General Staff: Russian operation on Sloviansk front fails, Russian units withdraw from Lyman
Kateryna Tyshchenko – May 29, 2022
Russia continues to mount an offensive in eastern Ukraine in order to establish full control over Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, information as of 18:00 on 29 May
Quote: “The enemy continues to mount an offensive in the Skhid [East] Operational Zone in order to establish full control over the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and to cut off Ukraine’s naval connections in the northeastern part of the Black Sea.”
Details: On the Sloviansk front, Russian troops conducted an artillery-supported assault on the Pasika – Bohorodychne front, but they were unsuccessful and retreated to their earlier positions. Several times throughout the day, Russian troops opened fire from mortars and artillery on the villages of Velyka Komyshuvakha, Dovhenke, and Virnopillia.
Russian occupation forces conducted active hostilities on the Sievierodonetsk, Bakhmut, and Kurakhove fronts. Their main goal is to encircle Ukrainian troops in Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk, and to block their main supply routes.
Russia is deploying its aircraft, missile forces, artillery, and electronic warfare methods. Russian troops are replenishing their ammunition and fuel supplies in order to facilitate another attempt to force a crossing over the Siverskyi Donets river near the above-mentioned fronts.
On the Kurakhove front, Russian forces continue to fire on Ukrainian troops from mortars, artillery, multiple rocket launchers, and combat and operational-tactical aircraft along the entire line of contact in order to deplete the personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and destroy their fortifications.
On the Lyman front, Russia has withdrawn some of its units from the city of Lyman.
On the Sievierodonetsk front, Russian troops continue to fire on Ukrainian troops from barrel and jet artillery in order to support ground forces. Russian operational-tactical aircraft conducted an air strike near the town of Ustynivka. Russia is attempting to gain a foothold in Sievierodonetsk’s northeastern outskirts and has conducted assault operations in an attempt to advance to the city’s central neighbourhoods.
On the Bakhmut front, Russia undertook measures to prepare for assault operations; Russian troops deployed mortars, artillery, and multiple rocket launchers to fire on Komyshuvakha, Dolomitne, and New-York. Russian operational-tactical aircraft conducted an air strike on Berestove and Pokrovske. Russian troops also launched four missile strikes on Verkhnokamianske, Vrubkivka, and Soledar.
On the Avdiivka and Kurakhove fronts, Russian forces actively fired on the positions of Ukrainian troops and deployed operational-tactical aircraft and helicopters to conduct air strikes.
On the Pivdennyi Buh front, Russia focused its efforts on maintaining its current positions and performing combat engineering tasks to reinforce those positions.
On the Kryvyi Rih front, Russian forces deployed mortars, artillery, and rockets to attack Ukrainian troops in and around Trudoliubivka, Male Shesternia, Dobrianka, Kniazivka, Tokareve, Shyroke, Pervomaiske, Novomykolaivka, Kotliarevo, Novohryhorivka, Tavriiske, and Posad-Pokrovske.
On the Slobozhansk front, Russia’s main efforts were focused on maintaining its previously occupied positions.
On the Kharkiv front, Russian occupation forces bombarded the area using artillery and rockets, conducted aerial reconnaissance, and launched an air strike on the town of Prudianka.
On the Mykolaiv front, Russian reserve troops are being transferred to Andriivka, Bilohirka, and Bila Krynytsia in order to replenish losses. Russian troops deployed a combat UAV near the village of Stara Bohdanivka.
On the Siversk front, units of the 1st Guards Tank Army and of Airborne Troops of the Russian Federation are still covering the Russian-Ukrainian border in Bryansk and Kursk oblasts in Russia in order to prevent Ukrainian troops from being transferred to other fronts.
Russian forces continued to shell border-adjacent areas in Chernihiv and Sumy oblasts, in particular in Senkivka, Hirsk, Khrinivka, and Hasychivka in Chernihiv Oblast, and Bachivsk, Seredyna Buda, Boiaro-Lezhachi, and Manukhivka in Sumy Oblast.
Russia conducted aerial reconnaissance using unmanned aerial vehicles in order to determine the positions of Ukrainian troops.
There were no significant changes on the Volyn and Polissia fronts.
The Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation continues to carry out missions to facilitate the isolation of the area of active hostilities in the waters of the Black and Azov seas. Russia continues to obstruct all civilian shipping in the northeastern part of the Black Sea.
