Russia taking hundreds of casualties daily in Ukraine war -U.S. official
Idrees Ali – July 22, 2022
Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the Kharkiv
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States believes Russia’s military is suffering hundreds of casualties a day in its war in Ukraine, and with the loss so far of thousands of lieutenants and captains, its chain of command is struggling, a senior U.S. defense official said on Friday.
Nearly five months since President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Russia’s neighbor, its forces are grinding through the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and occupy around a fifth of the country.
The United States estimates that Russian casualties in Ukraine have reached around 15,000 killed and perhaps 45,000 wounded, CIA Director William Burns said on Wednesday, adding that Ukraine has also endured significant casualties.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that in addition to the lieutenants and captains killed, hundreds of colonels and “many” Russian generals had been killed as well.
“The chain of command is still struggling,” the official said.
Russia classifies military deaths as state secrets even in times of peace and has not updated its official casualty figures frequently during the war. On March 25 it said 1,351 Russian soldiers had been killed.
The Kyiv government said in June that 100 to 200 Ukrainian troops were being killed per day.
The United States also believes that Ukraine had destroyed more than 100 “high-value” Russian targets inside Ukraine, including command posts, ammunition depots and air-defense sites, the U.S. official said.
The United States has provided $8.2 billion in security assistance since the war began.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon said it would provide Ukraine with four additional high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) in the latest weapons package.
On Friday, the White House said that package would be worth $270 million in military aid for Ukraine, including about $100 million for Phoenix “ghost” drones. The drones were designed mainly for striking targets, but little else is known about them, including their range and precise capabilities.
Russia says it is waging a “special operation” to demilitarize its neighbor and rid it of dangerous nationalists.
Kyiv and the West say Russia is mounting an imperialist campaign to reconquer a pro-Western neighbor that broke free of Moscow’s rule when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Steve Holland; editing by John Stonestreet, Nick Macfie and Leslie Adler)
Russia taking hundreds of casualties daily in Ukraine war -U.S. official
Idrees Ali – July 22, 2022
Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the Kharkiv
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States believes Russia’s military is suffering hundreds of casualties a day in its war in Ukraine, and with the loss so far of thousands of lieutenants and captains, its chain of command is struggling, a senior U.S. defense official said on Friday.
Nearly five months since President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Russia’s neighbor, its forces are grinding through the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and occupy around a fifth of the country.
The United States estimates that Russian casualties in Ukraine have reached around 15,000 killed and perhaps 45,000 wounded, CIA Director William Burns said on Wednesday, adding that Ukraine has also endured significant casualties.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that in addition to the lieutenants and captains killed, hundreds of colonels and “many” Russian generals had been killed as well.
“The chain of command is still struggling,” the official said.
Russia classifies military deaths as state secrets even in times of peace and has not updated its official casualty figures frequently during the war. On March 25 it said 1,351 Russian soldiers had been killed.
The Kyiv government said in June that 100 to 200 Ukrainian troops were being killed per day.
The United States also believes that Ukraine had destroyed more than 100 “high-value” Russian targets inside Ukraine, including command posts, ammunition depots and air-defense sites, the U.S. official said.
The United States has provided $8.2 billion in security assistance since the war began.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon said it would provide Ukraine with four additional high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) in the latest weapons package.
On Friday, the White House said that package would be worth $270 million in military aid for Ukraine, including about $100 million for Phoenix “ghost” drones. The drones were designed mainly for striking targets, but little else is known about them, including their range and precise capabilities.
Russia says it is waging a “special operation” to demilitarize its neighbor and rid it of dangerous nationalists.
Kyiv and the West say Russia is mounting an imperialist campaign to reconquer a pro-Western neighbor that broke free of Moscow’s rule when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Steve Holland; editing by John Stonestreet, Nick Macfie and Leslie Adler)
Russia about to ‘run out of steam’ in Ukraine, British spy chief says
Phil Stewart – July 21, 2022
Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Chernihiv region
ASPEN, Colorado (Reuters) – Russia’s military is likely to start an operational pause of some kind in Ukraine in the coming weeks, giving Kyiv a key opportunity to strike back, Britain’s spy chief said on Thursday.
