Volodya arranges his torso a little straighter to recall the moment a mortar shell exploded in front of him in Bakhmut. The 47-year old infantryman was defending a building from the Russians’ street-by-street advance when, as his squad waited to move out, he went to examine one of the block’s doorways.
Ukraine’s ability to launch attacks deep within Russian territory are vital if the Ukrainian military’s counteroffensive is to stand any chance of liberating its territory from Russian occupation.
In recent days, Ukraine has launched a series of drone attacks against Russian targets, including two drone strikes against a skyscraper in central Moscow and an attempted drone strike against Russian naval ships in the Black Sea.
The skyscraper, which houses teams from Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media, and Ministry of Industry and Trade, was the target of drone strikes on two consecutive days.
#Ukraine: The "85th IRIS-T destroyed,,,,"- A Russian Lancet loitering munition successfully targeting a Ukrainian IRIS-T SLM launcher decoy in #Kherson Oblast. pic.twitter.com/KT7aVQPBat
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 1, 2023
An insecure EU is warming to nationalism
Over the past decade, and especially since the political shocks of 2016, there has been an increasing tendency to see both domestic and international politics in terms of a set of binary opposites: democracy and authoritarianism, liberalism and illiberalism, internationalism and nationalism, and so on. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February, this predisposition — a story of good guys against bad guys — has grown even stronger. As comforting as this narrative is, however, it obscures all the complexities and contradictions of the current moment.
One of the reasons that rogue states such as Iran and Russia have become so empowered is that, thanks to the Biden Administration’s apparent decision not to enforce sanctions, both countries have been freely evading them.
Instead of enforcing sanctions, the Biden Administration has actually been issuing waivers, making the sanctions appear to be simply cosmetic. On June 10, 2023, for instance, the Biden Administration gave Iraq a sanctions-waiver along with a green light to make a payment of $2.76 billion to the Iranian regime.
It’s insane. People are dying while the corporate class rakes it in six ways from Sunday.
To say Ukraine’s counter-offensive has not progressed as quickly as it had hoped is to state an objective fact.
To say, however, that it has not progressed as quickly as it should have, or that it would have been more successful if only Ukraine had employed “proper” Western tactics, is to reveal to the world one’s utter ignorance of military matters.
That view was one taken by the German military who in a leaked assessment of the counter-offensive earlier this month, lashed out at Kyiv’s alleged failure to adopt the lessons its troops have been learning in Western boot camps.
#Ukraine: A Russian 2S7[M] Pion 203mm self-propelled howitzer was destroyed by a precision strike of the Ukrainian army in #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/zsa2yHPLOQ
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 2, 2023
With a hypersonic missile slung under its belly, a Russian MiG-31K bomber roared into the air from Savasleyka airbase, 180 miles east of Moscow. It was less than 24 hours after suspected Ukrainian drones had struck at the Kremlin, and the pilot had orders to exact revenge.
The jet dropped its load as it raced towards the Ukrainian border. A short fall, blaze of flame and trail of smoke later, the Kinzhal, or Dagger, was arching towards the atmosphere in the direction of Kyiv. Ukrainian air defence command had only minutes to stop the Mach 10 ballistic missile from striking the seat of President Zelensky’s government.
#Ukraine: Footage from the kamikaze USV that managed to severely damage the "Olenegorsky Gornyk" Project 775 large landing ship. As per the source, this was a joint SBU & Ukrainian Navy attack.
The drone is said to have carried 450kg of explosives. https://t.co/o3cRb5hc4z pic.twitter.com/Vs2gfnyPi2
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) August 4, 2023
The first edition of Playboy to be printed in Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion has featured a survivor of a suspected assassination attempt as its cover star, clad in an eyepatch and a metal bikini.
Iryna Bilotserkovets, a model and TV presenter, was forced to undergo several rounds of reconstructive surgery after being hit by bullets in Kyiv shortly after Russia began its offensive. The attack was blamed on pro-Russian forces.
Washington is doing a poor job of monitoring whether the weapons it sends to Ukraine are ending up in the right hands.
Fears of loose weapons in Ukraine have become reality: Once American weapons arrive, Ukrainian criminals steal them. If U.S. arms transfer policies are not changed, Washington will inevitably accidentally arm groups that actively want to harm the United States.