‘It Destroys Bunkers’: Russia Systematically Uses Thermobaric Warheads in Ukraine
Andrew E. Kramer – May 29, 2022
A Donetsk People’s Republic militia serviceman gets ready to fire with a man-portable air defense system at a position not far from Panteleimonivka, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People’s Republic, eastern Ukraine, Saturday, May 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Russia has made liberal use of one of its most fearsome conventional weapons in the fighting in eastern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian military commanders, medics, British officials and videos from the battlefields.
The weapon, a track-mounted rocket artillery system nicknamed Solntsepek, or the Heatwave, fires thermobaric warheads that explode with tremendous force, sending potentially lethal shock waves into bunkers or trenches where soldiers would otherwise be safe.
“You feel the ground shake,” said Col. Yevhen Shamataliuk, commander of Ukraine’s 95th Brigade, whose soldiers came under fire from Russia’s Heatwave weapon in fighting this month near the town of Izyum.
“It’s very destructive,” Shamataliuk said. “It destroys bunkers. They just collapse over those who are inside.”
The United States and other militaries also deploy thermobaric warheads in missiles and rocket-propelled grenades. And Ukraine’s army said April 5 that it had fired Heatwave thermobaric rockets from a captured system back at Russian troops, intending to burn them with their own weapon, in fighting near Izyum.
Thermobaric weapons are not banned, and they are not addressed in the Geneva Conventions, a series of international agreements that govern warfare. Russia’s military has deployed the Heatwave weapon in the war in Syria, but its use in Ukraine has become systematic, according to the Ukrainian military and video footage of strikes on towns in eastern Ukraine.
Such explosives, also called fuel-air bombs or vacuum bombs, scatter a flammable mist or powder that is then ignited and burns in the air. The result is a powerful blast followed by a partial vacuum as oxygen is sucked from the air as the fuel burns.
Ukrainian soldiers who have been caught in the explosions and survived suffered a mix of burns and concussions, said Sgt. Anna Federchuk, an ambulance medic based in Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine, who has treated casualties from Heatwave strikes.
“It’s a mixed diagnosis,” she said of the typical casualty from a Heatwave explosion. “The burns are deep and severe.”
The Russian weapon carries a box of rockets atop a tanklike tracked vehicle. It can fire single rockets or a terrifying volley. Still, like many Russian weapons deployed in the Ukraine war, the Heatwave system may not be as effective or decisive in combat as Russian military propaganda suggested it would be.
Developed in the 1980s and once viewed as an awesome and feared invention of late-Soviet military prowess, the Heatwave, formally known as a Tos-1 heavy flamethrower, has drawbacks.
With a range of only 6 miles, it must be driven close to the front to fire. There, it has been vulnerable to Ukrainian ambushes. In March, a drone video showed Ukrainian soldiers blowing up a Heatwave weapon during an ambush outside the Kyiv suburb of Brovary.
The strike on the vehicle sent its rockets sailing out into the Russians’ own column of armored vehicles, although it was unclear whether any were destroyed.
Their use near the front has also allowed Ukraine to capture some of the weapons. Videos have appeared online purporting to show Ukrainian tractor drivers towing captured Heatwave weapons away from the front. Ukrainian soldiers have claimed on social media to have seized five of the weapons systems as trophies.
Ukraine’s military has also said that the Russians have suffered friendly fire incidents with the Heatwave as it sprayed out highly destructive but unguided rockets.
“The leadership of the 97th Infantry Battalion expresses its satisfaction with the actions of the Russian occupiers,” the Ukrainian military said in a sarcastic statement May 8 after what it said was a friendly fire strike in the Zaporizhzhia region that killed Russian soldiers. “Such actions are positively perceived and supported in every way by the Ukrainian military. We understand there is a tradition of cooking shish kebabs in May.”
Russians hauling corpses washed from graves to Mariupol supermarket – the mayors adviser
Roman Petrenko – May 29, 2022
The Russian occupiers in Mariupol have hauled corpses washed out of graves during the restoration of water supply to a supermarket, said the mayor’s adviser Petro Andryushchenko.
Attention, this story contains distressing images!
Quote from Andryushchenko: ” In the premises of the “Shchyryi kum” supermarket in the Livoberezhny district on Svoboda Avenue, the Russians have set up a corpse dump. Literally.
