WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Zelenskiy touts new 'drone missile', calls Putin 'sick old man'

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy touted a newly developed Ukrainian "drone missile" on Saturday that he said would take the war back to Russia and scornfully derided Russia's Vladimir Putin as a "sick old man from Red Square".

As Ukraine marked 33 years of post-Soviet independence, Zelenskiy said the new weapon, Palianytsia, was faster and more powerful than the domestically made drones that Kyiv has so far used to fight back against Russia, striking its oil refineries and military airfields.

"Our enemy will ... know what the Ukrainian way for retaliation is. Worthy, symmetrical, long-ranged," he said.

Zelenskiy said the new class of Ukrainian weapon had been used for a successful strike on a target in Russia, but did not say where.

He used derisive language to describe Russia's 71-year-old president and the nuclear rhetoric coming out of Moscow.

"A sick old man from Red Square who constantly threatens everyone with the red button will not dictate any of his red lines to us," he said in a video on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia, which has attacked Ukraine with many thousands of missiles and drones since it invaded in February 2022, has decried Ukraine's drone attacks as terrorism. Moscow's troops are advancing in Ukraine's east and occupy 18% of the country.

Zelenskiy has been pressing Kyiv's allies to allow him to use Western weapons deeper in Russian territory such as to strike airbases used by Russian warplanes that pound Ukraine with missiles and glide bombs.

"I want to stress once more that our new weapon decisions, including Palianytsia, is our realistic way to act while some of our partners are unfortunately delaying decisions," Zelenskiy told a news conference.

Ukrainians say the word "Palianytsia", a type of Ukrainian bread, is too difficult to pronounce for Russians and it has been used - sometimes humorously - during the war as a way to tell Ukrainians and Russians apart.

"It will be very difficult for Russia, difficult to even pronounce what exactly has hit it," Zelenskiy said of the drone missile.

TOP COMMANDER PROMOTED

In a decree, Zelenskiy promoted his top commander, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, to the rank of general, a tacit gesture of praise after Ukraine's lightning cross-border incursion into Russia's Kursk region launched on Aug. 6.

Slammed by Russia as an escalation and major provocation, Ukraine's incursion has captured more than 90 settlements in the Kursk region according to Kyiv, the biggest invasion of Russia since World War Two.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Poland's and Lithuania's leaders, Zelenskiy told reporters the operation had in part been a preventive move to stop Russian plans to capture the northern city of Sumy.

Apart from capturing prisoners of war and creating a "buffer zone", Zelenskiy said the operation had other objectives that he could not disclose publicly.

Polish president Andrzej Duda confirmed that Polish PT-91 Twardy tanks given to Kyiv by Warsaw were taking part in the fighting in Kursk region.

"We are touched to see how the PT-91 Twardy tanks, given by Poland (to Ukraine) more than one year ago, are defending today Ukraine on the battlefields, fighting in the Kursk region," he said.

Russia has strongly condemned the use of western weapons for the incursion, which Putin has said will receive a "worthy response".

Independence Day has surged in importance for Ukrainians during the invasion, which has spurred widespread patriotic sentiment.

This year the public holiday took place after the U.S. and German embassies issued warnings of a heightened risk of Russian missile and drone attacks across the country.

There had been no major strikes as of 2200 local time, but the air raid siren sounded at least twice in Kyiv over the afternoon and evening.

To mark the date, Zelenskiy ratified the Rome Statute, paving the way for Ukraine to join the International Criminal Court, one of many steps needed to join the European Union, accession to which Kyiv sees as a priority.

He also signed legislation banning the activities of religious groups linked to Russia, creating a legal instrument for the government to ban a branch of the Orthodox Church seen as linked to Russia.

Ukraine and Russia also said they had each secured the release of 115 prisoners of war in an exchange. The Russian Defence Ministry said its freed servicemen had been captured during Ukraine's attack in the Kursk region.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine has lost two thirds of US-supplied tanks – media

Ukraine has lost two thirds of its US-supplied Abrams M1 main battle tanks in the space of only half a year, Military Watch Magazine has reported.

The outlet said in an article on Thursday that, according to its estimates, “close to 20” out of 31 tanks provided to Kiev by Washington have already been destroyed by Russian forces.

The latest Abrams was blown up in Russia’s Kursk Region, Military Watch Magazine said, based on videos uploaded by Russian Telegram channels. It appears to be the first American tank lost by Ukraine during its ongoing incursion into internationally recognized Russian territory, it added.

The M1 in question had “a significantly improved” explosive reactive armor, as Ukraine took steps to increase the protection of the US-made tanks, “particularly after they took heavy losses in their first engagements with Russian forces in February-April 2024,” the report read. However, the Abrams still could not withstand a projectile from a handheld anti-tank missile system, likely a Kornet, with which it had reportedly been hit, it stressed.

Military Watch reminded subscribers that Ukrainian troops operating the M1s had previously complained to Western media about “technical issues, including vulnerability of electronic components to condensation, as well as their vulnerability to Russian fire.” 

The outlet described the Abrams, the German Leopard 2, the British Challenger 2 and the Soviet era T-80 tanks as “the scarcest tank classes in Ukrainian service.”

But it also pointed out that, while Kiev expects a replacement for its destroyed Leopards from the EU nations, “there have been few indications that the US could make further deliveries of Abrams tanks.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday that, since the start of its incursion into Kursk Region on August 6, Ukraine has already lost more than 5,550 troops and hundreds of units of military equipment, including 71 tanks.

Reuters/RT