Updated on 02/15/2023 06:21
- The situation at the front is currently difficult. US General Mark Milley, for example, speaks of a “very big battle of attrition”.
- But President Zelenskyy is convinced that Ukraine will win – if the recently promised military aid arrives in time.
- Below is an overview of what happened during the night and an outlook for the day.
Shortly before the first anniversary of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian
At the same time he thanked for more weapons pledges at a NATO meeting a few hours earlier in Brussels. From a Ukrainian perspective, however, there is little further progress on the desired delivery of western F-16 fighter jets. The situation remains extremely tense, especially in the heavily contested city of Bachmut in the east.
US Chief of Staff sees fairly stable front line in Ukraine
US Chief of Staff Mark Milley described the battle for the Bakhmut region in the east of the country as a war of attrition. There is a lot of violence and fighting, but the front line is fairly stable, Milley said on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels when asked about the current war situation. “I would describe it as a very big battle of attrition with very high casualties, especially on the Russian side.”
Selenskyj also spoke of an “extremely difficult” situation in the east of his country. “These are literally fights for every meter of Ukrainian land.”
According to Milley, the Ukrainians are currently holding the fort, while the Wagner group in particular is attacking on the Russian side. “There are no sophisticated maneuvers here. It’s frontal attacks, waves of attacks, lots of artillery with extremely high casualties in this area,” he said. How long this will go on is difficult to say. It’s been like this for weeks now.
USA: No new F-16 announcements for Ukraine for the time being
A possible delivery of Western F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, meanwhile, remains open even after the recent meeting of the international contact group for the coordination of military aid. “I have no announcements to make about this,” US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said after deliberations by the so-called Ramstein Group. He wanted to leave it at that.
However, Austin stressed that the US would not ban Poland from supplying Soviet-designed MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine. “The United States has never stopped Poland from delivering anything,” he said. This is the decision of a country’s leadership and the US does not want to and cannot dictate such a thing.
Putin friend Prigozhin defends the work of the Russian troll army
Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner’s private army, has defended his army of internet trolls, which has been criticized in the West for spreading disinformation. He not only conceived, founded and financed the agency for Internet research, but also ran it himself for a long time, said the confidante of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, according to the statement. “It was established to protect the Russian information field from the West’s brazen, aggressive propaganda of anti-Russian theses.”
The Wagner boss is currently the focus of attention because he finances paramilitary operations in Ukraine or in Africa, for example. According to Prigozhin, he published answers to a catalog of questions from an international research community of Western journalists, including “Spiegel” and ZDF, and praised the work of patriotic Russian bloggers.
What will be important on Wednesday
At the end of their two-day meeting in Brussels, the defense ministers of the 30 NATO countries will discuss plans to strengthen the alliance’s deterrence and defense capabilities this Wednesday.
In light of Russia’s war against Ukraine, there are plans to increase the number of troops on high alert from 40,000 to 300,000. (dpa/fte)