Ukraine Update…530 days into the Russian move on Ukraine…The Ukraine Offense…Will Take Time….

The Ukraine Offense seen from the Ukraine troops fighting it…..

The remind….

Things WILL take time…..

The Ukraine and Russia are still shooting missiles at each other…..

A woman checking on Ukraime President’s movements raises security concerns….

More prisonor swaps…..

Russia losing air support for its troops in the South of the Ukraine….

The Ukraine IS talking to America and Europe about post conflict security and its economic future…

 

The Security Service of Ukraine said it detected the Ukrainian woman’s efforts and increased security ahead of time. Russia sought the information to plan a “massive airstrike,” the agency said.

Here’s what we’re covering:

• Ukraine accuses a woman of tracking Zelensky.

• Russia attacked civilians, then rescue crews, in double strikes in eastern Ukraine, officials said.

• Saudi talks give Ukraine a direct line to nations with ties to Russia.

• Ukraine confirms strikes on bridges into Russian-occupied Crimea.

• The top diplomats of China and Russia speak by phone about Ukraine.

• Jolted by a mutiny, Putin works the crowds.

• Ukraine replaces the Soviet hammer and sickle on one of Kyiv’s most famous monuments…..

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The Ukraine Offense up close….

They have NATO equipment and Western training. Some have English-speaking commanders, unusual in the Ukrainian military, and even an American-accented, evangelical chaplain.

“I am never tired, I’m in the Ukrainian marines,” joked Oleksandr, 28, a battalion commander of the 37th Marine Brigade. Sitting down in the shade outside a cottage near the front line, he was determinedly positive. “I think it’s going well.”

Over the past several months, nine Ukrainian brigades, 36,000 troops in all, have received four to six weeks of training in combined arms combat, a synchronized way of fighting that some thought would enable them to spearhead another rout of the Russian military, as in Kharkiv last year.

But some brigades suffered heavy losses in the initial stages of this summer’s counteroffensive, struggling to advance against the formidable Russian defenses. At least one new brigade was so badly debilitated from casualties that it was withdrawn from the battlefield to rebuild….

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Soldiers along the front line blamed commanders for pushing raw recruits into battle and using untested units to spearhead the counteroffensive. Others criticized the inadequacy of a few weeks of basic training in various NATO countries. A few complained that some of the Western vehicles were inappropriate for the task. In particular, they pointed to American MaxxPros, armored vehicles that were designed for fighting a counterinsurgency rather than facing the firepower of the Russian Army.

Oleksandr said he had often argued with his trainers in the United States. “They fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the enemy there is not like the Russians,” he said.

But Ukrainian officials said that they had little choice but to train recruits because their experienced troops were so thinly stretched along the front line that they could not afford to withdraw them….

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He said it had been wrong to think that the counteroffensive would be swift and easy, adding that when the military commanders found a weakness where they could push through, they would.

“Bit by bit, we will find a place where the seam will split open,” Consul said. “Water cuts through stone, and we’ll do the same, bit by bit. At first it is a small stream and then it turns into a river.”….

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