Top American media story is Ukraine troops will get Patriot anti-missile traing in Oklahoma….
NATO and the EU promise to work more closly for the Ukraine with an eye towards Russian thoughts of expansion into Europe….
The Ukraine bulks up for a push across the East neck of the Ukraine at the Donbas region……
Russian and Ukraine Human Rights leaders will sit-down and talk about exchanges of soliders and civilians….
Here’s what we know:
The Ukrainian soldiers will train at Fort Sill in Oklahoma, where American troops learn to operate advanced ground-based air defense systems.
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Ukrainian troops will travel to Oklahoma to learn to operate the Patriot missile system.
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Soledar, a small city in eastern Ukraine, is the focus of fierce fighting.
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Prompted by Russian aggression, the E.U. and NATO vow new cooperation.
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Zelensky says Ukraine’s tough fighting in the east has allowed time for critical reinforcements.
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Russian prison recruits are used to draw fire in the ‘savage’ fighting for Bakhmut, a U.S. official says.
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Foreign volunteers seeking revenge against Russia bolster the ranks of Ukraine’s army…..
“This is what madness looks like,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said of Soledar in his nightly address. “Everything is completely destroyed. There is almost no life,” he said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited the war-ravaged city of Kharkiv on Tuesday and pledged to send more aid to Ukraine.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
- Russia had shelled more than 25 settlements on the Bakhmut axis, including Soledar, in its attempt to take control of the whole of the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian armed forces said Tuesday. However, the British Defense Ministry said that despite its gains, Russia was “unlikely” to be able to take control of Bakhmut, which lies to the south of Soledar, because of Ukrainian defensive lines and supply routes. Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, which is fighting on Russia’s behalf in the area, said the “bloodiest battles” are taking place on the western outskirts of Soledar, where Ukrainian armed forces are “defending Soledar territory with honor.”
- Baerbock’s visit to Kharkiv was the first by a German Cabinet member to the eastern Ukrainian city since the war began, according to German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW). Ukraine recaptured the surrounding region from Russia in early September, though continued Russian missile strikes on Kharkiv have left residents periodically without power, heating and water. Baerbock told reporters she had traveled there to “listen to the residents, who are being so hard hit by the war in this bitterly cold winter,” DW reported.
- Baerbock promised power generators and blankets to Ukraine, as well as “further arms deliveries.” Germany said last week that it would send Marder infantry fighting vehicles and an additional Patriot air defense battery to Ukraine. Pressure is mounting from European partners for Berlin to sign off on sending German-made Leopard 2 tanks as well. In a post on Twitter, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who accompanied Baerbock on her visit, called Kharkiv “a symbol of successful Ukrainian counteroffensives which prove Ukraine will win with sufficient support of partners.” He added: “I have no doubts further German military aid will come.”
- A Russian vessel armed with hypersonic cruise weapons has carried out military exercises in the Norwegian Sea, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Tuesday. President Vladimir Putin sent the ship to the Atlantic last week. It is armed with Russia’s latest Zircon hypersonic missile, which Moscow claims can reach 7,000 mph and evade Western air defenses, according to the Associated Press.
- More than 100 Russian doctors have signed an open letter to Putin demanding that jailed dissident Alexei Navalny receive better medical care. Navalny, Putin’s most famous opponent, is being held in solitary confinement at a maximum-security prison in the Vladimir region of Russia. “We cannot and do not have the right to calmly look at the deliberate infliction of harm to the health of politician Alexei Navalny,” the letter says, adding that Russian citizens are legally entitled to medical care. Federal prison authorities have refused to give Navalny necessary medications, according to the letter.
- Putin “clearly failed” in his aim of taking Ukraine in a matter of days or causing dissent between NATO members, the bloc’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said Tuesday. “We must clearly strengthen our support to Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said in a news conference alongside European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. His comments were echoed by Michel, who said the war in Ukraine had strengthened the European Union and NATO, and brought the two bodies closer together. However, the war has opened some fissures, with member countries Turkey and Hungary yet to ratify Sweden and Finland’s entry into NATO.
- Fifteen people, including a 2-year-old child, were injured in Russian shelling of the southern coastal city of Ochakiv, Mykolaiv Gov. Vitaliy Kim said Tuesday. The attack was one of five to hit the town Monday, with another reported early Tuesday. The Washington Post has not been able to verify his account.
- The secretary of Russia’s Security Council described the war in Ukraine as a fight against NATO. “The events in Ukraine are not a clash between Moscow and Kyiv. This is a military confrontation between Russia and NATO, and above all the United States and Britain,” Nikolai Patrushev, a powerful Putin ally, told Russia’s Argumenti i Fakti newspaper in an interview published Monday. While NATO members have provided weapons and other support to Kyiv after Russian invaded Ukraine, countries including the United States also have denied several requests as they sought to balance their support for Ukraine with wariness at being drawn into or escalating the conflict.
- Russia’s human rights commissioner said she plans to meet her Ukrainian counterpart this week. Tatiana Moskalkova said the talks would take place during a forum in Turkey from Thursday to Saturday, the government-owned news agency Tass reported. On Sunday, Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets appeared to confirm the meeting, writing on Telegram that he would raise the issue of the return of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.
- Russia will keep advancing its nuclear weapon systems in 2023, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday, Tass reported. “We will continue to develop the nuclear triad and maintain its combat readiness because the nuclear shield remains the main guarantee of our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Shoigu said….