WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Moscow intensifies winter assault, Kyiv expects new offensive
Moscow pressed its intensifying winter assault in eastern Ukraine, bringing tens of thousands of freshly mobilised troops to the battlefield, while Kyiv predicted areas in the northeast or south could be part of an expected Russian offensive.
Ukraine's military said on Tuesday that 1,030 Russian troops were killed over 24 hours, the highest daily toll of the war. The figure could not be independently verified, and Russia has also claimed to have killed large numbers of Ukrainian troops in recent weeks. For its part, Russia said it had inflicted 6,500 Ukrainian casualties in January.
Ukraine national security chief Oleksiy Danilov said in an interview on Tuesday that the Kremlin is expected to target the northeastern Kharkiv or southern Zaporizhzhia regions in a new thrust.
"Attempts at an offensive in either the Kharkiv or Zaporizhzhia direction will of course be made," he told Reuters, speaking in his office in Kyiv. "How successful they'll be will depend on us."
The Ukraine Armed Forces said on Tuesday evening that more than 30 towns and villages in Kharkiv and 20 communities in Zaporizhzhia came under fire.
Top Ukrainian officials including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy have said Moscow will attempt to mount another major offensive with freshly mobilised troops in the coming weeks as the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion nears on Feb. 24.
"They need to have something to show before their people, and have a major desire to do something big, as they see it, by this date," Danilov said.
After Russia failed to capture the Ukrainian capital Kyiv last year and lost ground in the second half of 2022, Moscow is now making full use of hundreds of thousands of troops it called up in the autumn in its first mobilisation since World War Two.
The last few weeks have seen Russia boast of its first gains for half a year. But the progress has been incremental, with Moscow yet to capture a single major population centre in its winter campaign despite thousands of dead.
Fighting has focused for months around Ukrainian-held Bakhmut in eastern Donetsk province, a city with a pre-war population of around 75,000. Russia has made clear progress towards encircling it from both the north and south, but Kyiv says its garrison is holding fast.
Danilov echoed earlier predictions by Kyiv that Russia still wants to capture all of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east that Moscow claimed as its own territory last year in referendums dismissed by Ukraine and the West as a sham.
Moscow has also launched an assault further south against Vuhledar, a Ukrainian-controlled bastion also in Donetsk province on high ground at the strategic intersection between the eastern and southern front lines.
NEW WEAPONS MONTHS AWAY
So far this year, Western countries have pledged hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles to Ukraine to give it the firepower and mobility to push through Russian lines and recapture territory later in 2023.
A new U.S. package of weapons is expected to include longer-range rockets, which would give Ukraine the ability to hit Russian supply lines in all of the territory it occupies in Ukraine's mainland and parts of the Crimea Peninsula.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter he spoke on Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken about new military aid, sanctions on Russia and "the preparations of important events."
But it will take months before new weapons arrive, and meanwhile Russia has replenished its manpower. The Kremlin says Western supplies of arms only widen and extend the conflict.
"The U.S. and its allies are trying to prolong the conflict as much as possible," Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday in a conference call with military officials.
"To do this, they have started supplying heavy offensive weapons, openly urging Ukraine to seize our territories. In fact, such steps are dragging NATO countries into the conflict and could lead to an unpredictable level of escalation."
His use of the phrase "our territories" appeared to refer to four Ukrainian provinces Russia claimed to have annexed last year, as well as Crimea, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
US congressman calls to end funding for Ukraine’s army
The US must stop sending billions of dollars to bolster Ukraine’s military, Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz said during a speech in the House of Representatives on Monday. He slammed President Joe Biden and both parties, saying the conflict in Ukraine is only benefiting military contractors.
“At the State of the Union address President Biden will tell us how much more we must do for Ukraine,” Gaetz said, adding that the ongoing hostilities are only lining the pockets of America’s military industry.
“Defense contractors need there to be a war going on somewhere. Whether the arms end up in the hands of ISIS, the Taliban, the Azov Battalion, or on the black market,” according to Gaetz. Washington’s support of Ukraine with endless weapons will not end the war but just “prolong the killing,” he said.
“Bandits in the Sinaloa mountains hurt more Americans than the [Russian] men in Crimea,” Gaetz said, adding that the benefits of the conflict to normal Americans are “unclear.”
He lamented that “foreigners” have come to Washington “to lecture us about spending our constituents’ money on a conflict thousands of miles away” – a reference to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s visit to the US Capitol in December.