The Russians are bringing the bodies of the dead here, bodies which were washed out of graves and partially exhumed in an attempt to restore water supply. They are just dumping them like garbage.
There is a catastrophic shortage of people to bury the corpses and of power for even makeshift mortuaries. To such an extent that a separate recruitment campaign for pathologists has been launched in Moscow. “-
Details: Andryushchenko emphasises that this photo is recent and demonstrates the threat of an epidemic.
Reminder:
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko warns of the risk of outbreaks of infectious diseases in Mariupol this summer.
Invaders begin loading rolled metal products in port of Mariupol mayor’s adviser
Kateryna Tyshchenko – May 28, 2022
PHOTO FROM ANDRIUSHCHENKO’s TELEGRAM
The invaders have begun loading rolled metal products from the Port of Mariupol.
Source: adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, Petro Andriushchenko, on Telegram
Quote: “The invaders have started loading the first shipment of rolled metal products from the Port of Mariupol. Since there has been no confirmation of the ‘new gate’ having been unlocked, the metal will be exported in small batches.”
Details: According to Andriushchenko, on Friday evening information was received that a large group of Kadyrovites [Russian units subordinate to the head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov -ed.] entered Mariupol. And on Saturday, major attempts to load rolled metal products in the Port of Mariupol resumed.
In Andriushchenko’s opinion, this indicates that the invaders gave Mariupol “to the Kadyrovites to loot and there will be no ‘restoration’, only looting and terror,” and also that “not without the help of the Kadyrovites, the invaders found specialists in Mariupol who can do the impossible.”
Background: On 24 May, the Russian Defence Ministry announced that mine clearance had been completed at the port of occupied Mariupol and that a humanitarian corridor had been opened up to allow foreign vessels in port to depart.
On 27 May, the Metinvest Group declared that the seizure and reopening of the port of Mariupol indicate that the invaders can export metallurgical products to [Russian] ports in Rostov, Taganrog, Novorossiysk and Tuapse and to occupied Sevastopol.
“We realize that unless our country halts the special military operation, there will be even more orphans in our country,” said Vasyukevich.
However, the four communist councilmen did not find broader support among their colleagues, while regional governor Oleg Kozhemyako told them to leave the chamber.
“These acts disgrace the Russian army and our defenders…; traitor!” Kozhemyako told Vasyukevich.
Anatoly Dolgachev, the leader of the regional communist party, said that the appeal to Putin was not properly cleared with the party, and called it “a stunt.”
Video shows huge explosions Ukraine says are Russian thermobaric bomb strikes on its positions
Sophia Ankel – May 27, 2022
A Russian TOS-1 multiple rocket launcher at a 2013 military display.REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
Ukraine accused Russia of using thermobaric weapons on their forces in the eastern region of Donbas.
A video posted by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense Thursday shows huge explosions in the area.
Thermobaric weapons are so destructive they can vaporize human bodies.
A video published by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence on Thursday shows huge explosions, which its officials said were Russian thermobaric bomb strikes on their troops’ positions in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine said the explosives — also known as vacuum bombs — landed on Ukrainian troops near the town of Novomykhailivka in the Donetsk region, currently the focus of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.
The video, which has not been independently verified by Insider, shows intense back-to-back blasts in a small area.
russian TOS-1A shelling Ukrainian positions near Novomykhailivka, Donetsk region. This is what the the largest and most horrific war of the 21st century looks like. Ukraine is ready to strike back. To do this, we need NATO-style MLRS. Immediately. pic.twitter.com/XwdBfAfEq8
“This is what the largest and most horrific war of the 21st century looks like. Ukraine is ready to strike back,” the Ministry of Defense wrote alongside the video. It also appealed to NATO to supply its forces with similar weapons.
The thermobaric rocket is a type of explosive that uses oxygen in the surrounding area to generate a high-temperature blast. It is so destructive it can vaporize human bodies and crush internal organs, according to Insider’s Abbie schull and Allan Akhtar.
The weapon was first used during the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan and was also deployed in Chechnya and the Syrian civil war, per The Guardian.
A senior US defense official said in March that while Russia has launchers for this type of capability in Ukraine, it was unclear if such weapons had been used.
