Kyiv urges speed with military aid
KShortly before the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insisted on speed in military aid to his attacked country. “We see that the Kremlin is trying to squeeze any potential for aggression out of Russia,” said Zelenskyy in his evening video message on Tuesday. “They are in a hurry, because they know that the world is stronger in the end, but it needs time to unfold its power.” That’s why quick help is now important.
At the same time he thanked for more weapons pledges at a NATO meeting a few hours earlier in Brussels. From a Ukrainian perspective, however, there is little further progress on the desired delivery of western F-16 fighter jets. The situation remains extremely tense, especially in the heavily contested city of Bachmut in the east.
US Chief of Staff: fairly stable front line
US Chief of Staff Mark Milley described the battle for the Bakhmut region in the east of the country as a war of attrition. There is a lot of violence and fighting, but the front line is fairly stable, Milley said on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels when asked about the current war situation. “I would describe it as a very big battle of attrition with very high casualties, especially on the Russian side.”
Selenskyj also spoke of an “extremely difficult” situation in the east of his country. “These are literally fights for every inch of Ukrainian land.”
According to Milley, the Ukrainians are currently holding the fort, while the Wagner group in particular is attacking on the Russian side. “There are no sophisticated maneuvers here. It’s frontal attacks, waves of attacks, lots of artillery with extremely high casualties in this area,” he said. How long this will go on is difficult to say. It’s been like this for weeks now.
USA: No new F-16 announcements for now
A possible delivery of Western F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, meanwhile, remains open even after the recent meeting of the international contact group for the coordination of military aid. “I have no announcements to make about this,” US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said after deliberations by the so-called Ramstein Group. He wanted to leave it at that.
