RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
US wants to send ‘Iranian’ weapons to Ukraine – WSJ
The US government is trying to find a legal way to send Ukraine the weapons allegedly sent to the Houthis by Iran and confiscated off the coast of Yemen, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Citing anonymous US and European officials, the WSJ said that the White House is looking at “wiggle room” in UN regulations, so that the rifles, rockets and ammunition seized on the high seas can be redirected to Kiev.
The amount of seized weapons is small compared to what the US and its allies have sent to Ukraine over the past year, the unnamed officials say it would be a symbolic punishment for Iran supplying Russia with drones – something both Tehran and Moscow have denied.
“It’s a message to take weapons meant to arm Iran’s proxies and flip them to achieve our priorities in Ukraine, where Iran is providing arms to Russia,” one unnamed US official told the WSJ.
According to the Journal, the cache amounts to 5,000 rifles, 1.6 million rounds of ammunition for them, a score of anti-tank rockets and some 7,000 proximity fuses. The loot came from three fishing boats boarded by the US and French sailors over the past several months in the Gulf of Oman.
“What change can this make to war?” the Houthi deputy information minister, Nasr al-Din Amir, told the Journal when asked about the idea of sending the weapons to Ukraine. “They’ve been sending much heavier weapons.”
Washington, Berlin and London announced last month they would deliver heavy tanks to Kiev. As of this week, according to the Pentagon, the US alone has provided Ukraine with over 100 million bullets.
At Monday’s meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg admitted that “the current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production,” which he said was putting a strain on the West’s military industry and “depleting allied stockpiles.”
Russia has warned the US and its allies that continuing to send weapons to Ukraine risks involving them in the conflict directly and only delays the inevitable.
** Kremlin warns about NATO’s role in Ukraine conflict
NATO’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict is becoming more obvious by the day, despite claims to the contrary, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
“NATO is an organization that is hostile to us,” Peskov told reporters. “They are confirming this hostility every day and are going out of their way to make their involvement in the conflict around Ukraine a lot clearer.”
Peskov said the military bloc’s activities demand “certain precautionary measures” from Moscow. He noted that the US-led alliance has shared intelligence with Ukraine, and that “all of NATO’s military infrastructure is working against Russia.”
Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine nearly a year ago, citing the need to protect the people of Donbass and Kiev’s failure to implement the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements.
NATO has since supplied Kiev with heavy weapons, including multiple rocket launchers, anti-tank weapons, armored vehicles, and artillery. The bloc has also trained Ukrainian troops. Despite this, NATO Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg claimed at a press conference on Monday that the alliance was not a “party to the conflict.”
However, Stoltenberg noted that since 2014, NATO has “implemented the biggest reinforcements of collective defense in a generation,” deploying additional forces close to Russia’s borders. Moscow has repeatedly stressed that it considers the military sites on the bloc’s eastern flank as a threat.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stated at a parliamentary debate last month that the EU was “fighting a war against Russia.” She later claimed she had made a mistake, but also argued that her words had been misconstrued.
Kiev’s backers are meeting in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss further support. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters upon arrival that Western countries were aiming to “help Ukraine hold and advance during the spring counter-offensive.” Several states, including the US, Britain, and Germany, earlier pledged to supply Kiev with modern main battle tanks.
Moscow has warned that more foreign weapons will further escalate the conflict, vowing that tanks and other Western-supplied arms would be treated as legitimate targets for Russian troops.
** West waits for more favorable conditions for talks on Ukraine — Hungarian Foreign Minister
France and other Western countries believe that Ukraine should continue its military actions, while peace negotiations should begin when the situation on the battlefield is more favorable for the Kiev government, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said.
"We would like to see an immediate ceasefire and the launch of peace talks," he said in an interview with Hungarian journalists on Tuesday night, after talks with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna in Paris. "It appears that France’s position, as well as positions of all other European states, differs from ours."
In his words, Western countries "expect more favorable conditions for the start of talks to be created in Ukraine."
