The European Union (EU) and Germany showed this Tuesday in words and deeds their support for Ukraine with the visits to kyiv of the president of the European Commission, Charles Micheland the German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, just when ten years of fighting against Russia with the Europeanist Maidan revolution have passed.
The visits take place when the president, Volodymyr Zelensky is beginning to lose patience with the shortage of Western ammunition, especially artillery shellssupplies that have been reduced by a third since the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East, according to the American press.
(Also read: Volodimir Zelensky says ‘now is not the time’ to hold elections in Ukraine).
Ukraine is on the verge of winter. On Wednesday temperatures will drop below zero degrees in almost the entire national territory.
In the case of the east and northeast, thermometers will register up to 12 degrees below zero on Thursday. What remains is the doubt whether, as in 2022, the snow will freeze the offensive plans of both sides for several months. o Russians and Ukrainians will continue their respective counteroffensives in Donbas and south of the Dnieper River, respectively.
When Ukrainians remembered the anniversary of the European revolution, which led to the overthrow of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, Charles Michel arrived by train in the Ukrainian capital.
“Happy to return to kyiv. Among friends,” Michel wrote about a photograph in which he is seen smilingly greeting the ambassador of the European Union in Ukraine, Katarina Mathernova.
Precisely, this Tuesday, Zelensky accused the Kremlin, in statements to Western media, of preparing “Maidan-3” in order to provoke “by all means” a change of power in kyiv, which aspires to join the EU and has not given up accessing NATO.
Michel’s visit takes place a few days before the Twenty-seven decide whether to give the green light to the start of Ukraine’s accession negotiations as recommended by the European Commission itself.
(Continue reading: ‘The same blood and the same tortured bodies’: Zelensky compares Hamas to Russia).
The German Defense Minister also appeared in kyivwho on his second visit to Ukraine after last January was received by Zelensky.
Pistorius, When meeting with his Ukrainian colleague, Rustem Umérov, he announced that Berlin will send a new military aid package to Ukraine worth 1.3 billion euros (more than 1.4 billion dollars), as reported by the Ukrainian public news agency, Ukrinform.
He explained that it will include “four IRIS-T SLM (air defense) systems, 155 mm ammunition and anti-tank mines,” very timely help given the White House’s problems in convincing Republicans to approve new items for Kiev.
According to German media, along with the four IRIS-Ts (which join the eight others promised so far)the package includes sixty drones and two dozen anti-drone radar systems, critical equipment to protect Ukrainian civilian infrastructure from Russian aerial bombardments.
Although Berlin has not supplied all the equipment that kyiv has requested, such as the long-range Taurus missiles, to which the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, refuses, Germany has become the second country that has delivered the most weapons to the Ukrainian army, after the United States.
The day before, the guest in Kiev was the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, who admitted that, “in such conflicts there are no magic wands,” and considered it crucial to integrate and synchronize the use of Western weaponry, including the expected F-16 fighters.
In Kyiv, I met with President Zelensky and Minister of Defense Umerov to reiterate that the United States, working with our partners and allies, will continue to ensure Ukraine’s fighters have what they need to be successful on the battlefield. pic.twitter.com/rGTFjThg05
— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) November 21, 2023
Last night, when Austin had already left Ukraine, the Pentagon announced the shipment of a new weapons package of one hundred million dollars, which includes additional air defense capabilities, artillery ammunition and anti-tank weapons.
Meanwhile on the ground, the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, considered the Ukrainian Army’s landing operation in the south of the Dnieper River to have failed on Tuesday. in the southern region of Kherson, which borders the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula.
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“All attempts by the Ukrainian Army to successfully carry out a landing operation on the Kherson flank were unsuccessful,” Shoigu said during the meeting with his senior staff.
He stressed that, thanks to the actions of special units and Russian marines, “Ukrainian troops suffer colossal losses.” “Since the beginning of the month, the enemy has lost more than 13,700 men, about 1,800 pieces of weapons and other military equipment,” he said.
Instead, Kiev maintains that its troops have managed to cross the Dnieper, have established themselves on several beachheads and already control an area between 3 and 8 kilometers wide on the left bank.
EFE
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