Ukraine's military appears to have hit Russia's Black Sea Fleet in occupied Crimea on Friday, one day after the U.S. announced another $325 million in more weapons for Kyiv. Russia's defense ministry confirmed the attack on Telegram, noting "the historical headquarters building of the Black Sea Fleet was damaged" and at least one soldier was missing after the strikes.
That strike followed an earlier Ukrainian attack targeting occupied Crimea that involved at least one "Ukrainian guided missile and two aircraft-type UAVs," Moscow said, and claimed all three of those munitions were shot down by air defense systems in the region.
Regional reax: According to Russia-watcher Dmitri Alperovitch, writing on social media. "Russian telegram sources are claiming that there were [seven] Storm Shadow [cruise missiles] launched at Crimea, along with one land-attack Neptune [missile] and several drones" in Friday's attacks. "Some Storm Shadows are claimed to have been shot down, but at least one got through and hit Black Sea Fleet HQs," Alperovitch said. The Associated Press has a bit more.
Ukrainian ground troops, meanwhile, are reportedly advancing through what's been described as "the second Russian line of defense" (also referred to as the "Surovikin line"), Michael Kofman of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace noted on social media after a Ukrainian soldier detailed some of the recent battlefield movements. George Barros of the Institute for the Study of War called it "the third layer within the tri-layered belt of field fortifications."
GovExec Leadership Academy - Powered by PDA Leading in Analytics The growing demand for analytics is unprecedented. So too is the need for analytics professionals who are equipped as leaders, capable of aligning teams, navigating the complexity of organizational change, and delivering increased value to stakeholders. Build a successful analytics team. |
- View a map of the advances, via social media, here.
The Ukrainians, however, are taking "heavy casualties," according to the Wall Street Journal, reporting Thursday. "We are pushing through," one Ukrainian officer said, and didn't complete his thought when he added, "We are destroying them. But the price…"
Update: Russian losses are piling up. And mobilized troops are lasting an average of just 4.5 months before being killed in Ukraine, according to a joint investigation involving the Conflict Intelligence Team. What's more, one out of every five mobilized Russians doesn't last more than eight weeks before they're killed, according to the findings.
Also: Half of the Russian troop deaths have hit men between the ages of 30 and 45, which the analysts think reflects the younger troops' likely being better informed about the conflict and eluding mobilization as a result. (Hat tip @ChrisO_wiki)
Another thing: Russia's military appears to have reduced its exercise ambitions this calendar year, as scholar Dara Massicot explained in a social media thread Thursday. "What's unusual about all of this," she said in closing, "is that there was clearly a December-March intention to hold exercises (announcements and public planning sessions with bilateral partners, etc). Sometime after March many of those plans quietly faded away."
The new U.S. weapons package for Ukraine includes "a second HAWK air defense battery with steady deliveries of additional HAWK and other systems each month through the winter," President Joe Biden said Thursday while standing beside Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelenskyy at the White House. The U.S. is also sending a batch of Avenger air defense systems to defend "Ukraine's grain silos, hospitals, schools, and power plants… [and] to protect the critical infrastructure that provides heat and light during the coldest and darkest days of the year," he said.
And "Next week, the first U.S. Abrams tanks will be delivered to Ukraine," Biden told reporters Thursday.
Developing: The U.S. and Ukraine announced joint weapons production plans on Thursday, though much of the plans are in their very early stages and Zelenskyy didn't offer many details, according to Reuters.
But arms production associations from Utah and Arizona announced Ukraine-related programs. Officials from both countries signed agreements Thursday, which for Utah involves "armored vehicle manufacturing; artillery and air defense systems; aerospace equipment; autonomous systems; and more." Arizona officials, for their part, touted "a 170-page document detailing solutions around munitions development, de-mining, and more" between the state and Ukrainian firms and institutions.
BTW: The Arizona group also said they look "forward to welcoming Ukrainian pilots to train on F-16s at Morris Air National Guard Base in Tucson, Ariz., in October."
Take a trip to a New Jersey munitions facility that's helping supply Ukraine. The Telegraph dropped by recently for a report published Friday from the Picatinny Arsenal, in upstate Jersey. View the eight-and-a-half minute video on YouTube, here.
Shutdown watch: Ukraine edition. If the U.S. government shuts down at the end of next week, the Pentagon says it will keep its avenues open that are sending weapons to Ukraine, a Defense Department spokesperson told Politico on Thursday. The point had to be communicated because "The House was in chaos on Thursday as a group of GOP hardliners tanked a vote that could have offered a path to fund the government," as Lara Seligman reported.
Additional reading:
- "Budget Drones Prove Their Value in a Billion-Dollar War," the New York Times reported Friday from Preobrazhenka, Ukraine;
- See also "The decoy weapons leading Russian forces astray in Ukraine," via the Financial Times, reporting Friday behind a paywall—but reporter Chris Miller shared a few of his findings on social media here;
- "Bulgarian nationalists protest against NATO bases, want government out," Reuters reported Thursday from Sofia;
- "No One Could Have Predicted Russia's Military Failure in Ukraine," argues University of Chicago professor Paul Poast, writing Friday in the World Politics Review;
- And see also, "Ukraine's awkward allies: the far-right Russians fighting on Kyiv's side," via the Guardian's Shaun Walker, reporting Thursday from Kyiv.
No comments:
Post a Comment