Richard Moore, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) known as MI6, also estimated that about 15,000 Russian troops had been killed so far in its war in Ukraine, adding that was “probably a conservative estimate.”
“I think they’re about to run out of steam,” Moore said, addressing the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, adding that the Russian military would increasingly find it difficult to supply manpower and materiel over the next few weeks.
“They will have to pause in some way, and that will give the Ukrainians opportunities to strike back.”
Nearly five months since Russia invaded Ukraine, Kyiv hopes that Western weapons, especially longer-range missiles such as U.S. HIMARS which Kyiv has deployed in recent weeks, will allow it to launch a counterattack in coming weeks and recapture Russian-occupied territory.
Moore underscored the need for Ukraine to show the war was winnable — both to preserve high Ukrainian morale but also to stiffen the resolve of the West as concerns mount about European energy shortages during the coming winter.
“It’s important, I think, to the Ukrainians themselves that they demonstrate their ability to strike back. And I think that will be very important for their continuing high morale,” Moore said.
“I also think, to be honest, it will be an important reminder to the rest of Europe that this is a winnable campaign by the Ukrainians. Because we are about to go into a pretty tough winter and … I don’t want it to sound like a character from ‘Game of Thrones.’ But winter is coming.
“And clearly in that atmosphere with the sort of pressure on gas supplies and all the rest, we’re in for a tough time,” Moore said.
The prospect of a Russian disruption of European energy supplies is one of the biggest global economic and political risks arising from the war. European countries fear they could face shortages next winter, if Russia cuts back deliveries during warm months when they typically replenish storage tanks.
Moore said the toll from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine was mainly being felt in poorer, rural communities, and that Putin was not yet recruiting forces for the conflict from middle-class areas of St. Petersburg or Moscow.
“These are poor kids from rural parts of Russia. They’re from blue-collar towns in Siberia. They are disproportionately from ethnic minorities. And these are his cannon fodder,” Moore said.
Asked if he knew about Putin’s health, Moore said: “There’s no evidence that Putin is suffering from serious ill-health.”
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Russia’s mass kidnappings of Ukrainians are a page out of a wartime playbook – and evidence of genocide
Alexander Hinton, Distinguished Prof. of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University – Newark
July 20, 2022
A woman runs from a house on fire after shelling in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine in June 2022. AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov
Following months of speculation, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed on July 13, 2022, that Russia had forcibly relocated between 900,000 to 1.6 million Ukrainians into Russia.
Blinken cited various sources, including eyewitness accounts and the Russian government, to confirm that Russia is removing Ukrainians from their country and making them pass through filtration camps, where some are detained and even disappear.
Approximately 260,000 of these Ukrainian deportees are children, including orphans and others separated from their parents.
Blinken, in addition to major human rights organizations, says the Russian deportations may be a war crime.
Russia acknowledges that it has moved Ukrainian adults and children out of the war-torn country, but has said the moves are “voluntary” and done for “humanitarian” reasons.
But Russia has a history of forcibly moving large numbers of civilians as a war and political tactic.
Other aggressors of war have also forced civilians to move for various reasons – like eliminating a perceived security threat, or the potential to grab the wealth, possessions and property the deportees are forced to leave behind.
In the process of achieving these two aims, perpetrators often commit atrocity crimes, a broad international legal term that encompasses war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Distinct but overlapping, these atrocity crimes can all involve mass deportation. The United Nations’ definition of genocide includes the forced transfer of children.
Russia’s mass deportation of Ukrainians implicates it in all three of these crimes.
Ukrainian soldiers stand in front of a damaged residential building in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, on July 19, 2022. Nariman El-Mofty/Associated Press
Deporting for economic gain
In international law, mass deportation refers to coerced, large-scale population movements across a country’s borders. Forced transfer involves moving groups of people within a country.
The Indian Removal Act of 1830, for example, authorized the mass deportation of as many as 80,000 Native Americans living east of the Mississippi River to the Indian Territory, much of which is now part of Oklahoma. This forced migration resulted in enormous suffering and death.
The U.S. later deported or forcibly transferred other groups, including more than 110,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II. The U.S. also moved millions of Mexicans and Mexican Americans to Mexico in the 1930s and ‘40s and again in 1954. These deportations were justified by the false claim that Mexicans were stealing American jobs.
