WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
US sends seized Iranian ammunition to Ukraine
The U.S. has sent Ukraine more than 1 million rounds of Iranian ammunition that had been seized last year, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.
U.S. naval forces for years have been seizing weapons believed to be from Iran bound for Iran-backed fighters in Yemen, usually transported by fishing vessels.
U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for military operations in the Middle East, said about 1.1 million 7.62 mm rounds were sent to Ukraine.
They were originally seized by U.S. naval forces in December 2022 and being transferred from Iran's Revolutionary Guards to Houthi forces in Yemen.
"The U.S. is committed to working with our allies and partners to counter the flow of Iranian lethal aid in the region by all lawful means including U.S. and U.N. sanctions and through interdictions," the Central Command statement said.
The ammunition is unlikely to make a major difference on the battlefield at a time when long-range weapons and air defense systems are on top of Ukraine's wish list.
The seized ammunition being transferred are also unlikely to ease concerns about the continued flow of western weapons to Kyiv.
Congress included no new money for Ukraine in the stopgap U.S. spending bill it passed on Saturday to keep the federal government open, highlighting the increasing reluctance of some Republicans to provide funds for Kyiv.
Last year, Britain's Royal Navy said one of its warships had seized Iranian weapons, including surface-to-air-missiles and engines for cruise missiles, from smugglers in international waters south of Iran.
Yemen's Houthi movement has battled a Saudi-led coalition since 2015 in a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands and left 80% of the population dependent on aid.
The United States has put pressure on its ally Saudi Arabia to end the war and linked some U.S. military support to the kingdom to ending its involvement in Yemen.
** Ukraine says its forces make headway in south, hold gains in east
Ukrainian forces made some headway in their drive southward as part of a gruelling counteroffensive to recapture areas seized by Russia in its 19-month-old invasion of its neighbour, military officials said.
Ukrainian officials also said Kyiv's forces were resisting Russian attempts to reverse gains on the eastern front made by Kyiv since it launched the counteroffensive in June.
Russia's Defence Ministry reported a measure of success by its troops on the eastern front. Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports.
Ukraine's southern group of forces outlined advances as Kyiv presses on with a drive towards the Sea of Azov to split Russian-occupied territory in the south and east.
"We have had partial success to the west of Robotyne," a spokesperson for the southern group, Oleksandr Shtupun, told national television, noting that Ukrainian troops are "continuing to reinforce the positions they hold".
"In certain areas, we are advancing from 100 to 600 metres."
The drive southward has been slower than lightning gains a year ago in the northeast. But Ukrainian troops have captured a string of villages and officials say they are readying themselves around Robotyne and other villages for new advances.
The General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces, in its evening report, said its forces had repelled Russian attacks near Robotyne and nearby Verbove.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismisses criticism that the counteroffensive is not producing expected results and rejects any notion that it is hampered by strategic errors.
The General Staff report also said Russian forces had been unsuccessful in attempts to recapture ground near Andriivka - a village in the east recaptured by Ukrainian forces last month.
Ukraine's campaign in the east has focused on taking villages to facilitate the recapture of the devastated city of Bakhmut, seized by Russian forces in May after months of battles.
Russia's defence ministry said Moscow's forces had struck Ukrainian positions close to Andriivka and a nearby village.
It also said it had downed 31 drones launched by Kyiv overnight over three southern Russian regions, but reported no casualties or damage.
A Ukrainian security source earlier said Kyiv's forces had carried out a drone attack on the western Russian region of Belgorod and hit an S-400 air defence complex and its radar.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine ‘very cheap way’ to fight Russia – NATO state minister
Arming Kiev is a cost-effective way of preventing Moscow from threatening NATO, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren argued on Wednesday at the Warsaw Security Forum.
Ollongren was asked whether the US and its allies can continue supporting Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” given the political in-fighting in Washington.
“We cannot pretend that we’ll just wait and see how the American elections are going,” she said. “Because they have the same interest, in a way. Of course, supporting Ukraine is a very cheap way to make sure that Russia with this regime is not a threat to the NATO alliance. And it’s vital to continue that support.”
“It is very much in our interest to support Ukraine, because they are fighting this war, we are not fighting it,” Ollongren noted, while admitting that NATO had “skin in the game.”
Ollongren explained that she had recently visited the US and that political developments there are cause for concern, but that Western Europeans need to talk with their American colleagues and persuade them to stay the course.
“I think that we are capable of a lot, and we have proven that in the past year and a half, and the only thing we have to do is keep it up,” the minister said, adding that the scale of military assistance to Kiev has surprised Ukraine, Russia and even NATO itself.
The US and its allies have channeled a large amount of money, weapons, ammunition and supplies to Ukraine since the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell revealedearlier this week that the bloc has sent Ukraine €85 billion ($89.8 billion) so far, of which more than €25 billion ($26.4 billion) was military aid. The most recent estimates of US spending were from the end of July, and amounted to $46.6 billion in military aid, $3.9 billion in humanitarian aid, and about $26.4 billion in loans and cash payments to keep the government in Kiev going.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that the deliveries of heavy weapons and other aid are tantamount to direct involvement in the hostilities. Washington and Brussels, however, insist they were not actually a party to the conflict. Russia said foreign arms would not change the course of the fighting and would not deter Moscow from achieving its goals in Ukraine.
Russian officials also repeatedly cited NATO’s expansion eastward as one of the root causes of its current conflict with Ukraine and the standoff with the West.
** Russian forces wipe out Ukrainian missile/artillery depots in Kupyansk area in past day
Russian forces destroyed Ukrainian missile/artillery depots in the Kupyansk area over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.
"Near the settlements of Kupyansk and Liptsy in the Kharkov Region, depots storing missile and artillery armament of the Ukrainian army’s 41st mechanized brigade and ammunition of the 113th territorial defense brigade were eliminated," the ministry said in a statement.
Russian forces destroy 30 Ukrainian troops in Kupyansk area over past day
Russian forces destroyed roughly 30 Ukrainian troops, a tank and a US-made radar station in the Kupyansk area over the past day, the ministry reported.
"In the Kupyansk direction, aircraft, artillery and heavy flamethrower systems of the Western Battlegroup struck manpower and military hardware of the Ukrainian army’s 25th air assault, 32nd and 115th mechanized brigades and 103rd territorial defense brigade in areas near the settlements of Sinkovka and Berestovoye in the Kharkov Region, Stelmakhovka and Artyomovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic," the ministry said.
Russian forces destroyed as many as 30 Ukrainian personnel, a tank and two motor vehicles in the Kupyansk area over the past day. Near the settlement of Shiykovka in the Kharkov Region, they eliminated a US-made AN/TPQ-37 counter-battery radar station, the ministry specified.
Reuters/RT/Tass