Ukrainian Intelligence: Russia used 60% of its high-precision weapons
Denys Karlovskyi – May 25, 2022
According to Ukrainian military intelligence, the Russian forces have already used more than 60% of high-precision weapons stockpiles.
Source: Deputy Head of the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine Vadym Skibitskyi
Skibitskyi’s quote: “According to our data, if we’re talking about high-precision weapons, about 60 percent of their stockpile has already been used. In the case of some types, even more – 70%.
There are relevant regulatory requirements for the threshold level that must be maintained in the army, and the number of Iskanders [mobile short-range ballistic missile systems] has almost reached this threshold level.
The Russian army has changed its tactics when using such weapons. Where, earlier, 2 or 4 missiles might have been used on one object, now the object is clearly selected and the target is hit with 8 to 12 missiles of various forms. [The Russians are using] ballistic and cruise missiles, land-based, naval and air-based [types of missiles], in order to be ready to hit this target.
We see these changes, and we understand that Russian resources of high-precision weapons and high-precision ammunition are at a borderline level. “
Details: Skibitskyi added that in the first two months of its large-scale invasion, Russia launched random strikes with high-precision missiles.
He is convinced that Russia currently does not have sufficient capacity to quickly replenish its spent stocks of high-precision weapons. Due to economic sanctions imposed by Western countries, Russian industry is unable to obtain the required number of imported components to equip high-precision missiles.
Background:
Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar said on 9 May that Russia still has enough reserves of components to equip missiles and capacity for their large-scale production.
In late April, Maliar said that Russia had launched more than 1,300 missiles in Ukraine.
A Russian mother said military officers ‘lied to my face’ and she forced Putin’s government to return her 2 conscripted sons who were not supposed to be in Ukraine
Azmi Haroun – May 26, 2022
on April 13, 2022, a Russian soldier stands guard at the Luhansk power plant in the town of Shchastya.Alexander Nemenov/Getty Images
A Russian mother successfully made Russian authorities return her sons from Ukraine.
Her two sons were conscripts but never meant to serve in the Ukraine war, the mother told the BBC.
She won a case with the military prosecutor and said “lied to my face.”
A Russian mother who was initially excited about her two sons’ conscription to the Russian military last year forced Putin’s government to return her sons home after she found out they were wrongfully sent to fight in Ukraine, according to the BBC.
Marina, a pseudonym used by the BBC due to fear of retribution, told the outlet that in 2021, she told her two sons that “it was their duty to the motherland,” and they were conscripted for a year in the country’s military.
But months into 2022, Marina worried for her boys as Russian troops were building at the Ukrainian border. When Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military invasion into the neighboring country on February 24, Marina stopped hearing from her sons.
“Time stopped for me. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep,” she told the BBC. “I exchanged messages with the mothers of other conscripts from the same unit. It turned out that many of them had lost contact with their children, too.”
Marina told the BBC that after weeks and an attempt to drive into Ukraine herself, she heard from colleagues in her son’s unit who said that her sons had signed military contracts to fight in Ukraine.
“I wrote to the prosecutor-general’s office asking to investigate,” Marina told the BBC. “I told them there was no way my sons could have signed military contracts. I was certain. Other mothers wrote, too. They all knew their children.”
By March 9, the military prosecutor’s office investigated Marina’s claim and returned her sons to Russia shortly after, given they had never signed military contracts to fight in Ukraine.
“The lads that came back from there were so thin, dirty and exhausted,” Marina told the BBC. “Their clothes were torn. My son said: ‘It’s better that you don’t know what happened there.’ But all that mattered to me was that he had come back alive.”
She added that throughout the war, military officers “lied to my face.”
“First, they lied that my sons weren’t in Ukraine. Then they lied that they’d signed military contracts. Officers lied, sergeants lied,” she told the BBC. “Later someone told me that they weren’t allowed to tell me the truth. Incredible. They were allowed to break the law and send my sons [to Ukraine], but they weren’t allowed to tell a mother where her children are.”
She added that other families are still living with the nightmare of not knowing where their children are, and whether they are serving in the war.
“So many sons haven’t come back and never will. So many mothers are still searching for their children,” Marina said. “My children were different people when they came back. You can see it in their eyes. They’re different. They’re disillusioned. I want them to believe again in a bright future, in peace and love. They’ve stopped believing.”