In June, two separate Department of Defense inspector general reports revealed poor monitoring when U.S. weapons are transferred to Ukraine. Challenges in Ukraine’s war zone have made it nearly impossible to track the weapons.
WASHINGTON — When Volodymyr Zelenskyy was asked whether he was worried by Russian attempts to kill him, he answered he couldn’t afford to be.
“If I were thinking about it constantly, I would just shut myself down, very much like Putin now who doesn’t leave his bunker,” the Ukrainian leader said in an interview with CNN last month. “Of course, my bodyguards should think how to prevent this from happening, and this is their task. I don’t think about it.”
Elon Musk forced Ukraine to drop a planned naval drone strike in the Black Sea by refusing access to the Starlink satellite network, according to a US report.
The Ukrainian military was not able to remotely pilot a drone laden with explosives into a Russian ship in occupied Crimea following the decision of the SpaceX chief executive.
Mr Musk, the 52-year-old South African-born billionaire, has previously said he does not want Starlink used to conduct long-range offensive strikes.
Collapsed grain and gas deals spell disaster for Europe
Amid the never-ending coverage of the latest offensive or counteroffensive in Ukraine, it is often unappreciated just how much worse the global economic repercussions from the conflict could have been. Russia is the world’s leading exporter of gas and provided around 50% of the EU’s demand before the war; Ukraine, meanwhile, is a major exporter of grain, alongside Russia itself. The complete disruption of either of these channels would have resulted in catastrophe.
“We have a dangerous future because of … Xi Jinping.”
When Edward Luttwak speaks, world leaders listen — and now they must consider heeding his advice on Ukraine.
Luttwak has been advising world leaders, including U.S. presidents, since the 1980s. He is the author of seminal books on history and strategy, including The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire, The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire, The Rise of China vs. The Logic of Strategy, Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace, and Coup d‘État: A Practical Handbook. Most recently, he has been writing about the Russia–Ukraine war and about China for the online journal UnHerd, and he recently appeared in an hour-long podcast on UnHerd’s website.
Moscow said it shot down two Ukrainian missiles over southwestern Russia on Friday, including one that fell and exploded in a city center — apparently rare instances of Ukraine using such powerful weapons to attack targets inside Russia.
Coming as Ukraine, within its own borders, steps up its counteroffensive against the Russian invaders, the missile attacks could signal a more aggressive effort to expand a war that until now has brought death and destruction almost exclusively to Ukrainian territory.
#Ukraine: A Ukrainian M-55S tank was destroyed by a strike of the Russian army near Kreminna, #Luhansk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/tLZvbGmT2S
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) July 22, 2023
A Ukrainian push to break through heavily fortified Russian lines in the southeast of the country is likely to be the “opening salvo” in a larger battle that has drawn comparisons to the Normandy landings.
Fierce battles are under way in the Zaporizhzhia region, involving thousands of western-trained and equipped Ukrainian reinforcements in what appears to be the most significant phase so far of Kyiv’s counteroffensive.
Despite having to overcome huge minefields, bunkers and tank traps, as well as blistering artillery and airstrikes, Ukrainian brigades have made some limited progress in a number of areas south of the town of Orikhiv, according to analysts and pro-war military bloggers in Moscow.
#Ukraine: The Ukrainian 72nd Mechanized Brigade chased down a Russian T-80BV with an FPV loitering munition in the vicinity of Vuhledar, #Donetsk Oblast- blowing the tank apart on impact, as the ammunition on board exploded. pic.twitter.com/pMBOB0ls0s
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) July 26, 2023
The general in charge of Ukraine’s stuttering counter-offensive in the south has said Russian defences are making it difficult for military equipment, including Western tanks and armoured vehicles, to move forward.
Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskyi says his forces are struggling to overcome multi-layered minefields and fortified defensive lines.
“That is why most of the tasks have to be performed by troops.”
He says Russia’s military has displayed “professional qualities” by preventing Ukrainian forces from “advancing quickly”.
#Ukraine: The spectacular destruction of a Russian TOS-1A thermobaric multiple rocket launcher by an FPV loitering munition of the Ukrainian SBU "Alpha". pic.twitter.com/BCGYMAfc5s
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) July 27, 2023
