have been unthinkable in Soviet times. India and China have eagerly purchased discounted Russian oil, but have stopped short of full-throated support for Russia’s military campaign.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/31/1145981036/war-against-ukraine-has-left-russia-isolated-and-struggling-with-more-tumult-ahe

Putin’s State of the Nation Address at the Kremlin has been canceled for the last 10 months, and a German Prime Minister will announce plans to send airborne missiles to Ukraine

Originally slated for April, the state of the nation address will not be happening until next year. Putin’s annual media event in which he talks to ordinary Russians was canceled completely.

The December big press conference, in which the Russian leader is allowed to handle questions from mostly pro-Kremlin media, was tabled until 2023.

No reason was given for the delays by the Kremlin. Many suspect it might be that, after 10 months of war and no sign of victory in sight, the Russian leader has finally run out of good news to share.

Ukrainian officials quickly focused on fighter planes as the next item on their wish list after securing commitment of tanks and armored fighting vehicles in January. The president has said he does not want to send jets to Ukraine, and other allies have also appeared hesitant. Last week, Britain said it would start training Ukrainian pilots on Western jets.

Biden phoned the German Chancellor on Thursday to reiterate the new commitment. Germany will also send Ukraine new fighting vehicles, along with a Patriot missile battery to protect against Russian air attacks.

Zelensky wanted to be able to Target Russian missiles at a higher altitude than they were able to do before, and those systems were on his wish list.

What happened to the Soviet Makiivka rocket attack during the December 19 – December 9, 2010 conflict in Ukraine: David A. Andelman

The author of A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars that Might still happen is David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN, twice winner of the Deadline Club Award. He formerly was a correspondent for The New York Times and CBS News in Europe and Asia. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.

The result of the attack is the same, regardless of whether Ukraine or Russia lost 400 men or not: Russia has its highest single-incident death toll of the war.

It is telling that days after the deadliest known attack on Russian servicemen, President Vladimir Putin called for a temporary ceasefire, citing the Orthodox Christmas holiday. The move was seen by both the US and Ukraine as a way to seek breathing space in light of a very bad start to the year for Russian forces.

Russian officials said that four Ukrainian-launched HIMARS rockets hit the vocational school where its forces were housed, apparently adjacent to a large arms depot. (Another two HIMARS rockets were shot down by Russian air defenses).

Chris Dougherty, a senior fellow for the Defense Program and co-head of the Gaming Lab at the Center for New American Security in Washington, has told me that Russia’s failure to break up or move large arms depots is largely a function of the reality that their forces cannot communicate adequately.

It’s a view shared by other experts. “Bad communications security seems to be standard practice in the Russian Army,” James Lewis, director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told me in an e-mail exchange.

The troops killed in Makiivka seem to have been recent conscripts, part of a larger picture of Russian soldiers being shipped to the front lines with little training and deeply sub-standard equipment and weapons.

The most recent arrivals to the war are inmates from Russian prisons who were freed and immediately sent to the Ukrainian front. One can only imagine the appeal of using cell phones to prisoners used to little or no contact with the outside world.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/opinions/russia-makiivka-deaths-cell-phones-andelman/index.html

The Defense Minister, the Butcher of Mariupol, and the Defense Minister in Kiev: After the Makiivka Attack, Putin Has a New Arm

The errors by the Russian military are now becoming so blatant, and as the Makiivka attack shows, so deadly to Russian forces, that some of Putin’s most ardent apologists have now begun turning on the military establishment.

Semyon Pegov has been honoured with the Order of Courage by President Vladimir Putin and he attacked the Ministry of Defense for suggesting it was the troops who were responsible for using cell phones.

He questioned how the Ministry of Defense could be “so sure” that the location of soldiers lodging in a school building could not have been determined using drone surveillance or a local informant.

A month earlier, the defense ministry underwent a shakeup when Col. Gen. Mikhail Y. Mizintsev, known to Western officials as the “butcher of Mariupol,” was named deputy defense minister for overseeing logistics, replacing four-star Gen. Dmitri V. Bulgakov, who had held the post since 2008. The location of the arms depot was likely to have been watched by Mizintsev.

Sergei Shoigu told his forces in a celebratory video: “Our victory, like the New Year, is inevitable.”

How long Putin can insulate himself and prevent the blame from turning on himself is the key question in the wake of Makiivka. As the war enters its new year, there is no indication that the Ukrainian forces are going to try to ease the pressure on Russian forces in the east.

The administration announced a new $2.85 billion drawdown for Ukraine, part of more than $3 billion in new military assistance to Ukraine. The drawdown, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday, will include “Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, artillery systems, armored personnel carriers, surface to air missiles, ammunition, and other items to support Ukraine as it bravely defends its people, its sovereignty, and its territorial integrity.”

