Ukraine is now negotiating with the US the supply of long-range missiles in order to hit the enemy rear and frustrate the expected general offensive by Russia, which accuses NATO of seeking its strategic defeat with the new weapons for kyiv.
"Each phase of the war requires certain types of weapons. A tank coalition already exists. There are already talks on long-range missiles and supply of fighter jets," Mikhaylo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, said on Twitter.
After the Western commitment to send more than a hundred tanks and tanks, kyiv has now asked for missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometers, with which it could hit even territory of the annexed Crimean peninsula.
The president of the US, Joe Biden, will speak shortly about weapons with the Ukrainian leader, Volodimir Zelensky, to whom he has already denied, for the moment, the delivery of the F-16 fighters.
Still, Washington will shortly announce another package of $2.2 billion in military aid for kyiv, international media reported on Wednesday.
kyiv is reportedly to receive missiles with a 150-kilometer range (GLSDB), as well as equipment for Patriot anti-aircraft systems, high-precision ammunition and Javelin anti-tank missiles.
What Ukraine will not receive are ATACMS, missiles that can hit targets almost 300 kilometers away.
Precisely, the diplomat Michael FcFaul, former US ambassador in Moscow, asked Congress to send the ATACMS to be able to destroy the Iranian drones deployed in Crimea.
In this regard, the Ukrainian Military Intelligence highlighted that the arsenals of the Russian Army are now only 80-120 kilometers from the kyiv positions.
"To launch an attack against them, Ukraine needs long-range artillery," its spokesman, Vadim Skibitski, told CNN.
He stressed that these missiles, in addition to tanks and armored vehicles, are essential so that kyiv can launch a "rapid counteroffensive" before the Russian troops complete their defensive fortifications.
"This will require additional efforts from us, but it will not change the course of events, as the special military operation will continue. Of course, all this creates very special conditions for us, hostile conditions, which we cannot ignore." Presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov said during his daily telephone briefing.
Peskov denounced that "the entire NATO military infrastructure works against Russia," including its reconnaissance planes and satellites.
"Of course, we see an increase in the volumes and the nomenclature of the weapons supplied to the kyiv puppet regime, which includes offensive weapons. NATO raises the stakes, since it maintains the hope of the strategic defeat of Russia, but it does not succeed," said Sergei Naryshkin, head of the foreign intelligence service.
Narishkin predicted that "the US and its allies are fully determined to wage war with Russia to the last Ukrainian."
Russia's Security Council went further by assuring that "the West will not be limited to tank supplies" and reminded Germany of the defeat by the Soviet Union in 1945 and France of the failure of the Napoleonic invasion of 1812.
Meanwhile, Russian troops have managed to advance more than expected in Donbas, largely thanks to the deployment of conventional forces after several months of pause, which would be replacing the mercenaries of the Wagner company.
The mercenaries could now be sent to the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, which are also not fully controlled by Moscow.
The American Institute for the Study of War does not rule out a withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Bakhmut stronghold, in whose vicinity the Russians have taken several towns.
The pro-Russians reported today that their troops "were closing the siege", which was denied by Wagner's boss, Yevgueni Prigozhin.
The mayor of Bakhmut, Oleksii Reva, this week addressed the 6,500 residents who still remain in the city to leave the city - inhabited by 70,000 people before the conflict - where kyiv said it had repelled an air strike on Wednesday.
The pro-Russian interim governor of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, recalled that the main Ukrainian strongholds in the region, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, are only 40 kilometers from Bakhmut.
According to Ukrainian military intelligence, there are now some 326,000 Russian fighters deployed in Ukraine, which does not include 150,000 mobilized who are still being trained at Russian military sites.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
