WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine must innovate as war moves to static, attritional phase -army chief
Ukraine's war with Russia is moving towards a new stage of static and attritional fighting, a phase that could allow Moscow to rebuild its military power, Ukraine's commander-in-chief has said.
In an article for The Economist published on Wednesday, General Valery Zaluzhnyi said his army needed key new military capabilities and technological innovation to break out of the new phase of the war, now in its 21st month.
Using stark language, he described risks of prolonged, attritional fighting: "This will benefit Russia, allowing it to rebuild its military power, eventually threatening Ukraine's armed forces and the state itself."
His article comes almost five months into a major Ukrainian counteroffensive that has not made a serious breakthrough against heavily mined Russian defensive lines. Fighting is expected to slow as the weather worsens.
Russian troops have gone on the offensive in parts of the east and Kyiv fears Moscow plans to unleash a campaign of air strikes to cripple the power grid, plunging millions into darkness in the depths of winter.
"Just like in the First World War we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate," Zaluzhnyi was quoted as saying in an interview published alongside his article.
The article singled out Russia's air power advantage as a factor that made advancing harder and called for Kyiv to conduct massive drone strikes to overload Russia's air defences.
"Basic weapons, such as missiles and shells, remain essential. But Ukraine's armed forces need key military capabilities and technologies to break out of this kind of war. The most important one is air power," he wrote.
He said Ukraine must get better at destroying Russian artillery and devise better mine-breaching technology, saying Western supplies have proven insufficient faced with Russian minefields that stretched back 20 km (12 miles) in some areas.
He called it a priority for Ukraine to build up its reserve forces despite noting it had limited capacity to train them inside the country and highlighting gaps in legislation that allowed people to evade service.
"We are trying to fix these problems. We are introducing a unified register of draftees, and we must expand the category of citizens who can be called up for training or mobilisation," he wrote.
"We are also introducing a 'combat internship', which involves placing newly mobilised and trained personnel in experienced front-line units to prepare them," he said.
** Russian drone hits oil refinery, frontline attacks repelled -Ukraine military
A Russian drone attack set ablaze the Kremenchuk oil refinery in central Ukraine and knocked out power supply in three villages, while battlefield reports said Ukrainian forces had repelled Russian attacks in frontline sectors in the east and northeast.
The fire at the Kremenchuk refinery, which Moscow has targeted many times and the Kyiv government says is not operational, was quickly put out, said Filip Pronin, head of Poltava region's military administration. The extent of the damage was not clear.
Ukraine's Air Force said air defences shot down 18 of 20 drones and a missile fired by Russia overnight before they reached their targets in an attack that sought to strike military and critical infrastructure.
"The focus of the attack was Poltava region, it was attacked in several waves," Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told national television.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said troops had repelled eight Russian attacks near Kupiansk in the northeast, five near the shattered eastern town of Bakhmut, held by Russian forces, and five further south near Avdiivka, a focal point of Russian assaults since mid-October.
A video posted by the Ukrainian military showed its forces destroying a Russian flamethrower system near Avdiivka, an attack it said could be observed for dozens of kilometres.
Military analyst Oleksandr Kovalenko, in an article posted online, said some 40,000 Russian troops were now massed outside Avdiivka, widely viewed as a symbol of Ukrainian resistance.
"Despite its losses, the Russian command still intends to capture Avdiivka, which is now a political, rather than a tactical, aim," Kovalenko wrote.
Natalia Khomeniuk, a military spokesperson in the south, said Russian forces had dropped 20 aerial bombs in Kherson region from positions they now hold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River after abandoning the region's main town last year. Russian forces shell the river's western bank almost daily.
In Poltava region, three villages lost electricity after power lines and an unnamed infrastructure facility were damaged, the Energy Ministry said on Telegram.
Railway power lines were damaged by falling debris in central Kirovohrad region, but the damage was quickly repaired, Governor Andriy Raikovych said.
The Ukrainian military said Russia carried out another missile attack on Poltava region and southern Odesa region later on Wednesday, and two of the missiles in Odesa region were downed.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports. Russia made no immediate comment on the Ukrainian reports.