Blinken said the administration would work with Congress to “to provide an additional $907 million of Foreign Military Financing under the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022.”

McCarthy has had more than a dozen unsuccessful votes this week to win the speakership, and there is concern that it could put more restrictions on aid to Ukraine.

Two of the Republicans who had opposed McCarthy until Friday afternoon – Florida Rep. Byron Donalds and Texas Rep. Chip Roy – had called on the House to change leadership and debate rules over Ukraine aid. Other Ukraine aid skeptics have continued to oppose McCarthy’s bid.

Several Republican members who switched their votes to support McCarthy on Friday said they are encouraged by a framework of an agreement, but provided no specifics about the deal and said talks are ongoing.

The Road Towards a Better Europe: Understanding the Response of the US to Ukraine to the Trump-McCahn Presidency

That number was even higher than President Joe Biden requested – a reflection of Democrats’ concern that additional funding wouldn’t be as forthcoming in a GOP-led House. The view in the White House was that the number would sustain US support for several months and that it was an insurance policy against Republican resistance.

“This is a harbinger for a protracted legislative paralysis,” the diplomat said, adding that “the Freedom Caucus – which is not particularly pro-Ukrainian – has just demonstrated its clout.”

Others noted they were watching closely to see the kinds of maneuvers McCarthy would make to secure the role, which could potentially include cuts to aid.

A diplomat told CNN that they are worried about the policy concessions McCarthy will make, and if they will affect the role of the US in the world.

A third diplomat expressed concerns concessions like crucial committee assignments, such as the House Rules Committee, could be given to lawmakers who have advocated against more aid to Ukraine, which could create immense hurdles for passing additional assistance legislation.

Russia had invested heavily in the 750-mile undersea pipeline linking it to Germany and wanted to increase global sales and ramp up economic leverage over Europe and its power-hungry heavy industries. Germany was on board from the beginning. Washington was not.

The United States didn’t want the new, high-capacity subsea supply to supplant old overland lines that transited Ukraine, providing vital revenue to the increasingly Westward-leaning leadership in Kyiv.

Russia’s ambassador to Germany called Berlin’s move to send tanks dangerous, saying it was refusing to acknowledge Germany’s historic accountability to its people for the horrible crimes of Nazism. His counterpart in Washington accused the White House of being intent on the “strategic defeat” of Russia.

Europe has been slow to respond to the turmoil in US politics and the uncertainty caused by a Trump presidency. Decades of a reasonably unshakable reliance, if not complete trust, in the US, has been replaced by stubborn European pragmatism – and Germany leads the way.

Former Chancellor Merkel was Europe’s moral compass. Scholz has found unexpected metal in his ponderous, often stop/go/wait traffic-light governing coalition and won thunderous applause in Germany’s Bundestag on Wednesday as he flashed a rare moment of steely leadership.

Putin’s war with Russia, the cold war and economic collapse: a public speech from the Kremlin era after his first term in office

He said that they wouldn’t put you in danger. He explained to the public how his government dealt with Russia’s aggression, as well as the fear of a freezing winter and economic collapse. He said the government had dealt with the crisis and that they were in a better position.

The applause at each step of his carefully crafted speech spoke as loudly as his words. Scholz got it exactly the way he wanted it for Germany, with a population that usually avoids war and projecting their own power, and a deeply divided populace over how much they should help Ukraine in taking out Russians.

CNN spoke to some people in Russia after the announcements of Biden and Scholz on tanks confused. Some said Russia would win regardless, and lumped the US and Germany together as the losers, but a significant proportion were worried about the war, dismayed at the heavy death toll and frustrated that Putin ignored their concerns.

How much Scholz is aware of Putin’s softening popularity or whether he believes it relevant at this moment is unclear, but his actions now, sending tanks, may help ease Putin’s iron grip on power.

Longer debates about the next military moves for Ukraine is expected to signal to Zelensky that weapons supplies will be on more of a German leash, and less driven by the US.

This shift in the power dynamic may not change the way the war is fought but could impact the contours of a final deal and shape a lasting peace when it comes.

Britain announced Wednesday it would send more military equipment to Kyiv to help counter a possible Russian spring offensive. Sunak said the UK would invest in the military of Ukraine, and expand training to fighter pilots and marines.

Analysis of NPR’s State of Ukraine: The Russian-Ukraine War and Russia’s War on Soledar with the Singularities

On Tuesday morning in Singapore, the International Monetary Fund will release its World Economic Outlook. The IMF has stressed that the Russia-Ukraine war is a big factor causing economic slowdown and recession in some countries.