But there are many other historical examples, such as the Ottoman Empire’s World War I deportation of Armenians and other Christian groups.
The Nazis also undertook mass deportations and population transfers during the Holocaust, most infamously through train transports of Jews to death camps in Poland. They also carried out death marches at the end of the war.
I have conducted research on the Khmer Rouge Communist regime in Cambodia, in power from 1975 through 1979.
Immediately after the Khmer Rouge seized power, they forced over 2 million urban dwellers to relocate into the countryside, in part due to falsified security concerns.
Nazis notoriously carried out a large-scale forced deportation of Jews and others to concentration camps. Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Russia’s mass deportations and filtration camps
Now, as Blinken and others have noted, Russia has established at least 18 filtration camps, where they take Ukrainian deportees’ biometric data, which are unique, physical characteristics, like fingerprints.
These camps serve to filter out people Russia deems dangerous, including members of the Ukrainian military, government and media. Those identified as suspect are often harassed, abused and even tortured.
Ukrainians have reportedly disappeared following their entry to the camps.
Eyewitnesses say that those deported from Russia also face harsh conditions and have little choice about where they go.
Still, it is difficult for outsiders to talk with the victims and get detailed accounts, since many deportees have been sent to remote areas of Russia without their phones or Ukrainian passports.
Russia’s playbook
Mass deportation and forced transfers of civilians are considered crimes against humanity under international law when undertaken in a “widespread or systematic” manner during peace or war. Such deportations and population transfers are also considered war crimes if committed during armed conflict.
In addition, one part of genocide is “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” Russia’s deportation of orphans and children separated from parents would constitute such a crime if there is genocidal intent.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments that he wants to “denazify” Ukraine suggest such intent is present.
Russia’s mass deportations should not be surprising.
In the past, Russia has repeatedly committed genocide and other international crimes while forcibly moving people for economic gain and to deal with perceived threats. These aims connect to Russia’s long-standing imperialist ambitions.
In the mid-1800s, for example, the Russian Empire deported hundreds of thousands of Circassians, a North Caucasus group, into the Ottoman Empire. Russia also forcibly relocated numerous other groups, including Ukrainians, during the period of the Soviet Union.
In Ukraine, then, Russia is taking a page out of a well-worn wartime playbook. There are indications that this time Russia may be held to account.
Russia’s crimes are being investigated by the International Criminal Court. And, almost immediately after Russia’s invasion, Ukraine began gathering evidence of Russian atrocity crimes. Ukraine has documented more than 23,000 war crimes cases against Russia, and 14 European countries have launched investigations.
Russia’s mass deportations, and especially its forced transfer of children, are central to the case that Russia has also committed genocide in Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces strike key bridge in Russia-occupied south
Via AP news wire – July 20, 2022
Russia Ukraine War (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Ukrainian forces have struck and seriously damaged a bridge that is key for supplying Russian troops in southern Ukraine, a regional official said Wednesday.
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Moscow-backed temporary administration for the Russia-controlled southern Kherson region, said the Ukrainian military struck the bridge across the Dnipro River with missiles Wednesday, scoring 11 hits.
He said in remarks carried by the Interfax news agency that the bridge sustained serious damage but it wasn’t closed for traffic.
Stremousov said that the Ukrainian forces used the U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers to strike the bridge, adding that some of them were intercepted by Russian air defenses.
Wednesday’s shelling of the Antonivskyi Bridge was the second in as many days. It was lightly damaged by Ukrainian shelling a day earlier, according to the Moscow-backed authorities in Kherson.
Early in the war, Russian troops quickly overtook the Kherson region just north of the Crimean Peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014. They have faced Ukrainian counterattacks, but have largely held their ground.
The 1.4-kilometer (0.9-mile) bridge is the main one across the Dnieper River, and if it’s made unusable it would be hard for the Russian military to keep supplying its forces in the region amid repeated Ukrainian attacks.
The British Defense Ministry said Wednesday that the bridge was likely still usable after the Ukrainian strikes, but it is a “key vulnerability for Russian Forces,.”
“It is one of only two road crossing points over the Dnieper by which Russia can supply or withdraw its forces in the territory it has occupied west of the river,” it added. “Control of Dnieper crossings is likely to become a key factor in the outcome of fighting in the region.”