The Russian Defence Ministry's accounts said its forces had hit Ukrainian troops and equipment in villages south of Bakhmut.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine conflict ‘fatigue’ is growing, Italian PM says
There is “a lot of fatigue” with the Ukraine conflict and EU nations will soon agree that it must be resolved through a compromise, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has told a pair of Russian pranksters.
Vovan and Lexus published the clip on Wednesday of their conversation with Meloni, which reportedly dates back to September and in which they posed as an unnamed African politician.
Discussing the Ukraine conflict, the Italian leader told the pair: “I see that there is a lot of fatigue, if I have to say the truth, from all the sides. We are near the moment in which everybody understands that we need a way out.”
“The problem is to find a way out which can be acceptable for both, without destroying the international law,” Meloni added.
The conversation then shifted to Kiev’s summer counteroffensive, the outcome of which the fake African politician suggested was a far cry from what many had expected. Meloni replied that the operation was ongoing, but acknowledged that it had not changed “the destiny of the conflict.”
“Everybody understands that it really could last many years, if we don’t try to find some solution,” Meloni stated. She then expressed concern that a badly-designed solution could trigger further conflicts, before criticizing what previously unfolded in Libya.
The North African nation was rocked by a NATO-backed anti-government uprising in 2011 which ousted longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi. More than a decade later, Libya remains split among warring factions and is economically devastated.
Italy has been the destination for a flow of illegal migrants departing from Libya and crossing the Mediterranean Sea in the hope of receiving shelter in the EU. Meloni accused Brussels of not doing enough to help Rome as she discussed the issue at length with the pranksters.
The conversation also touched on European energy security and how developing energy production in Africa could improve it. “We are going to an era when we can’t manage it no more. It’s already too late,” Meloni said.
Later on Wednesday, Meloni’s office said the phone call had taken place on September 18, ahead of meetings with African leaders at the UN General Assembly. It said it regretted that the prime minister had been deceived by a prankster posing as the head of the African Union Commission, Reuters reported.
Vovan and Lexus, whose real names are Vladimir Kuznetsov and Aleksey Stolyarov, have been pranking public figures for years with fake calls from people their targets trust. The pair usually goad their targets into saying things they might otherwise be unwilling to make public.
** Tank production grows sevenfold in Russia
Russia has greatly boosted production of military hardware over the past year, having multiplied by seven the number of tanks it manufactures, Sergey Chemezov, the CEO of defense conglomerate Rostec, said on Wednesday.
Speaking on Rossiya 24 TV channel, Chemezov added that the state-owned corporation has been continuously modernizing and improving its products as well.
“Over the past year, we ramped up production of tanks by seven times,”Chemezov said, adding that output of light armor, including assorted infantry fighting vehicles and armored cars grew by a factor of around 4.5. The official did not elaborate whether the figures include modernization of older vehicles or production of new ones from scratch.
Earlier this week, Rostec subsidiary Uralvagonzavod released a video showing a new batch of T-90M tanks, Russia’s most modern, undergoing final testing before being sent to the military. The tanks appeared to feature new improvements, such as additional ‘soft hull’ blocks for its turret, while external armor blocks on the hull are now cased in more robust-looking containers, compared to previous versions made of fabric.
In mid-October Uralvagonzavod completed a large batch of T-90M and T-72B3 tanks and delivered them to the military. At the time, Russia’s Deputy PM Denis Manturov said the tanks of this type were most in demand, having performed strongly during the conflict with Ukraine.
Rostec has also greatly expanded ammunition production, Chemezov added. Since the beginning of 2023 it has produced 20 times more munitions for multiple rocket launcher systems than in all of 2022.
Back in September, Rostec’s industrial director Bekhan Ozdoev revealed the conglomerate has expanded production of high-precision weaponry, namely Iskander ground-based tactical ballistic missiles and air-launched Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. He said at the time that “among other things, the production of missiles for the Kinzhal, Iskander, and Pantsir [anti-aircraft] systems, aerial bombs, artillery and tank shells is being ramped up.”
Reuters/RT