These 3 High-Tech NATO Weapons Could Force Russia to Flee Ukraine
Kyle Mizokami – May 25, 2022
Photo credit: U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Bryce Hadley
Ukraine has a new list of weapons it hopes to get from the United States and its NATO allies.
Ukraine wants long-range weapons that can target Russian forces far behind enemy lines if necessary and break the naval standoff that is isolating the country at sea.
The wish list is emerging just as Russian forces are gaining new ground in the eastern part of the country.
With its defenses already bolstered by shipments of weapons from NATO, Ukraine now has a new wishlist of weapons it hopes will prove decisive in the ongoing war with Russia. Kyiv has asked for long-range rocket artillery, attack drones, and anti-ship missiles to beat back the Russian invasion, and already at least one NATO ally, Denmark, has pledged to step up. The weapons are more necessary than ever as a fresh Russian offensive makes gains in the Ukrainian state of Luhansk.
The U.S.-made HIMARS is at the top of the list. The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) is an armored five-ton truck equipped to launch 227-millimeter (8.93-inch diameter) rockets. Each HIMARS carries six GPS-enabled Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) rockets. And, according to the U.S. Army, each conducts “high-volume destructive, suppressive, and counter-battery fires,” or artillery missions at ranges of up to 43 miles. HIMARS can “out-stick” most Russian artillery, firing on it from beyond the range of Russian guns and rocket launchers.
Ukraine already has a variety of rocket artillery systems, including the BM-30 Smerch 300-millimeter rocket system. Most rocket artillery systems are unguided, and rocket artillery is less accurate than tube (howitzer) artillery. Rocket artillery is therefore typically relegated to the suppression mission, with each rocket carrying smaller high-explosive or anti-tank cluster munitions. As the rocket flies over the target, the cluster munitions disperse, covering a wide area.
Here’s a video of U.S. forces using HIMARS in live-fire exercises:
HIMARS is different from other rocket systems. In recent years, outrage over the threat that unexploded submunitions pose to civilians led to a global treaty outlawing the weapons. Although the United States is not a party to the treaty, it no longer develops them and has shelved existing submunition ammo stocks. This has forced HIMARS to take a different path: instead of showering a wide area with thousands of tennis ball-sized bomblets, HIMARS makes each rocket count. Each GMLRS rocket is capable of first-round hits on a set of GPS coordinates, using a unitary, single large warhead designed to make up for the loss of hundreds of smaller submunition warheads.
It was unthinkable three months ago that Ukraine might receive HIMARS, but times are changing. So far, the Biden administration has not approved the request, but is reportedly considering it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested he wouldn’t say no to a transfer, indicating there could be bipartisan support.
MQ-1 Gray Eagle Attack Drone
Photo credit: U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Sean Brady
Ukraine also wants reusable attack drones. It already operates a small fleet of TB-2 Bayraktar attack drones, each capable of carrying smart micro munition (MAM-L) guided bombs. Although Bayraktars have proven effective in striking Russian supply convoys and armored vehicles, particularly behind enemy lines, it’s less capable than NATO-operated drones. Ukraine is also likely running low on Bayraktars, as combat losses mount.
Although the U.S. government has provided Switchblade 300 and 600 kamikaze drones, these are one-way weapons that are not designed to fly more than one mission. An obvious solution to Ukraine’s problem is the U.S. Army’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle. Gray Eagle is larger, faster, flies higher, and carries a bigger and better weapons payload than Bayraktar. Gray Eagle has much longer legs than Bayraktar, capable of flying up to 2,500 nautical miles versus 186 miles due to the use of satellite navigation.
Here’s a video of a Gray Eagle taking off from an unspecified country “in the Middle East region.” Note the two AGM-114 Hellfire missiles:
Gray Eagle, which acts as an uncrewed scouting platform for AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, would be a considerable upgrade from Bayraktar. Gray Eagle can carry up to four Hellfire anti-tank missiles, each with a range of up to 6.8 miles. By contrast, Bayraktar must fly much closer to the target to release its MAM-L bombs. This boost in range will allow Ukrainian drone operators to conduct standoff attacks, staying out of the range of all but dedicated air systems, and in general lasting longer over the battlefield.