The Ukrainian attacks on the bridge in Kherson come as the bulk of the Russian forces are stuck in the fighting in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas where they have made slow gains facing fierce Ukrainian resistance.
Russia’s ground advance has slowed, in part because Ukraine is using more effective U.S. weapons and in part because of what Russian President Vladimir Putin has called an “operational pause.” Russia has been focusing more on aerial bombardment using long-range missiles.
Ukrainian officials voiced hope that Kyiv could drain the Russian military resources in the fight for Donbas and then launch a counteroffensive to reclaim control of the Kherson region and parts of the Zaporizhzhia region that the Russians seized early in the war.
With indications that Ukraine is planning counterattacks to retake occupied areas, the Russian military in recent weeks has targeted the Black Sea port of Odesa and parts of southern Ukraine where its troops captured cities earlier in the war.
Kherson — site of a major ship-building industry at the confluence of the Dnieper River and the Black Sea near Russian-annexed Crimea — is one of several areas a U.S. government spokesman said Russia is trying to annex. Following months of local rumors and announcements about a Russian referendum, White House national security council spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that U.S. intelligence officials have amassed “ample” new evidence that Russia is looking formally to annex additional Ukraine territory and could hold a “sham” public vote as soon as September. Russia is eyeing Kherson as well as the entirety of the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.
“Russia is laying the groundwork to annex Ukrainian territory that it controls in direct violation of Ukraine sovereignty,” Kirby said in Washington.
Kirby also said the White House is expected to announce more military aid for Ukraine later this week. The aid is expected to include more HIMARS systems, a critical weapon Ukrainian forces have been using with success in their fight to repel Russian troops.
Direct hit! Pop song sings the praises of Himars, the rocket that has the Russians on the hop
Nataliya Vasilyeva – July 19, 2022
Ukrainian officials have credited Western arms supplies, including the Himars, for ‘stabilising’ the situation on the front line
The invaluable contribution of US-made artillery launchers in Ukraine has been immortalised in a pop song in yet another creative tribute to Western-supplied weapons.
Ukrainians have lauded the Himars artillery units for several recent successful attacks on Russian targets, including killing several high-ranking officers.
Now a music video has emerged featuring footage of the rockets being fired while a deep baritone sings about its battlefield successes.
“Hi-Mars! Our trusted ally from America is here. Do you want to meet him?”
“He’s channeling all of our anger. He’s sending rocket after rocket on our treacherous enemies. Hi-Mars! La la la la.”
It goes on to deride the Russian army while Ukrainian troops are seen firing more salvoes.
“The occupiers are concocting their plans at the HQ/Then they hear the bang! Hi-Mars!”
Ukraine’s commander-in-chief on Tuesday credited Western arms supplies for “stabilising” the situation on the front almost five months into the war.
“An important factor contributing to our holding our defence lines and positions is the timely arrival of the M142 Himars, delivering targeted strikes against enemy command posts, ammunition and fuel deposits,” General Valeriy Zaluzhny said in a statement after a phone call with the chairman of the US Joints Chiefs of Staff.
Ukrainian activists have created countless memes about weaponry to boost morale and rally the population in the face of Russia’s devastating invasion.
In another example of Western-made weapons turning into pop icons, a Canadian marketer in March created an image of the Virgin Mary cradling a US-made Javelin anti-tank missile that he dubbed “Saint Javelin”.
Saint Javelin – Getty Images
The Canadian man has since raised over $1 million for relief efforts in Ukraine by selling “Saint Javelin” stickers and sweatshirts.
In arguably the best-known meme, a Ukrainian officer was caught in a recorded radio conversation rebuffing an invitation from the crew of a Russian warship to surrender the garrison of Snake Island in the Black Sea.
U.S. military forces fire a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) rocket during the annual Philippines-US live fire amphibious landing exercise (PHIBLEX) at Crow Valley in Capas, Tarlac province, north of ManilaHershel “Woody” Williams lies in honor, in Washington
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will send four more high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) to Ukraine, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday, in the latest military package to help it defend itself against Russian forces.
Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier this week ordered generals to prioritize destroying Ukraine’s long-range missiles and artillery after Western-supplied weapons were used to strike Russian supply lines.
Nearly five months since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion, Russian forces are grinding through the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and occupy around a fifth of the country.
“(We) will keep finding innovative ways to sustain our long-term support for the brave men and women of the Ukrainian armed forces and we will tailor our assistance to ensure that Ukraine has the technology, the ammunition and the sheer firepower to defend itself,” Austin said at the start of a virtual meeting with allies on Ukraine.
The West has supplied Ukraine with longer-range heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems so it can hold out despite Russian artillery supremacy in numbers and ammunition.
Ukraine says it has carried out successful strikes on 30 Russian logistics and ammunitions hubs, using several multiple launch rocket systems recently supplied by the West.
In a press conference after the meeting, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said Ukraine had used HIMARS to hit Russian command and control nodes, logistic network and air defense sites within Ukraine.
About 200 Ukrainian forces had been trained on the HIMARS and none of the systems had been destroyed by Russian forces, Milley said.
He added an issue would be the rate of ammunition being used by Ukrainian forces, though there would be no impact on the readiness of the United States in the next couple of months at the current rate.
Milley said the Donbas region had not been lost by Ukrainians yet and described it as a “grinding war of attrition.”
HIMARS have a longer range and are more precise than the Soviet-era artillery that Ukraine has had in its arsenal.
Austin said the new package would also include rounds for Multiple Launch Rocket Systems as well as artillery munitions.
The latest package would bring the total number of HIMARS the United States has provided to Ukraine to 16.
The United States has provided $8 billion in security assistance since the war began, including $2.2 billion in the last month.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow’s military “tasks” in Ukraine now went beyond the eastern Donbas region, in the clearest acknowledgment yet that it has expanded its war goals.
Austin said Lavrov’s comments appeared to be aimed at the Russian population.
“That’s not a surprise to any of us or anybody in Europe or anybody around the globe, I think he’s talking to the people in Russia who have been ill informed throughout,” Austin told reporters.
The United States and allies are starting to examine possible training for Ukrainian pilots as part of a project to help build a future Ukrainian air force, Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles “CQ” Brown told Reuters.
A number of different options were being looked at on helping Ukrainian troops, including training for pilots, but no decision had been made, Milley said.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh and Mike Stone; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Andrew Cawthorne and Grant McCool)
The Russian military also lost almost 11,000 pieces of equipment, including:
Tanks — 1,700 (+9)
Armored fighting vehicles — 3,905 (+13)
Artillery systems — 856 (+5)
Multiple launch rocket systems — 250 (+2)
Air defense systems — 113 (+0)
Warplanes — 221 (+1)
Helicopters — 188 (+0)
UAV operational-tactical level — 703 (+10)
Cruise missiles — 167 (+1)
Warships/boats — 15 (+0)
Motor vehicles and fuel tankers — 2,775 (+8)
Specialized military equipment — 70 (+0).
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. July 20 is the 147th day of full-scale war. Russian forces initially tried to advance from the north, east, and south, shelling peaceful cities throughout Ukraine using artillery and bombing them from the air.
During this time, the Kremlin has changed the goals of its war in Ukraine several times. After the failed operation to seize Kyiv and then the retreat of its troops from Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy oblasts, Russian forces concentrated on fighting for the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, which were under Ukrainian governmental control before the full-scale Russian invasion.
Kherson remains the only provincial capital under Russian control. Russian forces maintain their hold on parts of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Kharkiv oblasts.
Insubordination and drunkenness are rampant in Russian units General Staff report
Anastasiia Kalatur – July 20, 2022
The command of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Federation is carrying out preventive measures due to the very low level of military discipline in the units, and drunkenness and insubordination against the orders of commanders are rampant.
Details: There is a shortage of ammunition, food and water in units of the Russian forces.
There are no significant changes in the Russian occupying forces’ activity on the Volyn, Polissia, and Sivershchyna fronts. Russian soldiers hit the areas of Mykolaivka in Chernihiv Oblast, and Volfyne, Yastrubyne and Pavlivka in Sumy Oblast, using tube and rocket artillery.
