While the Israeli/Hamas conflict seems to be trying a way to slow?
The Ukraine/Russian conflict seems destined to last as a Grind , for a Long….LONG...TIME….
Ukraine and Russia have pursued international military agreements as their forces remained largely stalemated during the past week.
Russia was unable to make headway in eastern Ukraine and even lost ground in its newest incursion in the northern Kharkiv region, which was designed to distract Ukrainian defenders.
Ukraine peace summit: Why some countries refused to sign the plan
Ukraine’s new fighters: ‘They say F-16s are manna from heaven. Far from it’
As Putin visits, Vietnam says will boost ties with Russia for global peace
On Tuesday, Ukrainian troops recaptured positions southwest of Vovchansk, the main prong of Russia’s incursion in Kharkiv, and reportedly recaptured the settlement of Tykhe, west of Vovchansk.
On Wednesday, Colonel Yuriy Povkh, spokesman for Ukraine’s Kharkiv forces, said “dozens” of Russian soldiers were pinned down in central Vovchansk. Other reports put the number of Russian soldiers at 200.
On June 13, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he signed 10-year security agreements with Japan and the United States at the G7 summit in Apulia, Italy. The agreement with Japan would give Ukraine $4.5bn in military, humanitarian and financial aid this year alone, he said.
The value of the defence agreement with the US over the next 10 years was not stated.
The White House said it would “support the full range of Ukraine’s current defensive needs now and over the long term by helping Ukraine win the war”.
The US Congress has approved $61bn in military aid for Ukraine this year, and US President Joe Biden, who faces an election in November, has been reportedly trying to lock any future administration into maintaining help for Ukraine. The agreement at the G7 was made by the executive branch, is not a ratified treaty and could be repealed by a future president.
Although Ukraine has signed agreements with 15 countries and has roughly another 15 such agreements under negotiation, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance was considering making aid to Kyiv compulsory to ensure it remains “reliable and large scale”.
The nature of that safeguard would be to protect Ukraine against changes of government and rein in alliance outliers like Hungary, which has refused to provide military aid to Kyiv’s forces….
The US is sending Ukraine Patriot missile unit’s slated for other countries….
The Biden administration will rush advanced air defense missiles to Ukraine by delaying certain weapons shipments to other countries, a move that a White House spokesman described on Thursday as “difficult but necessary” given Russian advances in the war.
The spokesman, John F. Kirby, said Ukraine had a critical need for Patriot interceptor missiles as Russia accelerated attacks against cities and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. He did not name the other countries affected but said the decision would not apply to weapons shipments to Israel or Taiwan.
“The broader message here to Russia is clear,” Mr. Kirby told reporters. “If you think you’re going to be able to outlast Ukraine, and if you think you’re going to be able to outlast those of us who are supporting Ukraine, you’re just flat-out wrong.”
Russia and Ukraine are in their third year of war, with no clear path to military victory for either side. The two countries increasingly are fighting a war of attrition, firing thousands of artillery shells, missiles and rockets every day….
“The U.S. has told Ukraine it can use American-supplied weapons to hit any Russian forces attacking from across the border — not just those in the region near Kharkiv,” Politico reports.
“The subtle shift in messaging — which officials insist is not a change in policy — comes just weeks after the U.S. quietly gave Kyiv the green light to strike inside Russia in response to a cross-border assault on the city of Kharkiv. At the time, U.S. officials stressed that the policy was limited to the Kharkiv region, among other restrictions.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a major information operation during his recent visit to North Korea and Vietnam on June 18 and 19 aimed at sabotaging efforts by Ukraine’s partners to clearly define a common strategic objective and strategy to decisively defeat Russia’s illegal war of conquest in Ukraine. Ukraine’s partners undertook several important steps in mid-June to cohere a common strategy and define the desired strategic outcome of the war. Over 80 Western and international officials recently established a principled position on supporting Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as the foundation of lasting peace in Ukraine in a communique adopted during the Ukraine-led Global Peace Summit on June 16….
…
image…German and Ukrainian troops with Patriot missile batteries in Mecklenburg, Germany, last week. The weapon is the most advanced Western air defense system provided to Ukraine so far.Credit…Pool photo by Jens Büttner