WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine gets bad news from two NATO allies
Ukraine received troubling news from two allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as it continues its counteroffensive effort against Russia to reclaim occupied territory.
NATO emerged as a crucial ally for Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a "special military operation" against the country in February 2022. The military alliance has provided Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars to bolster its defense effort, which has left the Russian military in a more tenuous condition, blunting any future military plans for Putin.
However, both the United States and Slovakia delivered bad news to Ukraine this week, threatening to upend the amount of humanitarian and military aid Kyiv receives as the war continues.
On Saturday, the U.S. Congress passed a 45-day short-term spending bill, which follows a weeks-long showdown that saw Republicans spar over how much funding should be cut by and other conservative priorities. Ultimately, the bill, known formally as a continuing resolution (CR), received bipartisan support, but does not include additional funding for Ukraine.
President Joe Biden, a staunch Ukraine supporter, requested $300 million for more weapons for Ukraine and to train its soldiers. But those funds were not included in the bill, as aid for the Eastern European nation has become a sticking point for House conservatives, who argue that money should be spent domestically instead.
The spending package has drawn questions about the future of U.S. support for Ukraine, as polls throughout this year have also shown slipping support for Ukraine aid. The U.S. has been one of Ukraine's strongest allies, with Biden overseeing the transfer of billions of dollars to Kyiv.
Between January 2022 and July 2023, the U.S. has provided Ukraine with $46.6 billion in military aid, $3.9 billion in humanitarian aid and $26.4 billion in financial aid, totaling roughly $77 billion, according to a recent analysis from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). This means it has provided more than any individual nation, though the European Union (EU) institutions have provided more than $80 billion.
Still, supporters of Ukraine aid have vowed to continue efforts to get more assistance passed later on in a separate bill.
"We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted. I fully expect the Speaker [Kevin McCarthy] will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment," Biden wrote in a statement following the passage of Saturday's bill.
Slovakia Backs Pro-Russia Party
Meanwhile, Ukraine also received bad news on Sunday from Slovakia after Robert Fico, the leader of the country's populist Smer-SD party, led his party to victory in Bratislava's parliamentary elections.
Slovakia shares its eastern border with Ukraine and has provided it with Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets amid the Russian invasion. Fico, however, pledged to put a halt on military assistance from Slovakia, saying he would only support humanitarian aid packages. He has also opposed issuing sanctions against Moscow and ran on a pro-Russian message, according to the Associated Press.
In late September, Fico told United Kingdom's The Telegraph that "arming Ukraine brings nothing but killing."
Meanwhile, an Eurobarometer survey in August found a decline in the number of Europeans who support Ukraine aid.
The survey found that 24 percent of EU citizens said they "totally agree" with "financing the purchase and supply of military equipment and training to Ukraine," compared to 33 percent who said they "fully approve" of this taking place in April 2022. Total support for providing Ukraine with military funding fell from 67 to 48 percent over the same period, with the percent of those against aid increased from 26 to 34 percent.
The survey polled 26,514 EU citizens across the 27 EU member states between August 24 and 31.
** Zelenskiy says nothing will weaken Kyiv's resolve against Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a speech released on Sunday that nothing would weaken his country's fight against Russia, a day after the U.S. Congress passed a stopgap funding bill that omitted aid to Ukraine.
Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said separately he had received reassurances about further military assistance in a telephone call with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
"Secretary Austin assured me," he wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, using flags in place of country names, that U.S. support to Ukraine "will continue" and that Ukrainian "warriors will continue to have a strong back-up on the battlefield."
A Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson said Kyiv was working with its American partners to ensure a new budget decision would include funds for the country, and that U.S. support was intact.
Zelenskiy, in a recorded speech marking the Defenders Day holiday, did not address the vote in Congress directly, but reiterated his determination to fight to victory.
No one could "shut down" Ukraine's stability, endurance, strength and courage, he said, echoing a Ukrainian verb often used to refer to power outages caused by Russian attacks.
He added that Ukraine would only stop resisting and fighting on the day of victory. "As we draw closer to it every day, we say, 'We will fight for as long as it takes.'"
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday that Republicans had pledged to provide Ukraine aid through a separate vote and U.S. support could not be interrupted "under any circumstances."
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko also sought to reassure Ukrainians about future U.S. support in comments on Facebook, stressing that previously approved funds would be unaffected.
"Support for Ukraine remains unwaveringly strong in the U.S. administration, in both parties and chambers of the U.S. Congress, and most importantly, among the American people," he wrote.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Ukrainian forces lose more than two platoons in Kupyansk area over day — top brass
The Ukrainian armed forces lost more than two infantry platoons in the Kupyansk area over the past 24 hours, Sergey Zybinsky, the spokesman for the Russian battlegroup West, told TASS.
"The total losses of the enemy amounted to more than two platoons, two Kozak armored fighting vehicles," the spokesman said.
He pointed out that during the fighting in the Kupyansk area, the battlegroup West carried out two air strikes on the temporary deployment areas of the 44th Ukrainian mechanized brigade and the Radio-Technical units stationed near Cherneshchynavin the Kharkpv Reegion.
In addition, the crews of Ka-52 and Mi-28 attack helicopters and attack planes carried out 13 missile attacks on the accumulation of personnel, weapons and military equipment of the Ukrainian 14th, 32nd mechanized brigades of the 40th rifle battalion and territorial defense units in the areas of Ivanovka, Sinkovka, Berestovoye and Kislovka.
"In the course of anti-tank warfare, the group's artillery destroyed a US-made AN/TPQ-7 anti-tank radar station, a 152-mm Msta-B howitzer and a mortar crew in the areas of Peschanoye, Krakhmalnoye, Kolodezi," he added.
** Russian army repels 8 Ukrainian attacks in DPR, eliminates over 300 militants — top brass
Russia’s Battlegroup South has repelled eight Ukrainian attacks in the Artyomovsk and Avdeyevka areas, with the enemy’s losses exceeding 300 servicemen, battlegroup Spokesman Georgy Minesashvili told TASS.
"Battlegroup South units have repelled eight attacks by Ukrainian assault groups in the Artyomovsk and Avdeyevka areas. The enemy’s losses amounted to over 300 servicemen, a Krab self-propelled artillery system, a D-20 weapon, two tanks, a mechanized infantry fighting vehicle, two Strela-10 anti-aircraft missile launchers, a signals intelligence station, as well as seven vehicles and eight drones," he said.
Battlegroup South with the help of aviation eliminated a hangar with Ukrainian military equipment in the Donetsk area, Minesashvili told.
"Operational-tactical aviation of the group eliminated a hangar with military equipment, army aviation destructed a temporary deployment site of the 110th mechanized and the 79th air assault brigades of the Ukrainian army in Novomikhailovka and Avdeyevka," he said.
Newsweek/Reuters/Tass