A group of European Commission leaders are expected to be in Ukraine on Thursday and the leaders of the European Union will meet with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy the following day.

After a tough battle, the Ukrainian military acknowledged the takeover of Soledar by the Russians. The Russian forces continued their offensive around Bakhmut and other areas.

New U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy arrived in Moscow, at a time of strong tensions between the two governments over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On Monday, Tracy was reportedly heckled by protesters as she entered the Russian Foreign Ministry to present her credentials.

The Baltic states told Russia’s ambassadors to get out after the Kremlin said it had demoted the Baltic states over what it called “Russophobia.”

Here you can read past recaps. You can find more of NPR’s coverage here. Also, listen and subscribe to NPR’s State of Ukraine podcast for updates throughout the day.

Ukraine could not send fighter jets to Ukraine, according to a statement by the Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov on CNN and other European media

Europe can be used for training courses, according to Reznikov. “It’s more convenient because we have to use a similar landscape and we have to have similar weather conditions.”

“For the Leopard tanks, for example, [training] normally could be half a year. He hopes it will be done within a month or two months.

US and European officials have similarly told CNN and said publicly that the F-16 fighter jets are impractical, and note that Ukraine has not been conducting many air missions with the fighter planes it already has because of the danger posed by Russia’s anti-aircraft systems, officials told CNN.

The Europeans have had a similar experience. French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Monday that while “nothing is off-limits in principle,” neither the Netherlands nor France had received any official requests from Ukraine to send the fighter jets.

Still, Ukraine wants more fighter jets to bolster its limited numbers of war planes. The American F-16 requires years of pilot training and the Ukrainians would like it. It is vulnerable to Russia’s anti-aircraft systems like all Ukrainian fighter jets. Ukraine’s Defense Minister, Oleksii Reznikov, told NPR he doesn’t think these reasons are valid.

Defense is not a Phenomenon: Why the F-16 fighter jets are not easy to fly in Ukraine, and why the UK is reluctant to fly

Before the Russian invasion, most defense ministry expenses were public. Now most are classified for security reasons. He says transparency is a delicate issue during wartime, but he is working with parliament to change laws and make defense expenditures at least “semi-transparent.”

“It’s not a piece of cake, but I will do it,” he says. Zero tolerance with corruption is what my principle is. The old-fashioned Soviet Ukraine had a reputation for corruption and we need to be a new Ukraine with the European standard.

Ukrainian officials have intensified their lobbying of the US to make F-16 fighter jets to defend against Russian missile and drone attacks.

The UK, meanwhile, believes that the fighter jets “are extremely sophisticated and take months to learn how to fly,” a British government spokesperson told reporters on Tuesday. “Given that, we believe it is not practical to send those jets into Ukraine.”

“One year ago everyone rejected HIMARS and no one could imagine Abrams tanks,” the official said, referring to US missile systems provided to Ukraine last year, and the Biden administration’s decision last week to give Ukraine the flagship American battle tank.

The Ukrainian military official told CNN that fighter jets aren’t as easy as the long-range missiles they want.

Last week, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said they were providing them something they could operate, maintain and sustain. “The F-16 – this is a very complicated system.”

Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, also appeared reluctant, telling reporters on Monday that sending the planes “would really be a big next step if it comes to that.” The Prime Minister of Poland stated that Warsaw would only send fighter jets in coordination with its NATO partners.

Air war is different in Ukraine than in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iraq: the U.S. side is rare, as drones are rare in the air

Russia is gearing up for a “maximum escalation” of the war in Ukraine, potentially as soon as the next few weeks, according to a top Ukrainian national security official.

“These will be defining months in the war,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told Sky News in an interview broadcast Tuesday.

Natalia Humeniuk, who is head of the United Coordinating Press Center of Security and Defense Forces of South of Ukraine, said that she was talking about both land and sea.

Military representatives from the two countries will plan for the use of troops based on previous experiences of armed conflicts, according to the ministry.

Yet one thing makes this battle distinctive from all previous air wars of the past century: pilots are rare. This goes against the traditional view of air combat.

Top Gun: Maverick has been nominated in the Best Picture category. We are watching an air war. And it looks very different from anything that we see in Top Gun,” said Kelly Grieco, with the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank.

“There are [piloted] aircraft that are still flying at times. But we’re talking a very small number of sorties compared to compared to past wars,” said Grieco, who keeps close tabs on the air war.

He knows these tenets well. In his early career, Gersten flew combat F-16 missions and later commanded U.S. drones in the Middle East. In Iraq and Afghanistan, drones were very important in the U.S. air campaign. The US dominated the skies in all of those conflicts, but piloted U.S. war planes played a significant role.

