More on the background on the Ukraine military going forward….
Ukraine F-16 pilot training is going good and more F-16’s are going to Ukraine which is making Russia NOT Happy….
More pushback against ex-President Trump’s giving Europe the middle finger…
The US Senate will pass a Ukraine funding bill…
The US House is another story….
Japan will sent Ukraine some money…..
In a tumultuous week for Ukraine’s war effort, President Volodymyr Zelensky removed his commanding general, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, on Thursday, while aid from the country’s largest source of weapons and ammunition, the United States, hung in doubt in Congress.
While Ukraine relies on allies for weaponry, replenishing the ranks is a domestic challenge. Small protests have broken out in opposition to a Parliament proposal to expand the draft to include younger men, but so far, lawmakers have slow-walked the measure.
Military analysts have mostly coalesced around the idea that Ukraine will, at best, hold existing front lines in ground fighting this year with a new influx of American weaponry — and risk falling back without it. It plans to replenish its ranks through mobilization while keeping Russia off balance with long-range drone strikes and sabotage operations behind enemy lines and inside Russia.
In announcing the appointment of Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky to command the military, Mr. Zelensky said he wanted a “new management team” for the armed forces. He has signaled a search for a new strategy that accounts for exhausted frontline soldiers in Ukraine’s million-man army, which is fighting the largest war in Europe since World War II.
He suggested a partial fix by cycling more soldiers from positions in the rear into combat, but he also signaled “a new approach to mobilization and recruitment,” without elaborating.
Mobilization had been a factor in General Zaluzhny’s dismissal. The plans for calling up more soldiers to fight in grim trench warfare were something nobody in Ukraine’s military or civilian leadership wanted to be associated with. General Zaluzhny and Mr. Zelensky had been in open, public disagreement over mobilization since December….
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Ukraine F-16 Update…
(Their pilots are doing good and the Russians ain’t happy)
The Netherlands is preparing to send Ukraine an additional six U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren announced on Feb. 5.
This brings the total number of jets pledged to Ukraine by the Netherlands to 24.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Dec. 22 that the Netherlands was preparing the initial batch of 18 F-16s for delivery to Ukraine. There have been no updates on the status of those 18 jets since then.
Ollongren didn’t provide any details on the delivery schedule.
“Ukraine’s aerial superiority is essential for countering Russian aggression,” Ollongren said on X (formerly Twitter).
In a separate announcement, the Dutch Defense Ministry explained that the six additional jets became available for Ukraine since an agreement to sell these planes to the Draken International company was canceled.
The Netherlands has another 18 F-16 aircraft in its arsenal, but it is giving them all for an F-16 training center in Romania. The Dutch Air Force is transitioning to more advanced F-35 fighter jets….
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Top western officials have weighed in to criticise former president Donald Trump after he suggested the U.S. might not protect Nato allies who aren’t spending enough on defence from a potential Russian invasion.
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Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said any suggestion Nato allies would not defend each other undermines all of the alliance’s security and puts US and European soldiers at risk.. “Any attack on Nato will be met with a united and forceful response,” he said.
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The White House also rejected the comments, calling them “appalling and unhinged”. Trump made the statement on Saturday during a campaign rally in Conway, South Carolina, ahead of the state’s Republican presidential preference primary on 24 February.
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Ukraine has claimed that Russian forces were using terminals of Elon Musk’s satellite internet service Starlink in occupied areas, releasing what it said was an intercept of an exchange between two Russian soldiers as proof of its “systemic” use. Starlink systems have been vital for Ukraine’s battlefield communications throughout Russia’s nearly two-year-old invasion as Kyiv has faced a larger and better-equipped military.
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A narrowly divided U.S. Senate will try to move closer to passing a $95.34 billion (£75.49 billion) aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan on Sunday, while hoping to show enough bipartisan support to propel the measure all the way through Congress.The legislation needs 60 votes to overcome a procedural hurdle and continue toward Senate passage in the coming days.
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A Russian drone strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, killed seven people, including three children, Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov reported Saturday. A Ukrainian prosecutor, her husband, and their three small children were among the seven killed after the strike hit an oil depot, triggering blazes that burned half a street to the ground, officials said. An elderly couple living in the same street were also killed in the attack that mayor Ihor Terekhov said injured 57 people and razed 15 homes.
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President Zelenskiy has appointed Oleksandr Pavliuk, former first deputy defence minister, as the new commander of Ukraine’s ground forces.Pavliuk, a lieutenant-general who served in the ministry role for a year, replaces Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi after he was appointed this week as commander of Ukraine’s armed forces. Zelenskiy has announced five senior military appointments.
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The UK’s Ministry of Defence said there are indications that Russia’s war with Ukraine is contributing to a shortage of healthcare professionals across Russia. In its latest intelligence update, the MoD adds the heavy resource and financial burden of the war is negatively affecting a range of civilian sectors.
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Russia’s registration of candidates for the March presidential election has closed, TASS reported on Sunday, with a list including president Vladimir Putin and three politicians who all support Moscow’s war in Ukraine. The list did not include the Russian anti-war candidate Boris Nadezhdin after the Central Election Commission barred him on Thursday from running. Nadezhdin said on Thursday he would challenge the CEC’s decision in Russia’s supreme court.
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Japan will pledge 15.8bn yen ($106m) in aid to Ukraine at a conference to be held in Tokyo on 19 February, Kyodo News reported on Sunday, citing unidentified sources. The funding will be used for reconstruction in seven areas, including agriculture and the disposal of rubble, Kyodo said.
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Centre-right Alexander Stubb of the National Coalition Party is the frontrunner in Finland’s presidential run-off on Sunday, according to opinion polls, as the Nordic country elects a new leader of its security and foreign policy. The election marks a new era in Finland after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The winner is expected to be known by around 2100 GMT……
Delays in Western security assistance may lead to significant Ukrainian air defense missile shortages that could allow Russian forces to bomb Ukrainian forces or even front-line cities more aggressively. The Russian military has yet to conduct consistent large-scale aviation operations supporting Russian ground offensives in Ukraine, and the intensification of Russian aviation operations at scale would represent a significant threat to Ukraine.