Two French aid workers working for a Swiss NGO in Ukraine were killed in a Russian raid near Kherson: Western victims, not the first, of a conflict that is close to passing the grim two-year mark. And the indefinite continuation of hostilities is a topic of reflection for Kiev, so much so that even President Volodymyr Zelensky's main advisor, Mikhailo Podolyak, publicly admitted that “mistakes” were made in the counteroffensive, which require a change in “tactics “.
The two French volunteers who died in Ukraine were engaged in assisting civilians in Beryslav, a town located on the north bank of the Dnieper river, near the front line. According to the Swiss NGO Eper, for which they worked, they were surprised by a Russian bombing, in which three of their colleagues were also injured. It was “a cowardly and unworthy act”, denounced Emmanuel Macron, expressing “solidarity with all the volunteers who are committed to helping the populations”, while Zelensky condemned “Russian terror” which does not take into account the “nationality of the victims “.
Tensions between Europe and Russia are growing, even after the 50 billion euros of new aid to Kiev which was released by the EU after overcoming Hungary's resistance. And this time a new wave of intolerance from Moscow was directed against Rome. “Crosetto stated that in terms of extent, level and volume of assistance provided to the Kiev regime, Italy is almost in second place. Do they want to show that they have something to be proud of in the massacre of European citizens?” he wrote Russian diplomacy spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in a polemical post. “As always happens, he exploits my words”, the reply of the Italian Defense Minister, in which he recalled that “Italy is second, after Germany, in aid to Kiev within the EU and certainly not at a global level”.
As for the situation on the front, with a stalemate playing into the hands of the occupying army, Podolyak expressed his concern in an interview. Admitting that the 2023 counteroffensive “left a certain negative residue”, with “tactical errors of which both the military and political command speak”. The presidential advisor spoke of the need to change tactics, without specifying how, but clarified that “the strategic responsibility for the war lies with the supreme commander who appoints the operational managers of the war”, i.e. Zelensky. Words that seemed to recall the recurring rumors of an imminent torpedoing of army chief Valery Zaluzhny, with whom the Ukrainian leader would be at odds.
Zaluzhny himself, in an article for CNN, stated that Ukraine must adapt to a reduction in military aid from its main allies and focus increasingly on technology if it wants to win the war against Russia. Among other things, “significantly increasing the capabilities of unmanned systems and other advanced systems.” The more massive use of drones, according to the general, would make it possible to conduct “more acceptable” operations for a “society perhaps reluctant to directly endanger a large number of young men and women”, given Russia's “significant advantage in mobilization of human resources”.
For Zaluhny it is an apparent retreat from his idea of a new mass enlistment: one of the issues of friction with Zelensky. In the meantime, the war continues to be fought even in international courts. The Court of Justice in The Hague has said it has jurisdiction to rule on most of Ukraine's lawsuit over the Russian invasion. In recent days, however, the UN judges themselves had ruled against Kiev, rejecting the thesis that Moscow had financially supported the separatist rebels in Donbass in the years preceding 2022.
To know more:
Russia: Oleg Orlov declared foreign agent
The Russian Justice Ministry today declared prominent civil rights activist Oleg Orlov a “foreign agent.” According to the Interfax news agency, the 70-year-old was blacklisted along with five other people for criticizing the war against Ukraine and for allegedly spreading false information about Moscow's political leadership. Starting in the 1980s, Orlov worked for the NGO Memorial, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, by which time the organization had already been banned in Russia.
Russian Defense Minister Shoigu: “We are advancing, the area under our control has expanded”
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that his army was on the offensive in Ukraine and would make alleged territorial gains. “Our units are advancing, expanding the area under their control, improving their position on the front line,” he said at a meeting with senior officers in Moscow. “After the failure of the enemy counteroffensive, the Russian Armed Forces took the strategic initiative along the entire front line. The Russian army captured the villages of Tabayivka and Krokhmalne in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv and the village of Vesele near Bakhmut, Donbass region,” he added. There is heavy fighting in Tabayivka but it remains in Ukrainian hands, a military spokesperson in Kiev declared, specifying that “artillery clashes are underway”.
Ukraine: Putin, nuclear forces upgrade completed
The upgrade of Russia's strategic nuclear forces is almost complete, including their naval component to almost 100%. Russian President Vladimir Putin said so. “Our strategic nuclear forces have now been modernized practically in full, by 95%. And their naval component, by almost 100%,” Putin said at the All-Russian Popular Front forum. “We will seek the same results in equipping the Army and Navy across the entire line of conventional weapons, including potential next-generation ones. And we will certainly realize these plans,” he said. Defense manufacturers and design bureaus “will have a guaranteed supply of orders for years”, production lines will be updated and expanded, Putin said.
#RussiaUkraine #war #Kiev #mistakes #counteroffensive #French #civilians #killed #Hague #upholds #Ukraine39s #complaint #Russian #invasion
