There are NO REAL movement for ‘peace’ talks that have pushed by outside parties….
Putin is siganaling he’s alright with keeping wht he’s gotten, while saying he will N OT stop until he gets more….
Zelensky is NOT biting….
But he IS worried about in going support from the West which plays to Putin’s goals….
About those Ukraine F-16’s?
Russia targeted Ukrainian cities with more than 150 missiles and drones on Friday morning, in what Ukrainian officials said was one of the largest air assaults of the war. At least 30 people were killed, and more than 160 were wounded, according to the Ukrainian government, and critical infrastructure was damaged.
“This is the biggest attack since the counting began,” Yurii Ihnat, a Ukrainian Air Force spokesman, said in a brief telephone interview, adding that the military did not track air assaults in the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022.
For several hours on Friday, missiles, drones and debris slammed into factories, hospitals and schools in cities across Ukraine, from Lviv in the west to Kharkiv in the east, straining the country’s air defenses and sending people scrambling for shelter.
Thanks to its powerful air defense systems, Ukraine has often been able to shoot down most, if not all, Russian weapons targeting cities in recent months. But on Friday the Ukrainian military said it had shot down only 114 missiles and drones out of a total of 158….
The Daily Run Down…..
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Poland’s defence forces said an unknown object entered the country’s airspace Friday morning from the direction of Ukraine and then vanished off radars, and that all indications pointed to it being a Russian missile. There was no comment from Russian officials.
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18 Ukrainian civilians are known to have died, and another 132 are injured, following a wave of Russian missile attacks. Rescue operations are still ongoing in the cities. In total, the Russian Federation launched 158 aerial targets over Ukraine – air defence forces shot down 27 drones and 87 cruise missiles.
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the Kremlin’s forces used a wide variety of weapons, including ballistic and cruise missiles. He posted on X saying that “Russian terror must and will lose” following a night of missile strikes.
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Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said Russia “apparently launched everything they have” against targets across Ukraine.
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The British prime minister has posted his support for Ukraine on social media following the wave of Russian missile strikes overnight. Rishi Sunak said: “These widespread attacks on Ukraine’s cities show Putin will stop at nothing to achieve his aim of eradicating freedom and democracy.”
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Ukrainian officials have urged the country’s western allies to provide it with more air defences to protect itself against aerial attacks like Friday’s one. Their appeals have come as signs of war fatigue strain efforts to keep support in place.
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Russia has suffered huge human and material losses in Ukraine and its army will emerge weakened from the conflict, a senior German military figure said in an interview published on Friday. He said: “The Russian armed forces will emerge from this war weakened, both materially and in terms of personnel.”….
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The New York Times (NYT) published an oped by a member of its editorial board calling for Ukraine to engage in negotiations with and cede territory to Russia after reports emerged that Russian President Vladimir Putin is using backchannels and intermediaries to signal his interest in a ceasefire. The oped largely ignores near-constant Kremlin public signaling of Russia’s continued maximalist goals in Ukraine. The oped argues that Ukraine should not “pass up” this opportunity to possibly achieve a ceasefire despite the fact that there are multiple reasons to believe that Putin’s pro-ceasefire signaling may not be sincere, such as Putin’s demonstrated untrustworthiness and the possibility that he may intend to use time spent on prolonged negotiations to his political and military benefit. The piece argues that Ukraine does not need to regain all its territory to emerge victorious from the war, but that a “strong, independent, prosperous, and secure” Western-oriented Ukraine is also a victory. The piece appeals to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to engage in ceasefire negotiations and not see negotiations as a defeat, implicitly blaming Zelensky – not Putin – for the absence of serious negotiations….
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Ukraine F-16 Update….
Six Ukrainian pilots are learning to fly F-16s in Denmark, the third cohort to be trained on the fighter jet since July, when the U.S. decided to allow European allies to export the plane to Ukraine.
The pilots first traveled to the United Kingdom to hone their English skills, according to a U.K. Defense Ministry press release.
They also received basic flight training in the Grob Tutor aircraft, a propeller-driven trainer. Cockpit time in the Grob is intended to “bring future Ukrainian pilots closer to a NATO standard approach to flying,” said the press release.
A further ten Ukrainian pilots have completed language training in the United Kingdom and are now receiving basic flight training. Additionally, dozens of Ukrainian aircraft technicians are undergoing English training focusing on engineering, the press release added.
“This is a significant step forward from Ukraine’s current Soviet-era capabilities,” said UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.
A further eight pilots and 65 maintenance personnel have been training in Denmark since late August. The United States started training an unstated number of Ukrainian pilots on F-16s in late October, the Air Force said…..
image…Ukrainian firefighters extinguishing a blaze inside a destroyed building after a missile attack in Odesa on Friday.Credit…Oleksandr Gimanov/Agence France-Presse — Getty