WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine claims to down three Russian fighter-bomber jets
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and military officials said the country's forces shot down three Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber aircraft on Friday on the southern front, hailing it as a success in the 22-month-old war.
The Russian military made no mention of the incident. But Russian bloggers acknowledged the loss, and analysts suggested U.S.-supplied Patriot missiles had probably been used.
Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.
"Today at noon in the southern sector -- minus three Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers!" Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Air Force spokesperson Yuri Ihnat described it on national television as a "brilliantly planned operation."
"There haven't been Su-34s for some time in our positive statistics," he said, citing the model as one of Russia's most modern aircraft for bombing and other assaults.
Zelenskiy in his nightly video address praised the Odesa region anti-aircraft unit for downing the planes in Kherson region.
The region was occupied in the first days of Moscow's February 2022 invasion. Ukrainian forces have sought to regain territory and in November established positions on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson.
Eurasia Daily, a Russia-based journal, said the Ukrainian account was plausible. Kyiv could have launched Patriot missiles, which have a range of up to 160 km (100 miles) against high-altitude targets, from the western side of the Dnipro River, it said.
Ukrainian aviation expert Valeriy Romanenko told Ukrainian NV Radio he believed Patriot missiles most likely downed the Russian jets.
"This was a situation there the Russians were...dropping up to 100 bombs in the south. Three were flying together and got caught. They didn't quite take into account that the Patriot has a range of 160 km for aerodynamic targets," Romanenko said.
Ukrainian successes have become less frequent since its forces made lightning gains a year ago in retaking Russian-held territory in the northeast and in the south.
A counteroffensive launched in the east and south in June has had limited progress. Zelenskiy acknowledges that gains have been slower than hoped but has dismissed assertions by the military commander in chief, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, that the war has entered a phase of "attrition" requiring a change in tactics.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Ukrainian officials privately admit they’re losing – BILD editor
While the Ukrainian government paints a rosy picture of the conflict at press conferences, senior officials admit in private that the situation is grim, Paul Ronzheimer, a deputy editor-in-chief at the German outlet BILD, said on Friday.
Ronzheimer had just spent three days in Ukraine, meeting with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and other senior government and military officials, he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“Their statements match less and less the picture that is officially painted in press conferences and interviews, most recently by [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky,” he wrote.
Those who spoke to him in private identified “very clearly” several major problems for Kiev and at this time “see little chance for Ukrainian offensive efforts,” Ronzheimer wrote.
Tempering his criticism with the claim that Russia has lost “tens of thousands of soldiers and many tanks,” the German journalist noted that everyone he spoke with said that time was on Moscow’s side and that “stories from the front are almost unbearable.”
Ukrainian officials should say these things in public because “nothing else will help,” said Ronzheimer, while arguing that Europe and especially Germany will have to do more in 2024, not less.
The German journalist’s revelations match the tone of several Ukrainian MPs who spoke to The Times of London. In an article published on Friday, Roman Kostenko – a member of the Verkhovna Rada’s committee for national security, defense and intelligence – said a victory on the battlefield was “extremely unlikely” and expressed doubt that any Western weapons could turn the tide.
Another MP, Svyatoslav Yurash, described the fighting as “painful” and said the Ukrainians should “hope for the best but prepare for the worst.” The only thing to hope for right now was for the Russians to rebel and topple their government, he added.
Kiev launched a major offensive in early June, aiming to reach Crimea within 60 to 90 days but failing to advance past the first Russian defense lines. Russian troops have since taken the initiative and are moving forward on almost every section of the frontline.
Earlier this week, the Russian Defense Ministry made public its estimate that Ukraine has lost almost 400,000 troops since the hostilities escalated in February 2022, including those killed, wounded, captured or listed as missing. A prominent German military analyst has estimated Kiev’s losses at 800 troops a day.
Reuters/RT
