Russian offense seems to have stalled….
Ukraine warns of Russia moving missle systems to Belarus…
Could this drag another country into the conflict?
Turkey wants the grain to keep flowing…
The Ukraine military is letting Russia know the Crimea can be in play…..
And that their Spec Ops and Resistance fighters are active….
As Russia falters in eastern and southern Ukraine, Kyiv eyes a threat from the north.
KYIV, Ukraine — As Russian forces fail to gain ground in eastern Ukraine and fortify defensive positions in the south, Ukrainian officials are warning of a buildup of Russian long-range missile systems to the north, in Belarus, which has served as a key staging ground for Moscow in the war.
Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the top commander of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, said in a statement on Tuesday that the positioning of Russian missile systems along the Ukrainian border in Belarus “raises concerns.” He specifically cited missiles placed at the Zyabrovka airfield, about 15 miles from the border.
While it is not the first time that Ukrainian officials have warned about a threat from the north, the statement took on added urgency after explosions on Tuesday at a Russian ammunition depot in Crimea, the second Russian military target on the peninsula to be hit by blasts in a week…..
Key developments
- The Ukrainian nuclear energy agency accused Russia of a cyberattack on its website, which it said had failed. Energoatom said the hacking efforts did not “significantly affect” the company’s official site. While Tuesday’s attack did not appear to impact Ukraine’s power grid, the state company that oversees the country’s nuclear plants described it as “unprecedented.”
- U.N. chief António Guterres arrived in Ukraine’s western city of Lviv, where he is set to meet withUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday. The secretary general is also expected to visit a Black Sea port involved in a U.N.-backed deal to release Ukrainian grain and ease the global food crisis.
- Satellite images appeared to show the first grain ship from Ukraine under the deal docked in Syria, where the government is a close ally of Russia.Aphoto published by U.S.-based firm Planet Labs shows the Razoni vessel at Syria’s port of Tartus, according to the Associated Press, which said the buyer in Lebanon, where the shipment was initially headed, had refused the order.
Battlefield updates
- Ukrainian forces reportedly struck Russian targets in Crimea for the second time in a week. The peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014, is a military supply hub for its forces and a popular destination for its tourists. The Kremlin said Tuesday’s explosion was an “act of sabotage” as nearby residents fled. A Ukrainian official said it was the work of the same special forces said to be behind last week’s attack on a Russian air base in Crimea.
- Zelensky accused Russia of “nuclear terrorism” in a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, while the U.N. chief held talks with Moscow on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine. As Kyiv and Moscow trade blame for shelling near the facility, which is under Russian control, Russia’s defense minister said his country has “no need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.”
- Ukrainian workers from the Zaporizhzhia plant described a daily terror of explosionsand nuclear catastrophein interviews with The Washington Post.
- Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces reported that 44,100 Russian personnel were killed, as well as 1,886 tanks and 233 aircraft destroyed since the start of the war. In a social media post reporting the numbers, the army said Russia has suffered the greatest losses in the last day in Kharkiv and Donetsk.
- Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Russians have lost a third of their elite corps in the war. In a Tuesday interview with Voice of America, the minister said resources are being depleted and “each side needs time to recover, reported Pravda. Given that, while a “freezing” of war doesn’t seem immediately possible, a reduction in its intensity does, he told VOA.
- With two weeks until the start of school, Ukraine’s education minister said that 41 percent of schools have the opportunity to begin classes as normal — and that schools would have shelters. “It is very important that parents have the opportunity to make sure with their own eyes that their children will be safe in educational institutions,” education minister Serhiy Shkarlet wrote on Telegram. “Therefore, I urge school principals to give parents the opportunity to see the conditions of students in shelters in the event of an ‘Air Alarm’ signal.”
Since 2014, the US special-operations community — primarily Green Berets from the Army’s 10th Special Forces Group — has led a multinational effort to train Ukrainians, which has had a pivotal role in moving them away from their Soviet-era mindset and tactics and into the 21st century…