He accused Biden of doing “everything possible” to provoke a nuclear war with Russia and called on the White House to pursue a solution through diplomacy.
Biden promised 31 US-made M1 Abrams tanks for Ukraine in late January, but said that Washington would not send F-16 fighter jets. Gaetz noted that Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the warplane, was ramping up production in anticipation that there could soon be “third party transfers” of the jets to Kiev.
Asked about the tank deliveries, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in January that they will “burn” like every other weapon in the conflict zone.
** Russian forces strike over 80 Ukrainian artillery units in past day
Russian forces struck over 80 Ukrainian artillery units at firing positions in the past day during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Tuesday.
"Missile troops and artillery of the Russian group of forces struck 86 artillery units at firing positions, manpower and military hardware in 139 areas," the spokesman said.
Russian combat aircraft and artillery inflicted damage on the Ukrainian army’s manpower and equipment in the Kupyansk area, eliminating over 50 enemy troops in the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the Kupyansk direction, assault and army aviation aircraft and artillery of the western battlegroup delivered strikes on manpower and equipment of units of the Ukrainian army’s 14th and 92nd mechanized brigades in areas near the settlements of Ivanovka and Berestovoye in the Kharkov Region and Novosyolovskoye in the Lugansk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.
The enemy’s losses in that area in the past 24 hours "totaled over 50 Ukrainian troops, two armored combat vehicles, four motor vehicles and a D-30 howitzer," the general specified.
Russian forces destroyed over 100 Ukrainian troops in the Krasny Liman area in the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the Krasny Liman direction, operational-tactical and army aviation aircraft, artillery and heavy flamethrowers of the battlegroup Center inflicted damage on units of the Ukrainian army’s 66th mechanized, 25th airborne, 95th air assault and 81st air mobile brigades," the spokesman said.
Russian forces eliminated "over 100 personnel, three armored combat vehicles and two motor vehicles," the general specified.
Russian forces eliminated over 90 Ukrainian troops in the Donetsk area in the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the Donetsk direction, over 90 Ukrainian troops, four armored combat vehicles, a Grad multiple rocket launcher and a Msta-B howitzer were destroyed as a result of damage inflicted on Ukrainian army units by combined firepower and offensive operations by assault teams of the southern battlegroup," the spokesman said.
Russian forces also wiped out a Ukrainian artillery ammunition depot near the settlement of Ilyichyovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the general added.
Russian forces struck two Ukrainian army brigades in the southern Donetsk and Zaporozhye areas over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the southern Donetsk and Zaporozhye areas, artillery of the battlegroup East struck manpower and equipment of the Ukrainian army’s 1st tank and 72nd mechanized brigades in areas near the settlements of Ugledar and Vodyanoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.
The enemy’s losses in those areas in the past 24 hours amounted to over 80 Ukrainian troops, a tank, two armored combat vehicles, two D-20 howitzers, two D-30 howitzers, and also a Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer. In addition, Russian forces wiped out four Ukrainian ammunition depots near the communities of Razliv, Dobrovolye and Novoekonomicheskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the general specified.
Russian forces eliminated roughly 20 Ukrainian troops and a self-propelled howitzer in the Kherson area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the Kherson direction, as many as 20 Ukrainian troops and an Akatsiya self-propelled howitzer were destroyed as a result of persistent artillery fire on amassed enemy manpower and equipment," the spokesman said.
Russian forces also wiped out a Ukrainian ammunition depot near the settlement of Tarasa Shevchenko in the Kherson Region, the general added.
Russian air defense forces shot down nine Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles and seven HIMARS and Uragan rockets over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"Air defense capabilities destroyed nine Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in areas near the settlements of Krasnorechenskoye, Artyomovka, Zhitlovka, Pshenichnoye, Novovodyanoye and Chervonopopovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Petrovskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic and Energodar in the Zaporozhye Region. In addition, they shot down seven rockets of the HIMARS and Uragan multiple launch rocket systems," the spokesman said.
In all, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 382 Ukrainian combat aircraft, 206 helicopters, 3,036 unmanned aerial vehicles, 403 surface-to-air missile systems, 7,771 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,010 multiple rocket launchers, 4,020 field artillery guns and mortars and 8,282 special military motor vehicles since the beginning of the special military operation, Konashenkov reported.
Reuters/RT/TASS
