“Ukraine – Russia”

The U.S. has kept Ukraine’s armed forces in the field, but support for the war among Americans is falling.

The future does not look good for those battling the Russians in Ukraine. The long-promised spring offensive against the Russians has never really taken place.

Over the past few months there have been some pitched battles that have cost Moscow much. But so far, the Russians still control much of Ukraine’s territory. More important, there are divisions developing within the anti-Moscow coalition.

The retreat by Russia’s Black Sea fleet from Crimea after weeks of Ukrainian missile attacks is another major setback for President Putin in a war of repeated humiliations for the Kremlin dictator.

The redeployment of the fleet to the Russian port of Novorossiysk and a new naval base in Abkhazia, the Georgian breakaway region that is propped up by Moscow, will not deprive the Kremlin of the ability to strike Ukrainian cities.

A Russian attack killed at least 49 people, including a six-year-old boy, in a village in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said.

Kharkiv region governor Oleh Synehubov said that a cafe and a shop had been attacked at around 13:15 (10:15 GMT) in the village of Hroza in the Kupyansk district of Kharkiv, and that many civilians had been there at the time.

❗️ The number of dead in the village of #Hroza increased to 51, according to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Ihor Klymenko. Debris removal continues.

A three-day mourning period has been declared in Kharkiv Region from October 6 to October 8.

Zelenskyy… pic.twitter.com/nvpfRcVj6n

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) October 5, 2023

Ukraine’s counteroffensive to liberate territory occupied by Russia may be taking longer than expected, but the central goal of inflicting a devastating defeat on Moscow remains imperative if other autocratic regimes like China are to be deterred from initiating future acts of bellicosity.

Since the Ukrainians launched their counter-offensive in the summer, their forces have made slow but steady progress in recapturing territory occupied by the Russians after President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked invasion last year.

Britain has run out of defence equipment to donate to Ukraine and other countries should step in and shoulder more of the burden, a senior military chief has said.

The comments come after Ben Wallace revealed that he asked Rishi Sunak to spend £2.3 billion more on support for Ukraine before he resigned as defence secretary last month.

Mr Wallace warned that the UK had been overtaken by Germany as the biggest European military donor to Ukraine as he called for the 50 per cent increase on funding that the UK has committed so far.

Russian forces have destroyed about half the battlefield equipment that Ukrainian company Metinvest has produced for the country’s military. Managers want Russian troops to target more of it.

At a workshop in central Ukraine, workers are busy making parts for howitzers, radar stations and mortars. They are all fakes. Metinvest churns out high-quality replicas that serve as decoys, seeking to lure Russian fire.

Ukraine is fighting Russia on many fronts. And just as progress on the battlefield is hard won, so too these days are its diplomatic gains.

Since Russia’s invasion last year, Western support for Kyiv has remained largely strong. But cracks are beginning to form in the pro-Ukraine alliance.

The United States is Ukraine’s greatest supporter by a long way, providing more than $110bn (£90bn) in military and economic support. Yet over the weekend, Congress ditched plans to give Ukraine another $6bn in a bitter internal battle over how to fund the federal government.