On the Kharkiv front, the invaders have fired at the areas of the settlements of Mospanove, Petrivka, Ruski Tyshky, Bazaliivka, Pechenihy, Tsyrkuny, Pytomnyk, Dementiivka, Korobochkyne and Prudianka.
On the Sloviansk front, shelling from tanks and artillery was recorded near Dolyna, Krasnopillia, Kostiantynivka, Chepil, Husarivka and Adamivka.
On the Donetsk front, the aggressor shelled the areas of settlements of Kramatorsk, Siversk, Serebrianka, Hryhorivka, Verkhnokamianske, Spirne, Ivano-Darivka, using tube and rocket artillery. They also carried out an airstrike near Verkhnokamianske. Russian soldiers are leading an assault in the area of Ivano-Darivka, hostilities continue.
On the Bakhmut front, the occupiers are conducting combat operations to create conditions for an attack on Bakhmut and to seize the territory of the Vuhlehirska power station. Shelling was carried out from tube and rocket artillery and tanks in the areas of the settlements of Berestove, Bilohorivka, Yakovlivka, Pokrovske, Soledar, Bakhmutske, Bakhmut, Vesela Dolyna, and Kodema. The Russian forces carried out airstrikes on Berestove, Yakovlivka, Bakhmut, Vershyna, New-York and Pokrovske.
Fighting continues in the area of the settlements of Berestove, Vershyna and Novoluhanske.
On the Avdiivka, Novopavlivka, and Zaporizhzhia fronts, there was shelling in the areas of the settlements of Novobakhmutivka, Vuhledar, Novopil, Poltavka, Huliaipole, Kamianske, and a number of others. The Russian invaders launched an airstrike near Avdiivka. Russian soldiers conducted reconnaissance-in-force near Novoselivka Druha and advanced towards Mykilske, but they had no success and retreated.
On the Pivdennyi Buh front, the Russian army maintains a high intensity of reconnaissance with drones. There are three Kalibr cruise missile carriers in the Black Sea area outside the naval bases. Reciprocal shelling from tube, rocket artillery and tanks continues along the entire front line. The Russian forces launched missile and air strikes in the area of Murakhivka.
Political analyst urges U.S. to allow Ukraine to bomb Crimean bridge
July 18, 2022
Crimean bridge
“They are trying to make sure that everything is confined to the territory of Ukraine so that [the strikes] do not go beyond its territory,” he said.
“These stupid talks about not shooting at Russian territory…. And regard-ing HIMARS, and everything else. Why have such conversations? Russia, therefore, will bomb the territory of Ukraine, threatening to bomb Poland as well… Have you made Ukraine whipping boys?”
Yunus believes that Ukraine should be allowed to strike at the Kerch bridge with weapons provided by Washington.
“If you give [Ukraine] HIMARS, why do you then say ‘shoot at 70 km, but don’t shoot at 300?” Yunus wondered.
“You give them what they need, bare your teeth and then we’ll see how Russia will behave. Give Ukraine the opportunity to bomb the Crimean Bridge. This can be done within one day. The West has all the military-technical capabilities for this. As soon as the Crimean Bridge is bombed, you will see how the Kremlin’s rhetoric will rapidly change”.
The Kerch Strait bridge is an illegally built bridge across the Kerch Strait that connects Russia with the peninsula it occupied in 2014. Through it, the aggressor country transfers its troops and equipment to the territory of Crimea, and then to the south of Ukraine.
Major General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Dmytro Marchenko, who from the first days led the defense of Mykolaiv and the oblast, said that the bridge would be the number one target for the defenders of Ukraine after receiving the promised Western weapons.
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov told Radio NV back in April that Ukraine would hit the Kerch Strait bridge if such an opportunity arose.
Later, Danilov said that the occupiers were getting “tense” because of the weapons that Ukraine received from Western partners, and therefore strengthened the defenses of the bridge.
Ukraine received the first American multiple launch rocket system HIMARS, which can hit targets at a distance of 300 km, at the end of June.
But U.S. President Joe Biden highlighted that the United States would not send missile systems to Ukraine that could reach the territory of Russia. Later, the State Department clarified that Washington is not supplying long-range missiles “for use outside the battlefield in Ukraine.”
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, stressed that the Ukrainian side will decide for itself what targets to use the HIMARS systems on.