Ukraine first asked for Gray Eagle drones in late April, and has held discussions with its manufacturer, General Atomics. The U.S. government may be hesitant to sign off on a transfer due to Russia’s past complaints that armed drones like the Predator, Reaper, and Gray Eagle are technically equivalent to cruise missiles, and this could open up Washington to allegations that it’s providing cruise missiles to Kyiv. Armed drone transfers are also strictly regulated under the Missile Technology Control Regime, an international agreement meant to prevent the proliferation of long-range missile technology, as Politico points out. The Trump administration loosened those rules, but the Biden administration may be hesitant to follow suit.
Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile
Photo credit: HUM Images – Getty Images
One of the most spectacular of Russia’s many failures in the war was the loss of the Moskva, a guided-missile cruiser and flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. Two Ukrainian-made Neptune missiles, fired from a truck based on shore, sunk the 600-foot-long warship. While that was the humiliating end of Moskva, it wasn’t the end of the Russian Navy, which continues to patrol Ukraine’s coastline and threaten amphibious landings behind the front line.
Neptune is a brand-new missile system that became operational pretty recently in late 2021. Ukraine has requested more anti-ship missiles from NATO that would allow it to take the offensive, sinking Russian warships blocking its ports—including critical grain shipments to countries worldwide—or pushing them far enough out to sea that they become irrelevant.
The most likely candidate for Ukraine is the American-made Harpoon. Harpoon, originally deployed in the 1980s, is an anti-ship cruise missile. Harpoon is launched from a ship via rocket booster, which accelerates the missile skyward until the built-in turbine engine can take over. The missile is designed to fly low over the waves at subsonic speeds to avoid radar detection, has a 500-pound warhead, and a range in excess of 67 nautical miles.
Here’s a video of the retired amphibious cargo ship USS Durham, struck by three Harpoon missiles during the 2020 Rim of the Pacific Exercise, the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise:
Harpoon uses a radar built into its nose to find its target. An operator can program a missile to fly to a specified area and only then turn on its radar, a useful capability for flying past friendly ships and islands, and preventing the enemy from detecting the missiles’s radar emissions until the last minute. A newer version, Harpoon Block II, includes GPS guidance, resistance to enemy jamming, and a re-attack capability that allows the missile to turn around and try again if it misses an enemy ship.
Late last week, Reuters reported that the U.S. had backed the request and was trying to find NATO countries that could fill it. Ukraine has virtually no navy and its air force is fixated on the land war, so the best solution is another ground-launched missile system. The United States has anti-ship missiles in its arsenal, including the Harpoon and new Naval Strike Missile anti-ship missiles, but does not operate a truck-mounted version.
On Monday, Denmark stepped up to provide one truck-mounted Harpoon system and missile reloads. Denmark received Block II Harpoon upgrade kits in 1999, so Ukraine will almost certainly get the newer, more capable version. Denmark, a peninsular nation in the Baltic Sea, needs the weapon to defend its hundreds of miles of coastline, but with Finland and Sweden joining NATO and strengthening the organization, defense of the Baltic just got a little easier.
There is also the possibility that Ukraine could receive the Norwegian-designed Naval Strike Missile. Poland, a staunch ally of Ukraine, operates a land-based, truck-mounted version.
Photo credit: Anadolu Agency – Getty Images
Russia’s retreat from northern Ukraine has allowed it to focus on the eastern part of the country, releasing its fury on the Donbas region. The challenge to the United States and NATO is to provide new weapons, and the training to use them, in time for the Ukrainians to operate them effectively. Weapons like HIMARS, Gray Eagle, and Harpoon will give Kyiv a technological edge and hopefully convince Russia it has bitten off more than it can chew, and a full withdrawal is in Moscow’s best interests. If not, Ukraine has proven more than capable of escorting Russia to the border.
“I would like to express my condolences to all of the relatives and family members of the children who were killed in an awful shooting in Texas in a school,” Zelenskyy said. “The people of Ukraine share the pain of the relatives and friends of the victims and all Americans.”
Authorities said a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday in Uvalde, a small community about an hour from the Mexican border.
An 18-year-old male, armed with a rifle, shot his grandmother before going to the school and opening fire in the state’s deadliest shooting in modern history. It was the country’s third mass shooting within weeks, according to Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Erick Estrada.
In Ukraine, almost 250 children have been killed since the Russian invasion began in February, according to U.N. humanitarian agency figures shown earlier this month.
“I feel it is my personal tragedy when children are killed in Texas, and now in my country Russian military is killing our children,” Zelenskyy said.
