Russia rocket attacks against the Ukraine are probably going to continue and the Russia’s are NOT interested in a settlement of the conflict says the CIA Director Wiiliam Burns….
Zelensky says he’s country is repairing rocket damage….
Putin has been meeting with his military leaders and will go to Belarus for talks with that countries leaders….
The NY Times has gone behind the scene’s to come out with a piece that reveals that Russian dreftee’s are sent to the front untrained, unprepared and almost as sacrifices …
“Find an opportunity to give Ukraine reliable protection of the sky, a reliable air defense shield,” Zelensky said in an appeal for more help from his Western allies.
1. Key developments
- Russia claimed Saturday that Friday’s missile barrage using airborne and sea-based weapons prevented the delivery of foreign weapons to Ukraine. “The strike prevented the transfer of foreign-made weapons and ammunition, blocked the movement of reserves to combat areas, and halted Ukraine’s defense enterprises producing and repairing weapons, military equipment and ammunition,” Russia’s defense ministry said in a daily briefing.
- Zelensky thanked his allies for their help in countering Russia’s airstrikes, and he urged them to send more support. The United States and other allied nations have rushed air defenses and other assistance to Ukraine, which Russia has bombarded for months. “It’s necessary to exceed it with even more help to the people against whom this terror is directed,” Zelensky said Saturday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to escalate his attacks on Ukraine because of Western support for the nation he invaded.
- Putin met with military commanders to determine next steps in the offensive, the Kremlin said Saturday. “We will listen to the commanders in each operational direction, and I would like to hear your proposals on our immediate and medium-term actions,” Putin said as he toured military headquarters Friday alongside Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had “heard a report on the progress of the special military operation and also held a joint meeting and separate meetings with commanders.”
- Putin’s meeting with military leaders could be a move by the Kremlin to depict Putin as “a competent wartime leader,” the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S. think tank, suggested Saturday afternoon. “The Kremlin also likely publicized Putin’s meeting with the joint headquarters to rehabilitate the image of the Russian MoD [Ministry of Defense] in response to the pro-war community’s routine criticism of the Russian MoD,” ISW stated.
- Russia probably will not enter “a real negotiation” to end the war, said CIA Director William J. Burns. “Most conflicts end in negotiations, but that requires a seriousness on the part of the Russians in this instance that I don’t think we see,” he told PBS. “It’s not our assessment that the Russians are serious at this point about a real negotiation.”
2. Battleground updates
- In Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown, the death toll rose to four Saturday after the body of a toddler was pulled from the rubble, according to the regional governor; dozens were injured.
- There’s been an “uptick in Russia’s campaign of long-range strikes against Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure,” Britain’s Defense Ministry said Saturday in a daily intelligence update. The waves of strikes “have almost certainly also included Iranian-provided uncrewed aerial vehicles” it said, launched from Russia’s Krasnodar region, rather than from Crimea. The change of launch site could indicate “Russian concerns about the vulnerability of Crimea,” it added. The Washington Post could not independently verify the assertions.
- Putin will visit Minsk on Monday for talks with his ally Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president’s news service said. Putin could be trying to set conditions for a renewed offensive against Ukraine, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank said Friday. Lukashenko has not committed Belarusian forces in support of Russia’s invasion, though he has allowed Russian troops to use his country as a staging ground for the assault.
- The CIA sees the tempo of fighting in Ukraine slowing amid the onset of winter, Burns told PBS. “The Russian military is badly battered right now. The Ukrainian military is determined to keep up the pressure, build on their battlefield successes of the last several months. But they also need time to refit and resupply,” he said. He added, “but there’s nothing at all reduced about the tempo of Putin’s increasingly brutal attacks against Ukrainian civilians and Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.”….