"We do not believe in this. We think that human suffering must end immediately. Peace is needed right now," the Hungarian top diplomat said, adding that both Hungary and France want peace in Ukraine, but differ in their views on how this goal can be achieved.
Therefore, their "approaches [to the problem] differ," he added.
WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Zelenskiy urges speedy help from allies as Russia pounds Ukraine's east
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged allies to be speedy in sending more military help as NATO defence ministers met and Russia bombarded the eastern front line in what appeared to be the early salvoes of a new offensive.
Much of Russia's artillery fire was focused on Bakhmut, a bombed-out city in Donetsk province and a principal target for President Vladimir Putin. Ukrainian troops there have fortified positions in anticipation of street fighting.
Bakhmut's capture would provide a stepping stone for Russia to advance on two bigger Donetsk cities, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, and give Moscow momentum after months of battlefield setbacks following its invasion last February.
NATO defence ministers met in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss the war and stockpiles. Zelenskiy said Russia was in a hurry to achieve as much as it could with its latest push before Ukraine and its allies could gather strength.
"That is why speed is of the essence," he said in an evening video address.
"Speed in everything - adopting decisions, carrying out decisions, shipping supplies, training. Speed saves people's lives, speed brings back security, and I thank all our partners who realize that speed is important."
Ukraine is using shells faster than the West can make them.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he expected Ukraine to launch its own offensive against Russia in the spring and Kyiv's allies were working to ensure they had the armour, firepower and logistics to make it effective.
"Ukraine has urgent requirements to help it meet this crucial moment in the course of the war. We believe there'll be a window of opportunity for them to exercise initiative," Austin told the meeting of defence ministers.
NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg said Putin was "preparing for more war, for new offensives and new attacks."
With the first anniversary of Russia's invasion nearing, the Kremlin has intensified operations across a broad swathe of southern and eastern Ukraine, and a major new offensive has been widely anticipated.
In its evening report, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Russian forces trained mortar and artillery fire on more than 20 towns and villages in the Bakhmut part of the front line, including the city itself.
They also launched missile strikes on the industrial cities Kostyantynivka and Kramatorsk in Donetsk, it said.
Russian forces had made incremental progress in their assault on Bahkmut, White House spokesperson John Kirby said.
Britain said on Tuesday mercenaries from the Wagner Group, who have spearheaded the Russian assault on Bakhmut, had made small gains in its northern outskirts in the past three days.
Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin said Russian forces would not be able to capture the town anytime soon. In a post on the Telegram platform, Prigozhin said Ukraine was reinforcing with up to 500 new fighters a day.
MORE MILITARY AID?
Promised battle tanks last month, Ukraine is also desperate for fighter jets and longer-range missiles to nip any significant new Russian offensive in the bud and help turn the tide against Moscow's far superior firepower.
Germany appeared to quash Kyiv's hopes for fighter jets now when its defence minister said that was not a focus at the moment but would certainly be discussed.
"Only when the skies over Ukraine remain safe over the next three, four months, then you can talk about all other further steps," he said on Tuesday.
The Kremlin, which calls the invasion a "special military operation" to eliminate security threats, said NATO was demonstrating its hostility towards Russia every day and was becoming more and more involved in the conflict.
Kyiv and its allies call Russia's actions an unprovoked land grab.
Ukrainian officials also said the Russians had suffered big losses around Vuhledar, a town 150 km (90 miles) southwest of Bakhmut, including tanks, armoured vehicles and personnel.
Reuters was unable to independently verify battlefield reports.
On the snowbound Ukrainian front line between Vuhledar and Marinka 30 km to the northeast, and 400 metres (1,300 feet) from Russian positions, two officers said Kyiv's forces were holding firm against intensifying Russian artillery and mortar fire.
Russia now holds swathes of the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, including its nuclear plant, nearly all of Luhansk and over half of Donetsk, including the regional capital.
A U.S.-backed report published on Tuesday said Russia has held at least 6,000 Ukrainian children - likely many more - in sites in Crimea and Russia whose primary purpose appears to be political re-education.
Russia's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
RT/TASS/Reuters
