WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine says it has no hope of using F-16 fighter jets this year
Ukraine will not be able to operate U.S.-built F-16 fighter jets this coming autumn and winter, air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian television late on Wednesday.
"It's already obvious we won't be able to defend Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets during this autumn and winter," Ihnat told a joint telethon broadcast by Ukrainian channels.
Ukraine has repeatedly called its Western allies to supply the country with F-16s, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said would be a signal that Russia's invasion would end in defeat.
U.S. President Joe Biden endorsed training programmes for Ukrainian pilots on F-16s in May but no timing for the supply of war planes has been given so far.
"We had big hopes for this plane, that it will become part of air defence, able to protect us from Russia's missiles and drones terrorism," Ihnat said.
The West says it wants to help Ukraine defeat Russia but has repeatedly insisted it does not want to trigger a direct confrontation between the U.S.-backed NATO military alliance and Moscow.
** Ukraine retakes village but warns of trouble in northeast - Kyiv
Ukraine announced the recapture of the village of Urozhaine from Russian troops in the southeast on Wednesday, but warned the situation on the northeastern front was deteriorating amid Russian counter-attacks.
Urozhaine, on the edge of Donetsk region, is the first village Kyiv says it has retaken since July 27, a sign of the challenge Ukraine faces advancing through heavily mined Russian defensive lines without powerful air support.
"Urozhaine is liberated," Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said on the Telegram messaging app. "Our defenders are entrenched on the outskirts."
The village is one of several small rural settlements near the Mokri Yaly river that Ukraine has declared liberated since early June, when it launched a long-touted counteroffensive against Russian troops who occupy swathes of the south and east.
Its recapture would bring Kyiv closer to threatening the village of Staromlynivka, several kilometres to the south, which military analysts say is a Russian stronghold in the area.
Russia's defence ministry did not confirm losing Urozhaine in a statement on Telegram but said its artillery and warplanes were attacking Ukrainian forces in the Urozhaine area.
The village's recapture would indicate Ukraine is pressing ahead with an offensive drive south towards the Sea of Azov that aims to cut Russian occupying forces in half. Urozhaine lies just over 90 km (55 miles) from the Sea of Azov.
PRESSURE BUILDS IN NORTHEAST
Hours after the Urozhaine announcement, Oleksandr Syrskyi, one of Ukraine's top generals, said the situation on the Kupiansk front in the northeastern region of Kharkiv was growing more difficult.
Kupiansk, a town with a pre-war population of around 27,000, was seized by Russia in the early days of the February 2022 invasion before Ukrainian troops recaptured it in a lightning offensive last September that embarrassed Moscow.
"Due to the complication of the situation in the Kupiansk direction, I worked most of the day with units that lead the defence on the approaches to the city," Syrskyi was quoted as saying by Ukraine's Military Media Center.
"The enemy is trying to break through the defences of our troops every day, in different directions, with assault squads consisting mainly of convicts, with the aim of blockading and then capturing Kupiansk," he said.
Losing Kupiansk a second time would be a major blow to Kyiv's battlefield momentum at a time when its summer counter-offensive has so far failed to deliver significant territorial gains, except for villages such as Urozhaine.
Regional authorities announced a mandatory evacuation of civilians from near the Kupiansk front earlier this month due to daily Russian shelling.
"Our house is the only one standing, there are no other houses left intact around ours," said Oleh Yanytskyi, a resident of the village of Kurylivka who was evacuated by the Ukrainian Red Cross this week.
Kyiv says its counteroffensive is progressing slower than it wanted because of vast Russian minefields and prepared Russian defensive lines.
Russia controls nearly a fifth of Ukraine, including the peninsula of Crimea, most of Luhansk region and large tracts of the regions of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Ukrainian leadership split over counteroffensive – Newsweek
Ukraine’s failure to break through Russian defenses has driven a wedge between top officials in Kiev, with heated debates underway over whether the country should press ahead with, or abort, its much-hyped counteroffensive, Newsweek reported on Wednesday.
Describing the dilemma facing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, the outlet has claimed that he must now decide “whether to go all-in and risk a costly failure, or to cut Ukraine’s losses and accept a politically damaging defeat.”
The Ukrainian leadership has therefore split into two camps. One group insists that Kiev should pull back and wait for an anticipated Russian offensive in the fall and spring. The second group, which includes army chief Valery Zaluzhny, wishes to continue the counteroffensive while dismissing any criticism as “impatience rooted in misunderstanding,”according to the article.
“There definitely are some differences among the Ukrainian leadership about the military strategy,” an unnamed source “close to the Ukrainian government” told Newsweek.
Ukraine’s slow progress on the battlefield has also led to rumblings among civilian officials, with “a blame game …. brewing in Kiev,” the outlet wrote.
“There’s a sense that they were misled by the military in terms of how well this counteroffensive would go, that they were provided with overly rosy assessments from the military side. They’re unhappy about that,” the source said, adding that he would not rule out possible changes in the country’s military command.
However, a Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesperson has pushed back against reports of an alleged rift among Ukrainian leaders, dismissing them as a Russian propaganda narrative in a statement to Newsweek.
Ukraine launched its much-anticipated full-scale offensive along several sections of the front in early June after being reinforced by hundreds of Western-supplied tanks and other heavy equipment. However, despite two months of intense fighting, Kiev has still not gained any ground, while losing 43,000 service members since the start of the push, according to Moscow.
Kiev officials have acknowledged the difficulties, blaming them on delays in Western military assistance, lack of air support, formidable Russian defenses, and extensive minefields. In recent weeks, numerous Western media outlets have reported that Kiev’s backers were unimpressed or outrightly “alarmed” by its slow progress on the battlefield.
On Saturday, the Times reported that NATO had been overly optimistic about Ukraine’s push, partly due to “miracles” promised to the bloc by officials in Kiev.
** West makes money on Ukrainian conflict, does not need peace — Medvedev
The West is not interested in negotiations on a peace settlement in Ukraine, because it is keen to make as much money as possible for its military-industrial complex, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev told the media.
"Their speculations to the effect time is ripe to come to the negotiating table and start peace talks merely show how sly they are. They don't want this at all. They want to keep the military flywheel going in order to make money for their budgets," Medvedev said during a visit to the Army-2023 forum.
He recalled that Russian soldiers were "very successful" in burning Western-supplied equipment and would continue to do so. Against the backdrop of losses, the West periodically resumes "speculations that it is necessary to return to the negotiating table to find some compromises," Medvedev said.
"But we need to bear in mind that this is only part of the story, while the other part is the US military-industrial complex, and the European one as well, are making money on this. And this is a way for them to make mammoth profits by supplying their equipment to Ukraine. They are making money on this war," Medvedev explained.
During his visit to the exhibition of weapons seized by Russian forces during the special operation he took a look at many Western-made grenade launchers, anti-tank systems and small arms. He was also shown a US-made M777 artillery system, Hummer armored vehicles and Western communication equipment.
At the open exposition where captured armored vehicles are on display Medvedev was shown Ukrainian T-64BV and T-72AG tanks, a Swedish CV90-40 combat vehicle, as well as a Triton armored vehicle and a US M113 APC upgraded in the Netherlands. At the same exposition, Medvedev saw a burned Australian Bushmaster armored vehicle, a French AMX-10RCR wheeled tank, as well as British combat vehicles Husky, Mastiff and AT105 Saxon.
Reuters/RT/Tass