On the Ukrainian side, drones are playing a growing role. The Canadian company, Draganfly, has been making machines for civilian use since the 1990s. Last year, Chell said it never did business in a war zone.

An American aid group had difficulty getting their ambulances into besieged cities, so they asked if they could use our drones.

The UK needs fighters: a message from Zelensky to the Prime Minister, King Charles III on Wednesday, at Buckingham Palace

Zelensky told a press conference on Wednesday that his top priority is for the Ukranian side to get more weapons.

Zelensky handed Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the helmet of a Ukrainian fighter pilot, with a message that said “We have freedom”. Give us wings to protect it.”

Zelensky addressed the Prime Minister and his cabinet in the same area where Queen Elizabeth was laid in state, which is also the location of US President Obama.

Sunak greeted Zelensky at the airport after he disembarked from a Royal Air Force plane. Sunak tweeted a picture of the pair embracing on the runway. The caption reads “Welcome to the UK, PresidentZelenskyGloryyUa.”

Zelensky went to Buckingham Palace to meet King Charles III, who told him that people had been worried about him for a long time.

“I am grateful to His Majesty for the warm welcome and for supporting Ukrainian citizens who have taken refuge from the war in the United Kingdom,” Zelensky said.

“We have no way out. We have to stick to our guns. Zelensky said we need armored vehicles, tanks, fighter jets and that he and Sunak spent a lot of time talking about it.

The UK has not yet sent its fighter jets toUkraine, saying that it was not the right approach. However, Wednesday’s announcement will raise hopes that there could be a future shift in attitude. According to the UK, it will provide Ukrainians with a better range of capabilities.

Zelensky said that the Prime Minister wants to provide fighter jets and he told him they can begin training pilots. “When it comes to Typhoons, not everything depends just on the decision of Great Britain.”

Sunak noted that it takes three years to train a Typhoon fighter pilot from scratch, to which Zelensky responded, “I didn’t even know it takes three years to train a pilot like that. They will be sending pilots who already trained for two and a half years.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/08/europe/zelensky-visit-uk-intl-gbr/index.html

The Russian Embassy in London: Why Russia is going to MH17? How we got here: Why Europe and the world are under enormous pressure

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace is investigating which aircraft could be given to Ukraine, but Downing Street maintained no decision has yet been taken on whether to supply the jets.

The Russian embassy in London described the trip as a “hasty event,” “theatrical performance,” and a “fundraising event,” mocking Zelensky as an “ex-comedian in a green sweatshirt,” in a statement to CNN.

The embassy reminded London that if there is another round of escalation, it will be on theUK’s hands and it will have effects on Europe and the world.

The UK package targets six entities providing military equipment such as drones, as well as eight individuals and one entity connected to “nefarious financial networks that help maintain wealth and power amongst Kremlin elites,” a government statement read.

According to UK government data, the UK government has imposed sanctions on hundreds of Russian individuals and entities since last February.

In the past, the ambassador has attended the State of the Union speech, but this year she missed out on the attention that was given to the war in Ukraine.

According to a report by international team investigating the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, it appears that Russian President Putin approved the supply of anti-aircraft weapons to the rebels.

How we got here: Decades of budget cuts across Europe have led to policy makers keeping a deliberately low stock on the assumption that there would not be a land war that could swallow up ammunition at similar levels to World War I or II, experts said.

According to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, the rate of spending on weapons in Ukranian is more than twice what ours is and this puts our defense industries under strain.

“The combination of no immediate threat and the financial pressures on European governments over the past couple of decades led to a conspiracy of dressing the shop window while letting the stockroom empty out,” said Nick Witney, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

The looming ammunition crisis has, however, revealed that policymaking is often based on convenient assumptions of the best-case scenario. In the short-term at least, taking no action is cheaper than taking action.

Cherevaty vs Kyiv in the war of Ukraine: what are the consequences for the security and security of the country?

A spokesman for the armed forces, Col. Serhiy Cherevaty, said on Ukrainian television that soldiers need to keep their focus on building defensive lines. But he also said that part of the reason for the order a day earlier barring civilians, including aid workers, from entering the city was to keep military operations secret.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have little strategic value from the prize of Bakhmut. The amount of blood spilled in order to claim it is more important than its significance.

John Kirby of the National Security Council said that Bakhmut would not have a significant impact on the war. It won’t have a strategic impact on the fighting in that part of the country

Western officials in Europe were unwilling to say whether or not the campaign would win the war against Russia.

The American defense secretary did not say whether fighter jets had been discussed.